Educator Professional Development Program

This three-session, personal-professional development program (PD) is an opportunity for you and teams of informal educators to reflect on your own understanding of and the usefulness of engineering practices.  For this PD, we define usefulness as being the perception that an object, activity, or information is relevant and can be applied to a personal goal or situation.  As a result, PD participants will be able to use specific elements of personal stories to engage in conversations that boost visitors in self-generating the value of the engineering practices they already use in their daily lives and when addressing community level challenges. 

By engaging with this PD, you can:

Update your definition of engineering in everyday language that reflects engineering as an inclusive process, and a means all people use to achieve goals.
Update your notion of engineering to include engineering as not only processes, but also as sets of practices; practices that can be collaborative and informed, including among intergenerational groups.
Update your toolkit to recognize story sharing as a process that fosters personal sense-making among those involved; story sharing about engineering practices can lead to self-generated connections of how engineering practices are used to accomplish daily activities, including contributions to community goals.

This web-based PD is designed for both individuals and teams. Most modules start with individual work and end with opportunities for group discussion and reflection. Please feel free to adjust how you engage with the content to meet your needs.

Please click on the relevant module below to access module video and materials.