Student Outcomes from the Collective Design and Delivery of Culturally Relevant Engineering Outreach Curricula in Rural and Appalachian Middle Schools

Middle school is a pivotal time for career choice, and research is rich with studies on how students perceive engineering, as well as corresponding intervention strategies to introduce younger students to engineering and inform their conceptions of engineering. Unfortunately, such interventions are typically not designed in culturally relevant ways. Consequently, there continues to be a lack of students entering engineering and a low level of diverse candidates for this profession. The purpose of this study was to explore how students in rural and Appalachian Virginia conceive of engineering before and after engagement with culturally relevant hands-on activities in the classroom. We used student responses to the Draw an Engineer Test (DAET), consisting of a drawing and several open-ended prompts administered before and after the set of engagements, to answer our research questions related to changes in students’ conceptions of engineering. We used this study to develop recommendations for teachers for the use of such engineering engagement practices and how to best assess their outcomes, including looking at the practicality of the DAET. Overall, we found evidence that our classroom engagements positively influenced students’ conceptions of engineering in these settings

A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MIDDLE LEVEL STUDENT ENGINEERING UNDERSTANDING PRE-AND POST-TREATMENT

This qualitative quasi-experimental study analyzed middle-level students’ understanding of engineering before and after instruction. Students from four teachers were examined. Before and after instruction, all students completed the Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) and the Views of Nature of Engineering (VNOE) survey. Additionally, sixteen students (eight girls and eight boys) from each group (Treatment and Comparison) were interviewed before and after instruction. Findings revealed that after instruction (1) many students viewed engineers as makers/builders/workers (just as they did pre-instruction), however, the percentage of students who listed engineers as inventors, designers, and creators increased; (2) fewer students from both groups noted they had heard about the engineering design process or had considered being; (3) the interviewed Treatment students were more knowledgeable about engineers than were the interviewed Comparison students. This study is important as it is one of the first studies to examine student understanding of engineering after receiving a science-based engineering design unit, and it found the total understanding to require improvement

Application of Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) for a Better Understanding of Middle School Students’Conceptions of Engineering

Engineering is a discipline in STEM, an educational approach that consists of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Engineering applications are favoured in Turkey according to 2017 Science curriculum to improve students’ 21st century skills. To integrate engineering applications to Turkish Science curriculum efficiently, we must understand students’ conceptions of engineering. This study was done to understand middle school students’ conceptions of engineering. Total 75 students from 2 public schools, 43 female and 32 male who are 25 of each 6th, 7th and 8th grade were applied “Draw-An-Engineer-Test(DAET)”. DAET is a research tool for examining students’ conceptions by interpreting their drawn and written reflections. Some outstanding results show male students do not consider engineering as career for women while female students think that engineering is a profession for both genders, students have tendency to civil engineering, and as grade gets higher the conception of engineering is getting narro