The differential effects of pre-engineering curricula on middle School Students’ attitudes to and knowledge of engineering careers

The Middle School Students' Attitude to Mathematics, Science and Engineering Survey was developed to measure students' attitudes to engineering and knowledge about engineering careers as part of a program to enlarge the future pool of engineers because students' attitudes have been found to be an important predictor of whether students pursue careers in engineering. The program focuses on using pre-engineering curricula in middle and high schools, and informing students, teachers, parents, and school counselors about careers in engineering because most students do not know what engineering is or what engineers do and therefore do not explore engineering as a career option or prepare for it academically in the critical middle or high school years. Continued use of the survey with younger students indicated that the language used in some of the questions was too sophisticated for some middle school students and the survey has been revised. A study was conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the revised survey with a large sample of academically diverse middle school students. Comparisons among groups of students exposed to pre-engineering concepts in various different ways in their science and mathematics classes have been made to explore the extent to which the exposure may have affected students' attitudes to engineering and knowledge of engineering careers.