Dissatisfied with the options offered by big box stores--and wanting to save some money and go as green as possible--the author puts his design and construction skills to good use. In this article, he shares how he designed and built an eco-friendly shed. He says he is very pleased with the results of working with his own design, reducing waste,…

The integration of robotics in education is still relatively new and represents an important advance in education practices. So, this paper aims to share the results from the perspectives of both students and trainers in an experimental case research in which LEGO Mindstorms construction kits were used. Sixty-two students between the ages of 8 and…

Crab cakes and football, that's what Maryland does!" (Abrams, Levy, Panay, & Dobkin, 2005). Although the Old Line State is notorious for harvesting delectable blue crabs, the movie "Wedding Crashers" failed to highlight something else Maryland does well: engineering design competitions. This article discusses how a multistate…

This study investigates the impact of residence hall architecture on students' academic achievement, also considering the influence of race and homophily opportunity--a tendency to create social bonds with like others. We found that socializing architecture was positively associated with a higher first-semester grade point average, and that…

After the end of the civil war in 1990, a major reconstruction effort was underway in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. With reconstruction came significant changes to the city's landscape and identity. Adopting a linguistic landscape (LL) lens, this study aims at better understanding these changes by asking what languages are used on the store…

Last summer, the author finally acted on an idea that had been banging around in his head for the last couple of years. He decided to build his son a toolbox and equip it with the basic set of tools he'd need as a future homeowner. Thinking that other technology educators and their students might be interested in the project, the author describes…

This research presents two case studies on how human-centered design process can help the students find their purpose in making and designing in a constructionist learning-environment. Human-centered design guides students to deeper understanding of others' needs and encourages them to think and act collaboratively and creatively. When the…

This article presents the results of a case involving the application of project-based learning carried out with students in the Mechanical Engineering degree program at the University of Girona. The project, entitled "Design and construction of a wooden bridge", was conducted at the Polytechnic School in the third-year Structures…

Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) has been educating students for Colorado's urban workforce for over fifty years. The following case study of MSU Denver's new Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) Building reveals the roles played by partnerships among universities, faculty, and local civic and industry leaders in creating new…

The paper examines how computational thinking can be taught to young children with the use of educational robotics using the kit LEGO WeDo. Computational thinking was measured in terms of four sub-skills, namely, sequencing, correspondence between actions and instructions, debugging, and flow of control. Students were assigned to an experimental…

The paper is devoted to teaching engineering subjects in the field of study "Restoration and renovation of architectural heritage." It demonstrates the necessity of changing the existing approach to teaching engineering design and construction to renovation architects. Based on our experience of teaching Building mechanics, we have…

When students build physical models from prefabricated components to learn about model systems, there is an implicit trade-off between the physical degrees of freedom in building the model and the intensity of instructor supervision needed. Models that are too flexible, permitting multiple possible constructions require greater supervision to…

For instructors interested in flipping their courses or using in-class video introductions to new topics, the development of custom video lecture content can be a daunting task. Having students create videos as a term project creates the potential opportunity to engage students in peer-to-peer learning via videos while also generating course…

This article is a response to Kassam, Avery, and Ruelle's insights as presented in this forum on rural science education. Topics considered include troubling the urban/rural divide in the context of Indigenous knowledge and expanding to include the common Canadian notion of the "remote," a designation rooted in our national colonial…

Lack of commonly used vocabulary for informal learning environments hinders precise communication concerning what is observed, assessed, and understood about the relationship between space and learning. This study empirically extends taxonomies of terms and phrases that describe such relationships through content analysis of descriptions of…