The effect of engineering design based activities enriched with videos on 5th grade students' STEM career interests and motivations towards science

The main purpose of this research is to examine the effects of engineering design-based activities enriched with videos on fifth grade students' interest in STEM professions, their motivation for learning science, their development of future career awareness and their design skills. In addition, determining opinions about the activities and videos used within the scope of the research is among the sub-objectives. The study was carried out with a total of 75 students studying in three different branches of a public school in Ankara. Mixed method was used in the research. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Career Interest Survey, Questionnaire for Motivation toward Science and Your Future Survey were used as quantitative data collection tools. Focus group interviews, researcher observation notes, activity papers, activity and video evaluation forms were used as qualitative data collection tools. In addition, the design skills of the students were examined by evaluating the designs resulting from the activities using the engineering design process evaluation rubric. According to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Career Interest Survey, it was concluded that watching videos that initially presented sections about the working life of scientists provided a significant increase in students' interest in engineering professions compared to other groups. In addition, for the mathematics dimension of the scale, it can be said that videos of scientists contribute positively to increasing students' interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics professions. A significant difference was found in the "motivation for research" sub-dimension between the pre-test and post-test score averages of the motivation scale for learning science of the students who did the activity after watching the video. Moreover, an increase has been detected in the interest of students in this group to work in these fields in the future, especially in the field of engineering, in the professions included in the Your Future survey. In line with the results, it is recommended that engineering design-based activities be enriched with videos and shown to students at the beginning of the design process.