Change in elementary student conceptions of engineering following an intervention as seen from the Draw-an-Engineer Test

Abstract

Change in elementary students' conceptions of engineering has been studied using the Draw-an-Engineering Test (DAET) prior to and following a curriculum intervention. This instrument asks students to draw an engineer doing engineering work and then write about what the engineer is doing, typically in a sentence or two. Children in participating grade 2-4 classrooms completed the DAET in a pre-post fashion during academic year 2010-2011. Classrooms were chosen based upon teacher participation in professional development in elementary engineering in a summer week-long academy in 2009 and three additional days in 2010. This study found the drawings at the beginning of the school year consistent with previous studies in which student conceptions rested heavily on manual labor occupations such as mechanics, builders and drivers. The results of the coding of the year-end drawings revealed over half of the participants' conceptions were design related and almost as many had moved away from the manual labor conception. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.