High School Student Engineering Design Thinking and Performance

Our vision is to improve the STEM learning and teaching environment for high school students through their understanding of engineering design. Engineering employs principles of mathematics and science to create technologies, thus serving as a STEM integrator. Design is recognized as the critical element of engineering thinking which differentiates engineering from other problem solving approaches. The purpose of this exploratory research was to clarify engineering design as a construct and perform empirical preparatory research on engineering design as a STEM learning experience for high school students. Engineering design has the potential to integrate science, technology and mathematics concepts for students and is essential for developing technological literacy . This three year project tested the reasonableness of comparing high school student engineering design thinking with that of experts, and investigates the feasibility of these research methods by addressing the following question: How does high school student engineering design thinking compare to that of experts in terms of engineering design performance and knowledge? Fifty-nine participants from four states were asked to think out loud in a three hour design challenge which was video and audio recorded. Verbal protocol analysis was conducted as the students engaged in the engineering design process. The area of focus for this paper is time allocations across essential elements of the design process. This research may help to uncover the elusive cognitive thought processes employed by students as they practice engineering design thinking and will inform curriculum developers and teachers planning classroom strategies to improve high school students’ understanding of engineering.

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