CAREER: Broadening Contexts to Motivate Participation in Engineering

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

The primary goal of this project is to investigate how grades 5-8 students' engagement in and perceptions of engineering are influenced through participating in engineering challenges that intentionally integrate their personal interests. The merit of this work lies in the discovery of whether appealing to grades 5-8 students' personal interests can improve their perceptions of engineering and make them more likely to pursue engineering as a career. The project work involves engaging teachers and students in research-based engineering education specifically designed to promote inclusivity among underrepresented groups. The research team will interview and observe students to better understand how their engineering project work relates to their own personal interests. The immediate impact of the proposed project is measured in the numbers of teachers and students (especially those underrepresented in engineering) that have an opportunity to participate in the interest-driven engineering activities. Results from the research are potentially transformative for how engineering activities are presented in pre-college classrooms. More broadly, the project informs the design and delivery of inclusive engineering activities throughout the nation. The working hypothesis for the research posits that, by presenting engineering in broader contexts, more students will be able to identify their own personal interests in the engineering challenge - resulting in a more positive perception of engineering as a discipline with which they identify. The research involved in the project will address the following questions. Does broadening the context of engineering activities: 1. Appeal to more students' personal interests? 2. Empower underrepresented groups (female and minority) to find personally meaningful connections? 3. Lead to more authentic engagement in engineering practices for all students? 4. Improve students' attitudes and perceptions of engineering? Using a design-based research methodology, the research team is developing this interest-based curricular approach to engineering while investigating how the approach elicits students' interest and authentic engagement in engineering. The research is comprised of three studies: 1) a students' interests interview study that creates a baseline for students' interests, using discourse analysis to identify themes and underlying similarities in students' interview responses; 2) a classroom simulation study that investigates students' engagement in the interest-based curriculum through simulated classroom implementations (in a newly constructed, state-of-the-art research classroom lab space); and 3) a classroom implementation study that situates the implementation and investigation of the curriculum in real classroom settings. Both the classroom simulation and classroom implementation studies utilize a mixed methods research approach to qualitatively investigate the observed engagement of the students, and to quantitatively analyze the relationships between students' demographic/attitudinal data and their participation in the interest-based curriculum. Findings from all three studies will inform the iterative design and implementation of the interest-based engineering curricular approach.