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Bringing Back Construction Education to the Classroom by Digitizing It.Geoff WrightBrigham Young University College of EngineeringUnited Statesge.wright@Justin WiedmanConstruction Management Education - Brigham Young UniversityUnited Statesjustinweidman@To address the shortfall of professional shortages in the construction and related STEM industries, an educational intervention has been designed to promote construction in 3rd – 6th grade classrooms. It is the authors belief that by building interest in younger students, these students will continue into construction and STEM related careers. The authors designed the curriculum for 3rd – 6th grade students. They believe the curriculum addresses many of the issues for removing construction education from elective course offerings, by making it affordable, and by integrating core STEM principles into standardized core curriculum. They believe this curriculum makes learners better problem solvers, creative, and critical thinkers – all skills which can have a positive influence on academic performance, while exposing them to the construction and some STEM industries. This paper documents their efforts and findings piloting this STEM Construction Education effort in a K-6 public school.Introduction and BackgroundConstruction Education has been dwindling in K-12 classrooms for the past 20 years (Frazier, 2015; Chini, 1999; Jones, 1990). This has led to enrollment issues and professional shortages in the construction industry (Bigalow, 2015). Couple these facts with the call for STEM majors (Painter, 2012) and there is a noteworthy opportunity: combining construction and STEM education to promote interest and stability in STEM and construction. In light of complementary learning outcomes of many STEM activities and curriculum with construction education, it is the belief of the authors of this paper that there should be a stronger marriage between these disciplines. In response to this theory, a technology and engineering education professor and a construction management professor collaborated to develop a hybrid STEM focused Construction Education unit with the learning objectives of: increase student interest in construction and complementary STEM areas by engaging the student in a hands-on activity based digital construction building curriculum. The reason “digital” was added to the curriculum is simple: construction education was winnowed out of education because of cost and national focus on standardized test scores (Brown, 2012). Many K-12 schools believe(d) in construction education, however, with the focus of schools on standardized testing, many schools decided to reduce elective courses (Cavanaugh, 2006), and those electives which cost more in finances or space were often the first to be eliminated regardless of their popularity or benefit.Research StudyConsequently, in an effort to address this issue, the authors designed a curriculum that addresses many of the issues for removing construction education from elective course offerings, by making it affordable, and by integrating core STEM principles into the curriculum that they believe make the learner a better problem solver, creative, and critical thinker – all skills which can have a positive influence on academic performance (Bransford, 1986; McMillan, 1987). This paper documents their efforts, and findings piloting this STEM Construction Education effort in a K-6 public school. The curriculum leverages many of the tools and resources readily available to educators online such as Minecraft and SketchUp. Minecraft is a?“sandbox?independent video game?originally created by Swedish programmer?Markus "Notch" Persson?and later developed and published by the Swedish company?Mojang. The creative and building aspects of?Minecraft?enable players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a?3D?procedurally generated?world” ().?Sketchup is a 3D modeling tool; Sketchup says this about their program: “Hobbyists, kids and backyard spaceship builders all agree that SketchUp is the easiest, most fun, entirely free 3D drawing tool in the world” (). The reason these tools were selected is because many researchers have posited that these tools have academic benefits, are essentially free, teach skills that construction firms believe are 21st Century Skills (), and which seem to of greatest interest to students (for example, Minecraft has been one the most popular video game since 2009, and continues to have a strong hold on the gaming industry). The authors inherently believe by using contemporary and popular tools and applications student intrinsic motivation will be increased, and therefore their bias against participating and learning will be reduced (Blumenfeld, 1991; Beeland, 2002; Ciampa, 2014).In an effort to systematically develop the curriculum before general deployment, the authors have made efforts to validate several of their curriculum efforts. For example, they have thus far tested the Minecraft component of the curriculum with over 50 students from grades 3 – 6. A survey was administered to these students to check if the curriculum activity made any impact on their interest in construction and STEM, and what their feedback was on the experience. Participation in the activity was overwhelmingly positive. On the first day of the announcement that this construction activity using Minecraft was announced, the 10 offerings for each grade participating grade level (3rd – 6th) were filled. The research assessment component of this intervention included collecting field notes regarding student perceived interest via participation, and a pre-post two-part survey/career interest assessment. The students were asked to complete a pre-participation survey prior to engaging in the construction activity. The activity took place as an After School program. The students then engaged in the 5-week activity, and later completed a post-participation survey. The first part of the survey asked questions about student interest in construction, related careers, their personal definition of construction, and demographic questions such as parental occupation(s), perception of school, and hobbies. The second part of the survey was a careers interest assessment developed by MnCareers (). The “MNCareer interest assessment is a simple 42-statement quiz… based on Holland’s Inventory of Basic Interests…sometimes called the RIASEC assessment. It shows that people with similar personal interests often like the same types of careers” (). The interest profiles studied include: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. ResultsThe data resulting from the MnCareers interest assessment show that student career interests shifted toward career interest in areas of realistic (class average shift = 0.15), artistic (class average shift = 0.02), and enterprising (class average shift = 0.05) areas. However, there was little to no shift in areas involving investigative (-0.05), social (.005), or conventional (0.001) disciplines.The realistic domain suggests student interest in career disciplines associated to building and fixing things increased. This is a positive outcome for this study, because the realistic domain closely aligns with the STEM, specifically the construction and engineering disciplines associated to this study. These type of people typically like to be physically active, prefer outdoor activities, and are good at electronics, mechanics, engineering, lab work, and carpentry work. The MnCareers lists the following personality traits for those scoring high in the realistic domain: practical, curious, reserved, persistent, good at solving problems, prefer working with things (i.e., tools, machines).The artistic domain suggests student interest in career disciplines connected to the visual arts. At first the authors believed this to be a non-interesting result, however, after considering the research and industry developments connected to 3D modelling and visualization, and architectural, landscape, and interior design, among other related career and skill options connected to construction and engineering, the authors believed this was a very impactful positive finding. As students with the personality traits connected to the artistic domain of MnCareers of imagination, creation, ability to work in unstructured situations, drawing, and creativity, are all skills listed as important in the construction and many engineering job applications. The enterprising domain is defined as student interest in career disciplines which involve interests connected to persuading, performing, influencing, promoting, and managing people also increased. This was an interesting revelation as it suggests that students’ personality traits such as an interest and ability to start new projects, and make decisions that affect others increased. All beneficial traits for construction and engineering careers. In regards to the pre post question regarding student interest in studying and working in a construction career, many of the students responded in the affirmative on both the pre and post. Potentially because many of the students in our survey demographic have a positive connection with that industry, resulting from family members or friends who work in the industry. Notwithstanding, in interviewing the students we learned that many of the students were unaware of the other potential jobs and careers involving in the construction and related engineering fields – especially those connected to design, visualization, 3D modelling and renderings, etc. When asked if they would consider studying or working in the construction field if it could be in a position that involved some of these other skills such as design and 3D modelling, and visualization, there was an overwhelming positive response (92%). Suggesting that students need to be taught simply about the various career options connected to construction engineering. Educational Importance and ConclusionWhile this study is in its infancy (a grant was recently awarded to the authors to further investigate their curriculum, implementation, and research efforts), the findings thus far from the pilot study have several important take-aways. First, by simply adding an after school intervention that engages students in a construction modelling competition using a popular well-known software does change student belief systems and interest in career paths. In this study, student interests were shifted towards careers connected to construction. Second, although the shift occurred, there was a need to teach students about the type of career options (and skill trainings, and or college majors they would need to study) before the authors could best interpret the data – meaning, connect the findings to a positive shift towards construction engineering. Third, more efforts need to be done. The construction industry continues to grow – and there is a shortage of workers, and college majors in these fields. Consequently, additional studies and efforts at a grassroots level, such as the K-6 intervention outlined in this study need to be done. The reason is schools are winnowing out electives, such as construction; therefore, without establishing how construction (and related engineering) courses can help students, construction will continue to be a relegated discipline, further diminishing the potential of studying and working in construction and related engineering fields. Fourth, it is not an expensive investment to start an after school program such as the one described in this study – and it appears to be making a difference. Schools do not need to invest much beyond leveraging many of the free tools such as Minecraft and Sketchup to improve their student exposure and potential interest in STEM related content such as construction and engineering. ReferencesAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science. (2002). “Project 2061 update.” Washington, DC.Beeland, William D. (2002). Student engagement, visual learning and technology: Can interactive whiteboards help. ?Annual Conference of the Association of Information Technology for Teaching Education. Retrieved Sept. 2015 from: , Ben, et al. (2015). Identifying the Most Effective Factors in Attracting Female Undergraduate Students to Construction Management. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, Vol. 11, 3, pages 179 - 195.Brown, Tara (2012). The Death Of Shop Class And America's Skilled Workforce. Forbes. Retrieved Fall 2015 from: , John et al. (1986). Teaching thinking and problem solving: Research foundations. American Psychologist, Vol 41(10), Oct 1986, 1078-1089. Blumenfeld, Phyllis C., et al. (1991). Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning.?Educational psychologist,?26, 3-4 (1991): 369-398.Cavanagh, Sean (2006). Electives Getting the Boot? It Depends on Where and What. Education Week. Retrieved Fall 2015 from: , K. (2014). Learning in a Mobile Age: An Investigation of Student Motivation. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Vol. 30, Issue 1, pages 82-96.Chini, Abdol, et al. (1999). Causes of the Construction Skilled Labor Shortage and Proposed Solutions. ASC Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference. Retrieved Fall 2015 from: , Sam (2006). Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math. The New York Times. Retrieved Fall 2015 from: , I., Pierrakos, O., and Truax, D. (2015). ”Sustainable Construction Education Using Problem-Based Learning and Service Learning Pedagogies.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 141(1), 05014002.Frazier, Laura (2015). After years of decline, Oregon rebuilds school-to-career programs. The Oregonian. Retrieved Fall 2015 from: the Achievement and Presence of Under-Represented Minorities in STEM Fields. National Math and Science Initiative. Retrieved Fall 2014 from: , R.?(1990).?Technical Personnel Shortages in Construction Industry.?Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering,?116(1), 16–26.McMillan JH. (1987). Enhancing College Students’ Critical Thinking: A Review of Studies. Res Higher Education, 26(1):3–29.National Research Council. (2003). “Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.” Washington, DC.Painter, S., & Bates, R. (2012). Statistical models of self-efficacy in STEM students. Journal of Undergraduate Research, Minnesota State University Mankato, 12(1)Pupils Attitude Towards Technology, Amanda (2012). A Justification for STEM Education. The Technology and Engineering Teacher. Retrieved Sept. 2015, from: , G., & Zuga, K. (2009). Background and history of the STEM movement. The Overlooked STEM Imperatives: Technology and Engineering. Retrieved Sept. 2015 from: , Romine, et al. Student Interest in Technology and Science (SITS) Survey: Development, Validation, and Use of a New Instrument. Retrieved September 2015 from: ................
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