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Just as engineering and computational thinking have recently gained increased attention in pre-college school-based education, many museums and science centers have also designed exhibits and experiences to promote computational thinking and engineering learning. Recent reports suggest that computational and engineering thinking can empower each other, and engineering design can be an appropriate context for children’s engagement in computational thinking. Previous studies have documented young children’s abilities to engage in engineering thinking and other studies have collected evidence of young children’s abilities to engage in computational thinking. However, there is little research that explores how children’s engagement in both engineering and computational thinking can support each other. Hence, in this qualitative case study, we aimed to examine how 5 to 7-year-old children engage in computational thinking competencies in the context of a family based engineering design activity. This activity was conducted at a small science center exhibit. In our presented findings we map children’s enactment of at least one CT competency to children’s engagement in engineering design actions.

In this study we characterize ways that interactions children have with their parents and a coding game can support them in engaging in computational thinking. Taking a qualitative approach, we analyzed the video-recordings of 14 families of 5-to-7-year-old children as they played a computer-based coding game in an engineering and CT exhibit at a small science center. The findings revealed a variety of different types of interactions children had with the coding game and with their parents. We discuss the opportunities these interactions provided for children’s engagement in different CT competencies. While aspects of the computer interaction were crucial for children’s CT engagement, some interactions did not occur in ways that encouraged children’s use of CT. Parent–child interactions played a very important role in enabling the children’s computational thinking. Overall, we believe the parent–child and child–computer interactions complemented each other to fully engage children in CT. We provide implications for practitioners and designers who aim to support children’s engagement in different CT competencies.

In our call for proposals, our aim was to explore and document how COVID-19 has impacted pre-college engineering education (Alemdar et al., 2021). During COVID-19, engineering pre-college educators quickly adapted to new learning environments and technologies for teaching and learning. It was important to document these adaptations and lessons learned in formal and informal learning settings. The papers that made up this special show how lessons learned during this challenging time can inform the future of precollege engineering education. The papers offer both theoretical argumentation and empirical evidence to support their answers to the question of how adaptations during COVID-19 impacted pre-college engineering learning. A recurring theme of these papers is that worthy pre-college engineering learning experiences are possible even during unprecedented times. In this paper, we reflect on the papers, their individual and collective findings, and we highlight the impact of COVID-19 on education.

We invite original manuscripts that explore and document how COVID-19 has impacted pre-college engineering education.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require differentiated strategies to access academic content. Hence, research-based interventions to support STEM (Science, Mathematics, Technology, and Engineering) education for individuals with ASD are necessary to guide implementation. This review serves to (a) summarize studies that investigated the effects of STEM interventions for students with ASD ranging from ages 5 to 25 years, (b) provide recommendations to educators for teaching STEM to students with ASD, and (c) identify gaps for future research. Forty-four studies were synthesized and categorized based on STEM area. This review highlights promising instructional interventions in science and mathematics and recognizes the need for more literature on technology and engineering instruction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

In the last two decades, pre-college engineering education has increased, with research on pre-college engineering education emerging as a nascent field. However, limited research, if any, has considered aspects of engineering thinking of children with neurodiversity. In line with calls for broadening participation in engineering education, consideration of neurodiverse children is critical. Among various neurodiverse conditions, the number of children with autism is rapidly growing. In addition, studies have shown that individuals with autism have the potential to perform well in activities that require systematizing abilities. Engineering is one such activity. Prior research has provided evidence of the importance of early engineering learning opportunities in terms of future performance and interest in engineering; therefore, it is critical that children with autism have access to appropriate engineering experiences. We thus need to gain a deeper understanding of how they engage in engineering learning activities. In this study, we conducted a qualitative single-case-study analysis in which we closely looked at ways a nine-year-old child with mild autism engaged in problem scoping along with his mother. We focused on three main components of problem scoping in engineering design: (1) Problem Framing, (2) Information Gathering, and (3) Reflection. The instances that we have seen in mother-child interactions and conversation provided evidence that the child with autism was capable of engaging in all three aspects of problem scoping. The behaviors we have observed were mostly associated with Problem Framing and Information Gathering. However, we have also seen some evidence of Reflection. We believe that the findings of this study lay a foundation for future studies of children with autism and engineering design, and how to effectively engage them in these activities. [This paper has previously been published in the \"Proceedings of the 2019 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.\"]

Research in pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise in the last two decades. However, less research has been conducted to explore and characterize the engineering thinking and engagement of young children, with limited attention to children with special needs. Conversations on broadening participation and diversity in engineering usually center around gender, socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, and to a lesser extent on neurodiversity. Autism is the fastest growing neurodiverse population who have the potential to succeed in engineering. In order to promote the inclusion of children with autism in engineering education, we need to gain a deep understanding of their engineering experiences.The overarching research question that I intend to answer is how do children with mild autism engage in engineering design tasks? Grounding this study in theories of Constructivism and Defectology, I focused on children’s engagement in engineering design practices and the ways their parents supported their engagements. To engage children with mild autism in engineering, I have developed an engineering design activity by considering suggestions from these theories and previous literature on elementary-aged children’s engagement in engineering design, and by focusing on individuals with mild autism strengths in STEM. This activity provides opportunities for children to interact with their parents while solving engineering design problems. The families are asked to use a construction kit and design their solutions to the problem introduced in the engineering design activity. The engineering design activity consists of a series of five challenges, ranging from well- to ill-structed.This is an exploratory qualitative case study, using a multiple case approach. These cases include 9-year-old children with autism and their families. Video recordings of the families are the main source of data for this study. Triangulation of data happens through interviewing parents and children, pictures of children’s artifacts (i.e. their prototypes), and use of the EmpathizingSystemizing survey to capture background information and autism characteristics. Depending on the data source, I utilized different methods including video analysis, thematic analysis and artifact analysis.This study expands our understanding of what engineering design can look like when enacted by children with mild autism, particularly as engineering design is considered to be a very iterative process with multiple phases and actions associated with it. The findings of this study show that these children can engage in all engineering design phases in a very iterative process. Similarities and differences between these children’s design behaviors and the existing literature were discussed. Additionally, some of the behaviors these children engaged in resemble the practices of experienced designers and engineers. The findings of this study suggest that while children were not socially interacting with their family members when addressing the challenges, their parents played an important role in their design engagement. Parents used different strategies during the activity that supported and facilitated children’s engineering design problem-solving. These strategies include soliciting information, providing guidance, assisting both verbally and handson, disengagement and being a student of the child.This study provides aspirations for future research with the aim to promote the inclusion of children with neurodiversity. It calls for conducting similar research in different settings to capture the engineering design engagement of children with mild autism when interacting with teachers, peers, siblings in different environments. Additionally, the findings of this study have implications for educators and curators of engineering learning resources.

Computational thinking can provide a basis for problem solving, for making evidence-based decisions, and for learning to code or create programs. Therefore, it is critical that all students across the K-12 continuum--including students in the early grades--have opportunities to begin developing problem solving and computational thinking skills. Although computational thinking is central to computer science, CT skills, such as \"abstraction\", \"problem decomposition\", \"algorithmic thinking\", \"pattern recognition\", and \"debugging\" cut across multiple disciplines, promoting seamless integration in science and engineering (Wing 2016). Engineering design can be a context and approach for fostering computational thinking in formal and informal settings for elementary-age children. Through such learning experiences children can develop 21st-century skills vital for success in STEM+CT (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, computer science) careers. In this article, the authors share an engineering design activity that we employed to engage kindergarten to second-grade students in STEM+CT.

In the last two decades, pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise. However, limited research, if at all, considered aspects of engineering thinking of children with disabilities. Therefore, in line with the call for diversifying engineering education, considering inclusion of children with disabilities is necessary. Among different disabilities, the number of children with autism is rapidly growing. In addition, studies have shown that individuals with autism have the potential to perform well in activities that require systematizing abilities like engineering. Given the importance of participating in engineering learning opportunities from childhood and its impact on future engineering performance, engaging children with autism in appropriate engineering experiences is necessary. Therefore, we need to gain a deep understanding of how they engage in engineering learning activities. This study is a part of a bigger project in which we aim to characterize engineering thinking of children with autism. In this study, we are closely looking at the first and very important engineering practices; problem scoping. The main purpose of this study is to investigate how 8-10 years old children with autism engage in problem scoping. We focused on three main components of problem scoping in engineering design (1) Problem Framing, (2) Information Gathering, and (3) Reflection. For this study, we have conducted a qualitative single case study analysis. We carefully chosen one case of child with autism. The child is make and 9 years old and participated in this study with his parent. They were asked to solve an engineering problem of building a roller coaster for a local amusement park in 60 minutes. Their interaction was videotaped and pictures of their designs were captured. We have analyzed the video data video analysis approach based on the codebook we developed by reviewing literature on problem scoping. The instances that we have seen in mom-child interactions and conversation provided evidence that the child with autism was capable of engaging in all three actions of problem scoping. The behaviors we have observed were mostly associated to Problem Framing and Information Gathering. However, we have seen some evidence of Reflection. We believe, that the findings of this study lays foundation for future studies on children with autism and engineering design, and how to effectively engage in them in these activities.