Elementary students' engineering design process knowledge: Instrument development and pilot test

Abstract

This paper describes the development process of an instrument designed to assess elementary students' knowledge of the engineering design process. The instrument was adapted from another instrument used with college students and validated through an instructioncomparison study. We based the design of the instrument on the principle of aligning cognition, observation, and interpretation in developing an assessment. As a part of the validation process, we administered the instrument to 71 elementary students at the beginning and at the end of a school year. The instruction group consisted of 37 students who learned engineering content and the design process, while the other 34 students (the comparison group) did not participate in any engineering instruction. Quantitative analysis showed that the instruction group scored higher at the end of the school tear compared to the beginning of the school year. The comparison group did not show difference between pre test and post test. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.