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As more institutions create first year engineering programs that teach an engineering design process, there is a growing desire to prepare students for this coursework in the high school setting. When exposing such a broad population to these ideas, a primary question arises regarding student attitudes toward engineering and how these attitudes develop over time. That is, how does this exposure to engineering design influence student attitudes toward engineering? Moreover, answering this question will allow educators to better understand what motivates students to learn, how much their motivation impacts their overall mastery of these skills, and how these aspects of engineering self-efficacy and engineering design may differ between those who are on a pre-engineering track and those who are not. To begin answering this question, high school students enrolled in the Olathe City school system of Olathe, Kansas completed Engineering Problem-Framing Design Activities (EPDAs) in participating science courses (AP physics, physics, advanced biotechnology, chemistry, honors chemistry, biology, honors biology, and physical science specifically) of the traditional science and engineering academy curriculums offered by the district. Student engineering self-efficacy and motivation was also measured at the beginning and end of their coursework. This was conducted via a new instrument, the Engineering Design Value-Expectancy Scale (EDVES), which includes 38 items across three primary subscales: expectancy of success in, perceived value of, and identification with engineering and design. The development of this tool was presented and discussed in a previous study where the EDVES instrument was analyzed for validity among first-year undergraduate engineering students. In this work, the responses of high school students on the EDVES were analyzed to establish validity in this new population and to begin exploring trends in student responses based on their sub-population. Validity testing was completed via Cook’s validation evidence model with respect to scoring, generalization, and extrapolation evidence. The pre-course EDVES responses obtained were used to complete validation and trend analysis (note that post-course data was not readily available at the time of analysis). 

Over the past year, institutions have explored various manners to advance education while remaining socially distant, namely, through online and hybrid delivery methods. While these methods are actively employed now, the question regarding their effectiveness on student comprehension of the concepts highlighted remains. The aim of this work is to establish how effective online, asynchronous modules are for such. With respect to first-year programs geared towards establishing the foundational concepts of engineering design, two asynchronous, interactive modules were developed and deployed. Specifically, these modules introduced the foundational design concepts of stakeholders, need statements, information gathering, and design specifications. They were also developed in such a way that required student input such as identifying stakeholders or matching need statements. Student responses for each input was recorded and previously utilized to complete basic statistical analysis and derive preliminary trends. Upon completion of both modules, students completed an individual homework assignment that assessed their comprehension of the content covered in both modules. The assignment was comprised of several sections with multiple questions per section. Each question highlighted various aspects of the engineering problem framing process such as stakeholders or need statements. Basic statistical analysis was conducted for the scored items followed by correlation analysis with student performance on the modules previously completed. This work was intended to establish student comprehension of fundamental engineering design concepts after learning such through distance-learning methods, namely, asynchronous, interactive modules. Conclusions drawn from this work will possess broad ramifications and enable educators to determine if such methods are as sufficient as traditional in-person methods, if portions of the modules must be modified to enhance student comprehension, or if alternative methods must be employed altogether.