Abstract
Design and science inquiry are intertwined during engineering practice. In this study, we examined the relationship between design behaviors and scientific explanations. Data on student design processes were collected as students engaged in a project on designing energy-efficient buildings on a blank square city block surrounded by existing buildings using a computer-aided design program, Energy3D, with built-in solar energy simulation capabilities. We used criterion sampling to select two highly reflective students among 63 high school students. The main data sources were design replays (automatic playback of student design sequences within the CAD software) and electronic notes taken by the students. We identified evidence of informed design such as problem framing, idea fluency, and balancing benefits and trade-offs. Opportunities for meaningful science learning through engineering design occurred when students attempted to balance design benefits and trade-offs. The results suggest that design projects used in classrooms should emphasize trade-off analysis and include time and resources for supporting trade-off decisions through experimentation and reflection. Future research should explore ways to visualize patterns of design behavior based on large samples of students.
Highlights
Design and science inquiry are intertwined during engineering practice
While engineering design has been a part of the National Science Education Standards in the US (National Research Council 1996), it has gained a new sense of importance worldwide with the increased number of studies examining engineering in association with science learning, twenty-first century skill development, and academic motivation
As noted in the introduction, while engineering design has been considered to be a component of K-12 education curricula and standards for decades, there is little research on how the students learn to apply science through design
Summary
Design and science inquiry are intertwined during engineering practice. In this study, we examined the relationship between design behaviors and scientific explanations. While engineering design has been a part of the National Science Education Standards in the US (National Research Council 1996), it has gained a new sense of importance worldwide with the increased number of studies examining engineering in association with science learning, twenty-first century skill development, and academic motivation Lewis (2006) provides a brief history on the push for inquiry in educational standards and identifies key differences and similarities between inquiry and design. He notes that inquiry was first viewed as an intellectual process - the attitudes and activities associated with discovery (Bruner 1961). Definitions of inquiry focused on the intellectual processes peculiar
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