The investigation of 6 th grade students' concepts ofengineering and engineer through STEM training in matter and heat unit

In this study, which has a semi-experimental design, 6 th grade students' knowledge and drawings regarding what an engineer is and how engineers work were investigated before and after the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) training in Matter and Heat unit. Students both in control and experimental group participated in ''Let's design a thermos'' and ''Let's design a house with heat insulation'' STEM activities. Although the STEM activities used in both groups are identical, the activities were applied in two different ways. In the experimental group, STEM activities included explicit and reflective discussions of engineering, engineering types, and how engineers work during and at the end of the STEM activities. Also, videos on engineering and engineering types were watched in this group. Finally, homework about types of engineering was assigned to students. In the control group, although the same activities were applied, explicit and reflective discussions of engineering were not held. Two STEM activities were applied through 16 class hours (i.e., eight class hours for each STEM activities), which takes one month. The participants were 6 th grade students enrolled a middle school in İpekyolu county, Van province in 2018-2019 academic year. In the experimental group, there were 32 students (i.e., 12 females, 20 males) and in the control group there were 30 students (i.e., 14 females, 16 males). The data were collected through the use of 'Draw an Engineer Test' (DAE) and the 'Engineering Knowledge Measurement Scale' (EKMS) administered as pre-and post-test to both groups. The quantitative analysis of EKMS was conducted by the use of SPSS package program. The Mann-Whitney U test was run to analyze the EKMS results. DAE data including drawings and explanations were analyzed through content analysis. Results revealed that there is a statistical difference between the EKMS post-tests results in favor of experimental group (U=10,500, z= -6,654, p=,00, r=.85). The qualitative analysis showed that, at the beginning, students in both groups had poor and incorrect information about engineers and what they do. In the pre-drawings, the mostly drawn engineering type was civil engineering in both groups. After the training, results showed that students in experimental group changed their incorrect information about engineering with the correct ones. Also, students in experimental group drew more different engineering types in the post DAE administration than students did in control group. In the lights of the results, in order to help students gain a complete and correct engineer and engineering concept, explicit and reflective discussions on engineering and how engineers work should be held during and at the end of the STEM activities. Keywords: STEM education, engineering, engineering design