As part of an effort to teach young kids STEM concepts like engineering and science, Engineering is Elementary creator Christine Cunningham of the Museum of Science in Boston presented a guest lecture last week in Texas Tech's Livermore Center.
The elementary curriculum that Cunningham developed is also part of research being conducted by the Department of Engineering professor Michelle Pantoya and the College of Education's Zenaida Munoz.
Pantoya said Cunningham's program was spurring an improvement in children's concentration and engagement, and possibly encouraging children to future studies and careers in engineering and other STEM areas.
"She was able to mix literacy and meaning behind a genuine problem that children want to solve, and then interplay that with the science of materials and how they work," Pantoya said. "Those are things that we teach even in the college curriculum, and then expand that toward the design of some new technology."
Cunningham said it is vital for children to learn early what engineering processes are behind the world they live in - from the mundane to the extraordinary.
"We have to do things like think about how we portray engineering as something that helps people, society and the environment - instead of just, for instance, designing things that go vroom."
