Welcome to Engineering for US All (e4usa)!  Engineering for US All (e4usa) is a first-of-its-kind, national initiative designed to introduce engineering design principles to a new generation of students. e4usa invites all schools, teachers, and students to fully participate, regardless of their technical background or preparation.  e4usa seeks to demystify and democratize engineering.

• What do you think about our mission?
• Are you - or do you know - a high school who would like to sign on to join us for the 2022-2023 academic year? We're nearly done enrolling... but there's still a bit of time!
• Would you like to serve as a community liaison for one of our high schools?

Yes, engineering is everywhere!! 

So true.  We love the opportunity for our e4usa students to realize just that in our first unit.  In one lesson, students think about what they think they might want to be when they grow up and then research how engineering impacts that job.

I love this project. I'm very curious about the stage of idea formation.

What approaches/techniques/exercises/activities do you implement at the stage in which students are developing their ideas?

Would love to hear details about this if you have these resources available online, in discussion, or by email.

Wow!  This program is touching students around the country.  Great program!

 I am so excited about this project! I taught an engineering design course that included an invention unit. Definitely following the work you are doing to learn more! 

Love the idea of engineering for us all and that teachers of any content area were able and encouraged to teach the course with a focus on students building inventions that are useable.  I especially liked the diverse students and places that were shown in the video.  Do you know of schools who have adopted the course and are offering for credit?  Have any of the students who have taken the course expressed interest in majoring in engineering in college? What have been the biggest learnings for students and teachers?  

What an amazing program!  Well done! I am so excited to see the engagement of students who may have never considered these options without this exposure.

e4USA is that rare gift when there is something that can not only change the perspective of students, but also teachers. The possibilities are quite literally endless. The "e" stands for engineering, but it really is so much more. As an exploratory course, one could make a strong case for it being a kind of life-skills class. Problem solving, harnessing creativity, learning how to better collaborate, developing accountability.  Sure, it's facilitated through Engineering, but in some ways that is almost circumstantial. When given the opportunity the core learning outcomes reach into, truly, every content area. Every one of them. And into fields that go well beyond just the traditional definition of Engineering.  The adage "if something appears too good to be true, then it likely is" simply doesn't apply to e4USA. It represents a truly extraordinary opportunity. 

The e4usa program has allowed my students to grow as learners and develop skills needed to cultivate a growth mindset and work as part of a team. 

This is a fabulous video about a most excellent project. Keep up the amazing work!

This program sounds amazing- I wish I had this when I was in High School! Your video mentions that teachers from all different disciplines can use your program, and I was wondering what kinds of supports or resources do you offer teachers? I have found that engineering can sometimes be an intimidating topic for educators, especially those who do not have a STEM background, and would love to hear how your program has thought about educator supports! 

This is such a great program! I wish I had something similar to participate in and experience during my high school years—an excellent engagement for our future engineers to get in touch and learn about Engineering.

It is a great program, and I'm proud to be part of it! I work on MyDesign, a web-based LMS where students can upload submissions and receive feedback, and where teachers can track student progress and score submissions based on the Engineering Design Process Portfolio Scoring Rubric (EDPPSR).

Whether you've used MyDesign or are hearing about it for the first time, what features would you like to see included? We love feedback and suggestions. Thanks!

I have taught engineering by design for three years before e4usa and now three years with e4usa.  I have STEM background and specifically an engineering background.  This program has transformed my classroom in ways that I am going to mention and ways I am sure to forget.  Everything about this program is student driven.  The narrative changed from what can I as a teacher give to these students to benefit them and prepare them for future courses to what situations or challenges can I present to students and have the students solve changes everything.  Students are engaged, students are working in teams collaboratively, students are learning about topics they have never studied in prior classes, problem solving skills are stretched, creativity is encouraged, and students are proud of their work.    The students are learning the same skills I was taught in my introduction to engineering class in college such as engineering design, computer aided design or CAD, building techniques, collaboration with peers, criteria and constraints, stakeholders, and documentation of work.  Most of all, students are learning while removing the barriers that are traditionally associated with engineering.  This program is built around the concept of inclusion the idea that everyone can learn the basic principles of engineering and use them in their everyday life.  I have seen it now for three years and the tenet is true.  Once these barriers are removed students can see what they are truly capable of.  These same barriers exist for educators as well.  If all students can learn these principles it stands to reason that teachers from all kinds of backgrounds can teach it as well.  A good friend of mine started this program with me as a music teacher several states removed from me.  That same educator is one of our best e4usa teachers.  Another friend of mine is a history teacher same story.  You should see the projects their students turn out, the documentation of the work accomplished, and most of all the future engineers that leave their classrooms. If you see this video and read these posts and think to yourself my students could benefit from this type of class.  The answer is yes and please get involved.  Everyone can take this class and be successful and everyone can teach this class and be successful.  Is it different than a traditional classroom modality--yes.  Is it better than a traditional classroom modality--yes and it is not close. By far the best decision I have made for my students was being part of this program and gaining an e4usa family of supporters.

David and Sandra, I share your pride in being a part of such a great program and creating the MyDesign web application, a tool that brings teachers and students together in the pursuit of project-based learning.

Wow! This is a very timely project for Texas schools, as we recently adding engineering principles to our state standards. Thank you for sharing this work! 

The e4usa program, has given my students the opportunity to solve real live problems, which gives  learning a real purpose.  I am so glad to be able to support my students as their teacher and to see how they come up with these amazing created solutions!

I really enjoy seeing the professional learning that e4usa teachers are able to engage in. So many wonderful teachers with unique perspectives across the country coming together to support students in the problem-solving and design projects!

I really like crossing disciplines within great engineering. We actually accept our engineering design course as an arts/humanities general education course because it combines creativity in visual and graphical arts within engineering design. It's so important to emphasize the importance of engineering in everyday life, and incorporate collaboration and teamwork. How do you encourage faculty from a different discipline to participate? How do you reduce or eliminate the fear of failure? 

Engineering for US all is truly for ALL teachers and for ALL students! 

Engineering for US all is truly for ALL teachers and for ALL students! 

My students are really excited about e4usa.  I had one minority female student last year who was going to major in physics in college but then changed her major to mechanical engineering.  

My students are really excited about e4usa.  I had one minority female student last year who was going to major in physics in college but then changed her major to mechanical engineering.  

Yes to the energy and excitement in this video! It's amazing to see the breadth of projects--helping others learn, helping local zoos, and using sustainable resources to live and learn.  Kudos to these educators and students pushing themselves to become student engineers!

Great video and program.  I would be very interested in learning more about the pathways students that have participated in this effort have taken in higher education.  How many are now pursuing engineering?  

e4usa has been transformative in my building this year; not only for my students and myself, but for the entire school.  Rather than learning about engineering, my students are actually DOING engineering.  The student centered projects and problem solving approach has allowed my students to dive right in and began creating and making items, testing them, iterating them, and finally getting them out in the hands of other students and classrooms where they are used on a daily basis. 

Kids meet with stakeholders to get input into what is needed in those classrooms and then they design, build, test, and iterate those products before turning them loose into the wild for field testing.  After time in the clients and stakeholders hands, we then gather data on the effectiveness of the product and go back to iterate further and improve them.  We have created permanent passes for our entire building, math manipulatives for our elementary classrooms, cable management systems for our IT department, branded keychains and toys for incoming prospective students, and all of this was in our first year of joining the e4usa team. 

Student enthusiasm and engagement has been off the charts, and my students, who had no prior experience or access to any kind of engineering content or family members who are engineers, have started to think of themselves as engineers themselves.  We couldn't be happier with the results after our first year, and interest has expanded so much that we are offering a second level engineering course next year. 

If your school doesn't offer engineering content for your students, e4usa is the best way to get the ball rolling in your building or district.  The problem solving skills my students have learned this year have so many cross-curricular and real world applications and the value this has added to our content and curriculum school wide has been incredible. 

This is an excellent approach to introducing engineering to teachers that do not have experience in engineering. I wish this program had existed when I was in high school. Great video! 

Fantastic program! It appears that most or high percentage of teachers participating in the program are from other disciplines. Is this correct? If so, how are you able to recruit music, art, history, etc. into the program? How are teachers integrating engineering principles into what is likely a packed curriculum in their subject area? Do you then help school districts add an engineering course to their course offerings for those students wanting to delve into engineering at a deeper level? 

It was great to see all of the engaged students!  It was interesting to see how many different ideas that they came up with for their own projects.  I appreciated that it discussed all of the different classes/courses that could use this type of approach.  Since the students seemed to be in many different cities based on the graphics (i.e. Philadelphia, PA) - how was it rolled out to the different areas and how were teachers recruited?

Great video!  It is so refreshing to see how you are approaching diversity, equity and inclusion by bringing applications of engineering to younger students in ways that will resonate with a broad audience. I think many of us would have loved to have had that course in high school. Thank you for all your efforts to make a difference in how students understand the impact that engineers can have on the world!

Great video!  It is so refreshing to see how you are approaching diversity, equity and inclusion by bringing applications of engineering to younger students in ways that will resonate with a broad audience. I think many of us would have loved to have had that course in high school. Thank you for all your efforts to make a difference in how students understand the impact that engineers can have on the world!

I think something that has been overlooked but needs to be emphasised about this program is its adaptability to students' ability levels.  By focusing on the engineering design process rather than specific projects or activities e4usa provides an opportunity for students at all levels of engineering.  Many students in my e4usa class had never held a screwdriver when they entered the room in the fall while colleagues have students capable of advanced robotics and electronics.  

Thrilled to see this. My preservice teachers taking an educational technology course help me run an after school technology club for 5th graders during which we build bio-inspired robots. In the past some of my secondary education students (English, history) and my PE students have complained that the project isn't relevant to them. I love that you are proving them wrong! It would be great to see how non-STEM teachers are embracing your program. Where can I find that? 

Thank you!  I'm pasting below a couple of references about some of our non-STEM teachers embracing our program.

Reid, K., Dalal, M., & Beauchamp, C. (2020). A music teacher teaches engineering and uses CAD: A case study. In D. Schmidt-Crawford (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 1311-1316). Online: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Dalal, M., Carberry, A.R., Warmington, D., & Maxwell, R. (2020). A case study exploring transfer of pedagogical philosophy from music to engineering. ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Uppsala, (pp. 1-4). https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274128 

Carberry, A.R., Dalal, M., Nagda, M., & McCarthy, B. (2021). Expanding the STEM teacher pool: A history teacher’s experience teaching a high school engineering course. National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Virtual Conference.