This work-in-progress research explores the practice of formative assessments (FA) in the form of informal FA conversations by a high school teacher teaching engineering design curriculum in an all-girls high school in the US southwest. An observation protocol informed by the Eliciting, Students' response, Recognition, and Use (ESRU) model and Formative Assessment Cycle was developed and testing to capture informal FA practices in an authentic setting using classroom observations. The teacher observed in this study had no explicit awareness that her practices were being observed. Initial observations show a frequent utilization of informal FA practices associated with eliciting, recognizing, and using student responses to connect to learning goals in the form of FA conversations. These practices did not include clarifying expectations or sharing learning goals. Initial observations also show that the teacher frequently uses these practices to introduce new topics instead of starting such engagements to assess concepts that have already been delivered. Implications and future directions will focus on understanding how these inquisitive, informal FA practices can be used to deliver new concepts and improve student learning.

This study aimed to establish an accurate baseline for Facebook usage and to investigate its learning potential via biometric perspective. This was explored by asking college students to browse their own Facebook page and peruse the content while wearing a high-fidelity EEG headset to record brainwave activity they experienced. Their actions were then coded using the empirically based Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) engagement model to identify elements that could potentially be leveraged for learning. Based on these results, Facebook does not seem to make an ideal learning platform, due to higher frustration levels during higher cognitive tasks compared to passively consuming personally relevant non-instructional content. However, it may have more positive impacts on learning as long as initial frustration level is transformed smoothly to engagement and motivation for some learning opportunities and activities.

This Innovative Practice Work-in-Progress paper aims to capture a unique attempt to break down silos between two pre-college STEM initiatives. A myriad of programs has emerged to provide pre-college students with engineering or robotics experiences. Such initiatives are typically undertaken independent of one another. Engineering For Us All (e4usa) and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) are two such programs designed to excite youth about STEM careers, specifically engineering. One provides a classroom experience, while the other is primarily extracurricular, affording informal learning experiences. The parallel missions of these two programs provided the impetus for a new partnership, e4usa+FIRST, to leverage the collective strengths of each program and expand engineering access to underserved schools. A workshop was conducted that brought together a variety of stakeholders to explore numerous approaches of blending the two programs. This paper details the design of the workshop and the five emergent blending models. The results advance an argument for the involvement of all stakeholders to create an ecosystem at the pre-college level to broaden participation in engineering education. The study has the potential to impact future motivation and design of pre-college STEM education and outreach programs.

This Work-in-Progress paper details the innovative practice of providing high school counselors with a hands-on engineering professional development (PD). Prior research shows that counselors are often unprepared to advise students about engineering pathways. This is primarily due to the lack of information and training provided to counselors about engineering. A PD was designed to educate high school counselors about engineering education and the overall engineering profession. A total of 15 counselors completed the five-week PD online during the summer of 2020. A subset of participating counselors ($\mathrm{n}=5$) was interviewed six months after the PD to examine how their practices had changed following the PD experience. Initial findings suggest that counselors changed how they viewed engineering as a more inclusive field beyond just a discipline for those who excel in math and science. This led to adjustments in their counseling and recommendations regarding engineering to ensure that any student with an expressed interest would be aware of the opportunity.

This Research Work in Progress paper presents a case study that demonstrates how a secondary school teacher with a non-STEM background identifies parallels between the engineering design process and music creation to embrace teaching an engineering course for the first time. Multiple interviews and classroom observations were open coded using a two-cycle coding approach to reveal four themes: overcoming imposter syndrome, connections between engineering and music, challenges encountered, and changes in practice. These themes highlight the processes involved in transferring a pedagogical philosophy that can inform future efforts to explore the necessary preconditions for bridging seemingly disparate and unconnected content areas. Further exploration building on these findings will inform efforts to broaden the pool of teachers capable of teaching pre-college engineering classes.

In the past decade, reports such as the National Academies' "Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects" (2009) have discussed the importance of - and challenges of - effectively incorporating engineering concepts into the K-12 curriculum. Multiple reports have echoed and further elaborated on the need to effectively and authentically introduce engineering within K-12; not just to address a perpetual shortage of engineers, but to increase technological literacy within the U.S.The NSF-funded initiative Engineering for US All (E4USA): A National Pilot Program for High School Engineering Course and Database curriculum was intentionally designed `for us all;' in other words, the design is meant to be inclusive and to engage in an examination and exploration of `engineering'. The intent behind the `for us all' curriculum is to emphasize the idea of thinking like an engineer, rather than simply to develop more engineers. Therefore, the focus is not on `how to become an engineer' but `what is an engineer' and `who is an engineer'.This paper will discuss the design of the first iteration of the curriculum. The initial design was based on the First Year Engineering Classification Scheme, used to classify all possible content found in first-year, multidisciplinary Introduction to Engineering courses in general-admit (non direct-admit) engineering programs. The curriculum provides progressively larger engineering design experiences relating to student fields of interest and real-world problems. Course objectives are broken into four major threads. Each of these threads is woven through seven modules. The threads are: Discovering Engineering, Engineering in Society, Engineering Professional Skills, and Engineering Design.The paper will describe the design and details of the initial implementation of the E4USA curriculum, focusing on the features that make this course suitable `for all.'