The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

High school engineering teacher Joe Malchar helps Pius and Sadhan review the guidelines for effective brainstorming. Joe talks about some common misconceptions and challenges related to brainstorming and how he uses it in his classroom. We have a live brainstorming session to come up with exciting and new engineering lessons for students in K-12.  Mentioned in this episode:  ● Our open b...

"What else can high school look like?" Mikala Streeter wondered about that question as her career expanded from the computer science industry into teaching young people and nurturing their passions. Mikala is Principal and Lead Teacher at the LIFE School, an independent high school that she founded in Atlanta, Georgia. She talks about the philosophy of The LIFE School, which focuses on curiosity,...

Teach engineering using something that a lot of kids and adults love: ice cream. We get expert advice on the technology and methodologies behind making ice cream from guest Joe Morris, production manager or "ice cream man" from Amy's Ice Creams in Austin. He gives a tour of the Amy's ice cream production facility and explains how art, science, technology, and engineering come into play. Also engin...

We explore the alleged phenomenon of teachers getting bad dreams and nightmares, more often than everyone else, starting with several engineering teachers' most memorable ones. Do other teachers really get these dreams? Why do they get them? What should they do about them, if anything? Based on a little reading and communication with experts, we developed some preliminary answers to those question...

Engineer and professor Dr. Dave Allen speaks about what motivated him to get into the work that he does. Dave is the director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources (CEER) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He talks about his research interests in air quality, the life of a professor, engineering education in high school, and the importance of...

Today's guests present a smorgasbord of resources available for K12 engineering educators, starting with the website www. LinkEngineering.org, an online toolkit to support PreK-12 engineering education. Guests Dr. Elizabeth Cady and Dr. Linda Kekelis explain what LinkEngineering is. It's hard to sum up the website in one word. Produced by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), it's part social...

How do other countries besides the USA motivate and educate future engineers? Guest Sadhan Sathyaseelan shares his view, comparing his Indian and American education in engineering. Sadhan is a mechanical engineer who currently works in engineering education in Texas. We talk about grad school, salary differences, and thoughts on how to improve education systems in both countries.  Our opening...

Starting a business these days in educational hardware and software takes more than technology. Guest Connie Hu explains. Connie is the CEO and CoFounder of ArcBotics, an educational robotics company. Previously she advised top global nonprofit leaders on strategic planning and K12 STEM Education at The Bridgespan Group. She holds an honors degree in Anthropology from Dartmouth. Today host Pius Wo...

Six teachers who once studied and practiced engineering talk about their opinions on K12 engineering education. In this focus group, they give insights for school administrators, practicing engineers, and other engineering teachers who weren't practicing engineers. Engineer Pius Wong hosts. Thank you to guests Donald Jones, Amy Colburn, CJ Salzman, Rita Loughrin, Jack Hwang, and Bart Krieger. Also...

How do you recognize and nurture kids' interests in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)? Guest Lois Melbourne speaks about this topic, as a former CEO of a company in talent management software, and as the author of the illustrated children's book called "The STEM Club Goes Exploring”. Engineer Pius Wong is your host. My Future Story website: [ http://myfuturestory.com/ ]...

Do engineers have empathy? Can they get into other people's heads? How do empathy and the arts relate to engineering education? We talk about this with today's guest, Rachel Fahrig, an educator with experience in high school science and engineering. We also preview our submissions to the SXSW conference, both related to integrating the arts with engineering. This episode was recorded in a market i...

Get tips on how to run a better professional development (or PD) for engineering teachers, directly from the trainers who just ran one. This is Part 2 of a topic we started in the previous episode. Melanie Kong (@melaniekong) and Natalie Wyll are teachers who formerly practiced engineering in industry, and they just finished running a teacher PD. They discuss how it went and what worked. Teacher E...

How do you prepare to train engineering teachers? Two teachers, who are also engineers, are preparing to train more teachers this summer to teach engineering. Guests Melanie Kong and Natalie Wyll are chemical and architectural engineers originally, and between the both of them, they have a few years of experience teaching high school engineering. They use the general engineering curriculum "Engine...

Engineer Jeff Munn talks about teaching kids robotics in an orphanage in India. Jeff works for engineering hardware-software company National Instruments, based in Austin, Texas. With his company's support, he volunteers for a program from the nonprofit organizations Science in a Suitcase and the Miracle Foundation. The program aims to educate often marginalized children around the world, and they...

We talk about the pros and cons of attending professional conferences related to engineering education, including South by Southwest EDU (SXSWedu), whose deadline is coming up! Teacher Rachel Fahrig gives tips on how to make the most of your time at conferences and suggests some good ones. This episode was recorded at Black Walnut Cafe in Austin. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio ed...

Teacher Jerry "Molde" Moldenhauer talks about what he's learned while teaching engineering to high school students over the past years in Austin, Texas. Molde and Pius discuss Project Lead The Way (PLTW), one of the leading K12 engineering curriculum providers today; teaching engineering when you're not an engineer; appropriately teaching math in engineering class; STEAM and other acronyms; and th...

Engineers Sadhan Sathyaseelan and Pius Wong both have trained high school teachers in engineering curricula. We're talking about what we've learned, as non-teachers, to successfully train teachers in professional development programs spanning different engineering disciplines. How does it compare to teaching undergraduates? Or our own experiences learning and practicing engineering in school and a...

Engineer Pius Wong speaks with teacher Rachel Fahrig about educational standards, including NGSS and Common Core. We cover what they mean, the various strong opinions about them, and how they might broadly affect K12 engineering courses. Rachel is a specialist in instructional support for a high school engineering curriculum that is produced by the University of Texas at Austin, and that is taught...

In our inaugural episode of The K12 Engineering Education Podcast, guests Rachel Fahrig and Sadhan Sathyaseelan speak with host Pius Wong about the importance of teaching engineering at younger ages, and the questions we'd like to answer about this field in the future. Thanks to Jeff Munn for help on sound. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our cl...