Adopting Backward Design into a Constructionist Curriculum Design for IoT Skill Development in High Schoolers

Abstract

Despite the growing demand for experienced Internet of Things (IoT) professionals across industrial establishments, most secondary education institutions do not offer a curriculum to empower students’ knowledge and skills in IoT. Enrichment programs and vocational workshops can be considered as potential solutions to equip students with necessary IoT-related skills and assist them in planning and making conscious career choices. Through this research, we aim to utilize the principles of Backward Design and constructionism in designing an IoT curriculum for enrichment programs for high school students, while incorporating electro-mechanical concepts from electronics, programming, connectivity, and design. The curriculum was used to teach IoT concepts to 28 high school students during two enrichment programs. It was found that students with hardly any prior knowledge in IoT could acquire the necessary skills to design and prototype IoT applications. © 2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

Author Keywords

Vocational education Internet of Things curriculum design Backward design Constructionism Learning Theories

Index Keywords

Teaching Professional aspects Curricula Engineering education Growing demand Apprentices Students Vocational education Curricula design Skills development Learning Theory High school students Education institutions Design for manufacturability Design for testability Electronic design automation Backward design Constructionism Enrichment programme

Author Affiliations

C-Design Lab, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States

C-Design Lab, College of Engineering, West Lafayette, IN, United States

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States

Creativity Labs, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States

College of Engineering, West Lafayette, IN, United States

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Adopting Backward Design into a Constructionist Curriculum Design for IoT Skill Development in High Schoolers

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