This site will provide a teaching structure and content to be used during the Engineering Concepts course. The lessons will address specific standards for these two courses and will include support of some standards of the Physics course. Mastery of the CTAE standards is the goal of this course, but could come through additional experiences.
This page provides links to project curricula that can be used in a variety of courses depending on the class structure and interest. It is designed to meet many of the CTAE course standards for the following classes: Engineering Concepts, Intro to Mechatronics, Intro to Engineering Systems
As this curriculum development project progressed it became apparent that there was no one-size-fits-all approach for this course that was going to meet the varying needs for all programs nor be able to address the fact that the first year for the schools would have a 10th grade cohort that hasn't gone through the 9th grade course. The takeaway message from consultations was that more of those diverse needs could be serviced by creating a grab bag of "injectable" projects that could be chosen and modified or constrained as needed by the instructors. One consequence from this more flexible approach is a loss of granularity in some of the lessons and activities, but that flexibility allows for more student choice/voice and allows for the instructor to guide lessons towards specific learning outcomes if desired.
Provided below are charts indicating where these projects align to the standards for CTAE engineering courses and physics. Because of the flexibility that remains for implementation and the uncertainty created by student choice in these projects the alignment is tiered based on whether a standard is directly addressed or if the standard could be addressed by instructor-defined constraints, student choice, or partnerships with community members and professionals.