Examination of High School Students' Engineering Design Skills: Example of Electromagnetism

Research Article

Abstract

n the secondary and high school science program implemented in Turkey in 2018, the importance of engineering and design skills is underlined under domain-specific skills. The purpose of this study, in which case study method, one of the qualitative research methods, is used to examine the engineering design skills of high school students within the scope of a real-life problem. In the study, an engineering design-based problem of
making electromagnets was given to high school students, and the study was carried out five weeks. During the solution process of the problem, the students were expected to accept themselves as an engineer and solve the given daily life-based problem from this perspective. The study group consists of 28 volunteer high school students attending at the 11th grade in a state high school. The data of the study (written documents) were
evaluated by the researchers with a content analysis approach. According to the results, it was determined that the students were able to deal with the real-life problem from different dimensions and come up with appropriate solutions. In addition, when the students’ drawings were examined, it was observed that they exhibited their creativity. Still, it was observed that the applicability of these drawings was low and far from
technical details. Another finding is that they are not successful in using scientific knowledge and making calculations.