This research full paper utilizes qualitative methods to explore middle school engineering teachers' facilitation of the engineering design process as they implement STEM-integrated curricula. Engineering teachers face the challenge of guiding students through a multi-phase, iterative process to design, prototype, and test solutions to engineering problems. In our research exploring middle school teachers' implementation of the semester-long STEM-ID curricula, we have found considerable variation in the degree to which teachers successfully work with students to navigate the engineering design process (EDP). Some teachers have been able to guide students through the EDP to complete STEM-ID challenges efficiently, whereas other teachers have struggled to do so. To better understand the problem of practice evidenced by such variations in the efficiency of EDP facilitation, this qualitative study synthesizes observation and interview data to identify tendencies characterizing efficient facilitation of the EDP among teachers implementing the STEM-ID curricula. In the current study, which focused on curricula implementation by six engineering teachers, four teachers demonstrated efficient facilitation of EDP, successfully guiding students through the vast majority of the curricula's design challenges, while two teachers struggled to do so. Our qualitative data suggest three major tendencies that may account for variations in the efficiency with which teachers guided students through the various stages of the EDP: 1) adept management of student groups working at multiple stages of EDP, 2)explicit discussion of EDP progress and documentation in engineering design process logs, and 3) engaging students in discussions about the purpose of engineering and the engineering design process, including beyond the design challenges they complete as part of the STEM-ID curricula. By identifying tendencies we observed among teachers who efficiently implemented the EDP, we hope to advance the field's understanding of strategies that support student engagement in the EDP while also informing future engineering curricula and professional development projects.

This Research paper explores the activities within the biologically inspired design-focused engineering curriculum to determine if they fostered students' engagement in learning. This work builds on concurrent research exploring students' application of BID in engineering and teachers' implementation of BID within their respective engineering classrooms. Participants comprised ninth-grade high school students$(n=12)$enrolled in the first-year engineering course across two high schools. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on classroom observation field notes, student focus groups, teacher curriculum enactment surveys, and teacher interviews. The finding revealed that student engagement varied across the seven-week-long unit. In the initial week, engagement was relatively low since the activities were static and required learning to be scaffolded via worksheets. However, during weeks three through six, engagement positively shifted due to the activities being more dynamic, requiring students to engage in inquiry and design learning. Furthermore, students' academic engagement was fostered due to hands-on experiences and work-based authentic problems presented in the unit, which encouraged collaboration.

This research paper examines how engineering instructors initially experienced a forced change from in-person teaching to emergency remote teaching by collecting instructors' self-reported successes and challenges. Participants included engineering instructors from an R1 institution who completed weekly online surveys during the last seven weeks of the Spring 2020 semester. An inductive thematic analysis of the instructors' responses to two open-ended items was completed from which the three most frequently cited themes from each of the successes and the challenges are presented and discussed. Understanding the most common successes and challenges experienced by instructors during emergency remote instruction lays the foundation for designing supportive strategies for future instructional change initiatives in engineering education.

This Research paper explores engineering instructors' ability to emotionally adapt to remote teaching and whether they felt their emotions were typical compared to a non-COVID semester. Participants, including engineering professors of practice, tenure-track and tenured faculty from five engineering disciplines completed weekly online surveys during the last seven weeks of the Spring 2020 semester. Adaptability, as a framework, was used to examine instructors’ emotions over the initial weeks of remote instruction. Descriptive statistics were used to explore engineering instructors’ emotions across the seven weeks and typicality of these emotions as compared to a non-COVID semester. The findings revealed that over the seven-week period, instructors reported their emotions as being more positive than negative. More than half of the instructors felt their emotions were atypical during the first four weeks and typical during the last three weeks. In addition, many instructors (73%) felt accomplished by the end of the semester. Understanding instructors’ feelings during this forced change to emergency remote teaching can serve to identify emotional support needed for faculty to be able to change.