Examination of stem career interests and engineering knowledge of 8-12. grade students

In this study, it was aimed to compare 8-12th grade students' STEM career interests according to school type and the level of engineering knowledge according to type of school, gender, grade level, attendance at the science and art center, father's and mothers' profession, father's and mothers' education, taking part in the Project, economic income level, place of residence, their favorite and the most successful course, whether they want to attend the university, the department they want to attend the university, and to determine the relationship between the students' STEM career interests and their engineering knowledge. The study group of the research is 749 (386 girls, 363 boys) students attending the 8-12th grade in the central district of Sinop. The model of the research is ex post facto research and A corrrelational screening design. Data collection tools of the research are Student Information Form, Career Interest Scale for STEM Fields and Engineering Knowledge Level Form. The STEM career scale is in 5-point Likert type and consists of 80 items, while the engineering knowledge level form consists of 9 open-ended questions. Obtained data were analyzed with t-test, ANOVA, Tukey test and correlation using SPSS package program. In the research, STEM career interest differs according to the type of school, the level of engineering knowledge is among the demographic variables, school type, class level, being a science and art student, taking part in the project, parental profession, parental education level, monthly income of the family, being an engineer in the family. It has been concluded that there is a significant low correlation between engineering knowledge and STEM career interest.