Integrating Engineering into Teaching and Learning Science: Phases, Challenges, and the Way Forward.

Abstract

This paper is prompted by the current educational reform efforts that call for the integration of engineering into science education. Therefore, it examines the integration of engineering into the teaching and learning of science. It also pointed out how it is possible and beneficial to integrate engineering into the teaching and learning of science. Emphasis is made on how engineering helps to make abstract science concepts concrete and develop better skills in students to fit into the current demands of the workforce. Factors militating against the integration of engineering into formal teaching and learning of science were clearly explained with how they can be quickly and rightly overcome. Due to the current educational reforms going on worldwide, there is an urgent need to integrate engineering into biology instruction for better development of creative skills among students, which are mostly and currently needed in the workforce. It was recommended that engineering be integrated into the science curriculum and that science teachers should be trained, supported, encouraged, and motivated to implement it to teach science.