A new book by NSTA Press helps middle school teachers incorporate engineering into their science classrooms.               

More Everyday Engineering: Putting the E in STEM Teaching and Learning is a follow-up volume to 2012’s Everyday Engineering. The book is based on the “Everyday Engineering” column in NSTA’s middle school journal Science Scope and captures how engineering is required to make items from ice cubes to bandages. Authors Richard H. Moyer and Susan A. Everett do an excellent job at providing lessons that illustrate how “engineering is the process we use to develop solutions to the problems humans face.”

The activities are designed to give students an in-depth understanding of three different aspects of engineering—designing and building; reverse engineering to learn how something works; and constructing and testing models. Moyer and Everett use the 5E learning-cycle format in each activity and focus on items that students are familiar with such as sunglasses and speakers and earbuds.

Chapter 4, “An In-depth Look at 3-D,” is particularly relevant to middle school students who have grown up surrounded by the latest 3-D technology in video games, televisions, and movies. The activity worksheet in that chapter focuses on vision and perception as a means to investigating 3-D. Each of the chapters in the book provide helpful teacher background information, historical context, a materials list, and safety information.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) stress the importance of incorporating engineering and technology into the science classroom. This book can help teachers connect science and engineering, and can serve as a useful tool for engineers leading outreach activities, leaders of after-school and summer enrichment programs, and parents. Most importantly, the book helps provide opportunities for students “to deepen their understanding of science by applying their developing scientific knowledge to the solution of practical problems” (see NGSS, Appendix A).

This book is also available as an e-book.

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Between now and November 1, 2016, save $15 off your order of $75 or more of NSTA Press books or e-books by entering promo code BKS16 at checkout in the online Science Store. Offer valid only on orders placed of NSTA Press books or e-books on the web and may not be combined with any other offer.

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