Work in progress — Developmental engineering: Using observation for understanding child behaviors as precursors to engineering thinking

Children's experiences in early childhood have significant lasting effects in their overall development and in the United States today the majority of young children spend considerable amounts of time in early childhood education settings. At the national level, there is an expressed concern about the low levels of student interest and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Bringing these two conversations together our research focuses on how young children of preschool age exhibit behaviors that we consider relevant in engineering. There is much to be explored in STEM education at such an early age, and in order to proceed we created an experimental observation protocol in which we identified various pre-engineering behaviors based on pilot observations, related literature and expert knowledge. This protocol is intended for use by preschool teachers and other professionals interested in studying engineering in the preschool classroom.