Adventure Engineering: A Design Centered,Inquiry Based Approach to Middle Grade Science and Mathematics Education

Adventure Engineering (AE) is a middle grade science and mathematics outreach initiative that entails the development and implementation of single day to four‐week adventure‐driven, engineering‐based curricula for grade 5 through 9 science and/or mathematics classes. The curricula is inquiry‐based and open‐ended; activities are designed to facilitate the learning and application of concepts identified in national mathematics and science standards, and to immerse students in the engineering design experience. This paper reports the findings from the development and implementation of AE curricula in six different middle grade subjects in urban and suburban schools. Rigorous assessment revealed that the AE curricula have successfully improved mathematics and science content knowledge. Student attitudes towards mathematics and science, and in limited cases engineering, also improved. This paper also presents the results of a survey of urban and suburban student attitudes towards mathematics, science and engineering.