Elementary Teacher Professional Learning in Equitable Engineering Pedagogies for Multilingual Students

The engineering design process simplified for elementary school students.

Work with local teachers, students, and UB researchers on engineering activities in elementary school classrooms and conduct research.

Project description

This National Science Foundation project works with local elementary school teachers, who teach students designated as English learners (i.e., emergent bilinguals). The project aims to facilitate teachers’ knowledge and understandings of how to teach engineering and also to create a sustained professional development model for teachers of emerging multilingual students. As we develop and iterate on this model, we are collecting research data on how teachers learn how to teach engineering using the concept of translanguaging. Translanguaging is using all linguistic resources an individual has in any language that a student brings to the classroom. In this case, we are helping teachers figure out how to invite their students, particularly those who are multilingual, to use all these resources as students engage in engineering design. The project works with teachers from two local school districts. The undergraduate student assistant will work on analyzing teacher interviews and helping the team collect classroom data. 

Project outcome

The student will become a member of the research team as a knowledge generator and author. We aim for the student to learn about the fields of education and engineering education research, analyze research data, facilitate professional development activities for teachers, and contribute to research papers. We aim to expose the student to every aspect of the research process from data collection to writing research results. The student will work closely with the graduate students and Dr. McVee to analyze data, form arguments about data, write memos, and work on conference papers. The student will then contribute to a conference paper or journal article. The student will also help design and facilitate the professional development (PD) experience for teachers. During the PD, the student will help the graduate student collect video and audio and write observation notes. 

Project details

Timing, eligibility and other details
Length of commitment Longer than a semester; 6-9 months
Start time Spring (January/February 2025) 
In-person, remote, or hybrid? Hybrid Project (can be remote and/or in-person; to be determined by mentor and student) 
Level of collaboration Small group project (2-3 students)
Benefits Stipend
Who is eligible Sophomores and Juniors with teamwork skills and proficiency in Google docs and Microsoft Excel

Core partners

  • Amherst and Sweet Home School Districts 

Project mentor

Mary McVee

Professor

Learning and Instruction

Phone: (716) 645-3927

Email: mcvee@buffalo.edu

Start the project

  1. Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
  2. After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.) 

Preparation activities

Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase. 

IRB training and reading research articles 

Keywords

education, language, engineering, classrooms, teachers, learning and instruction, Graduate School of Education