Developing an Elementary Engineering Education Program through Problem-Based Wearable Technologies Activities

Introduction

Wearable electronic textiles provide a unique opportunity to teach students engineering design and other important science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts through the creation of functional solutions to real problems. The artistic aspects of wearable technologies are particularly attractive and accessible to new and diverse audiences to STEM (Qiu, Buechley, Baafi, & Dubow, 2013). In this chapter, we describe our National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to teach engineering design, circuitry, and programming to students in grades 4 to 6 through the design and creation of wearable technologies. Specifically, the chapter will explore the following: the current state of using wearable electronic textiles in education, theoretical underpinnings, developing a shared vocabulary, an overview of the current electronic textiles kits, a comparative analysis of electronic textiles with educational robotics, an argument for introducing engineering education at the elementary school level, and examination of the need to more effectively bridge formal and informal education. In addition, the chapter presents the Nebraska 4-H Wearable Technologies (WearTec) pilot study that investigated the delivery of a newly developed student curriculum and professional development training centered on wearable electronic textiles.