Safety Issues and Accident Occurrences Reported by P‐12 Engineering Educators in the Middle Atlantic United States

Abstract

Many state education departments categorize P‐12 engineering programs within their career and technical education (CTE) career clusters. While these valuable hands-on programs often have inherent safety risks, they are essential for developing important skills (e.g., safety practices) that students will transfer into post-secondary engineering and technical programs as well as the workplace. Therefore, this study examined a broad range of safety issues and accident occurrences reported by 117 P‐12 engineering teachers from the middle Atlantic (mid-Atlantic) United States (U.S.). Analyses identified numerous safety factors that were significantly associated with accident occurrences, and significant differences were discovered in regard to the types of tools/items that were involved in accidents. Moreover, there was a significant difference in the occurrence of accidents between different P‐12 engineering courses. This research provides implications for proactively identifying significant safety issues, that when addressed, should help to reduce the occurrence of accidents in P‐12 engineering courses. Identifying significant safety issues at the P12 level can also assist post-secondary engineering/technical programs and employers with focusing their safety instruction on the areas of greatest need for incoming students and young workers. This can help foster collaborative safety instruction and outreach efforts among postsecondary programs, P‐12 programs, and business/industry partners.