2018 marks the 15-year anniversary of EiE! That’s 15 years, 15 million students engaging with engineering across 50 states, over one hundred thousand educators reached, hundreds of professional development workshops, and many more to come. All throughout the year, we’re celebrating this tremendous achievement with new product launches, more online professional development opportunities, and supplemental resources to better support YOU! Take a look at what we have in store for you, and keep checking our blog for more updates.

One of the best ways to re-engage students after the winter break is to rebuild a positive, collaborative classroom culture. Positive and collaborative classroom environments foster equitable learning experiences for all learners! Throughout our educator guides, we provide teaching strategies and tips that will help you create a positive learning environment because we’ve done the research that shows, for example, that competitive classroom environments can negatively impact and discourage girls and children of color from participating in classroom activities. As you and your students re-acclimate to the classroom this month, try out these quick and easy ways to get your students pumped for the rest of the school year!

The holiday vacation is a great time to spark a child’s curiosity and reinvigorate their love of learning. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of fun gift ideas that can inspire kids and keep them occupied during the winter break. Whether you’re an educator, parent, family member, friend, or volunteer this holiday season, buy a gift that can set its recipient on the path towards becoming a lifelong STEM learner! And if you want to test your engineering skills during your holiday break, try out our Engineering IQ Quiz!

The engineering design process is central to engineering. Engineers use the engineering design process to create technologies. For our elementary engineering curriculum, we developed an age-appropriate five-step engineering design process: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, and Improve. Did you know you can apply this problem-solving tool to problems outside of engineering? Throughout the school day, your students encounter numerous problems that they’ll need to solve. Our engineering design process can give your students a process to solve their everyday problems more effectively and a chance to practice important 21st century skills like collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Over the years, educators have shared with us the innovative ways they adapted EiE’s five-step Engineering Design Process (EDP) to the help their students solve a problem. Below we share our favorite examples!

How much do you know about engineering? Think you can spot common misconceptions about the field of engineering? 

Recently, EiE team members attended our very own Museum of Science’s Dream Big Educators’ Night. Alongside 200 educators, we watched the Museum’s new IMAX film Dream Big: Engineering Our World, an amazing testament to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of engineers. Dream Big is a great example of how engineering stories that situate STEM learning in a real-world context help students understand the significance of the STEM concepts that they learn in the classroom. We were so inspired by Dream Big that we compiled a list of video resources that feature engineers who are working to achieve the incredible. Visit the Museum to watch Dream Big in person and/or show your students these clips to spark their imagination and get them excited about engineering a bigger and better future!