Presenters: Katherine Elliott, Education, Elementary Education
Authors: Katherine Elliott, Jessica Pierce, Kylee Pugh
Faculty Advisor: Krista Ruggles, Education, Elementary Education
Institution: Utah Valley University
The School of Education (SOE) at UVU formed a partnership with UVU’s College of Engineering & Technology (COE&T) and Utah State University’s (USU) College of Education and College of Engineering. The purpose of this partnership was to develop flexible mobile educational modules (SEEdPODs) and lesson plans that reflected the new Utah Science and Engineering Education (SEEd) standards. These SEEdPODs could be dropped off at K-12 schools for teachers to use in order to teach Engineering and Technology focused lessons. The need for the SEEdPOD mobile modules is critical, in that the new K-5 and 9-12 SEEd standards will take effect in the 2020-2021 school year and many teachers have not been trained on this new hands-on approach to teaching science concepts through the engineering-design process. As pre-service teachers in the SOE, we were hired to help facilitate the design and implementation of the SEEdPODs. In this presentation we will address the part we played in the development of the curriculum specific to the SEEdPOD mobile unit, as well as the materials that will help the teachers better implement the SEEd standards in their classrooms. Once teachers have access to the materials and curriculum, we will be able to provide hands-on training and assistance to guide them when implementing the new SEEd standards.