Engineering design thinking: High school students' performance and knowledge

Because design is recognized as a critical element of engineering thinking, it is crucial for educators to discover the most effective methods to teach this problem-solving approach. Results from students' thinking process may shape future teaching methods. This paper explores the differences in design process between high school engineering students and experts. It also examines the differences between high school freshmen and seniors who have taken a series of engineering classes. Fifty-nine high school students from four states were asked to think aloud in a three-hour design challenge that was audio and video recorded and became source data for protocol analysis. Results from previous studies provided expert design performance data for comparisons. Although students and experts spend a substantial amount of time modeling a problem, students spend little time gathering information and in the problem-scoping- stage than experts. Freshmen spend significantly less time brainstorming than seniors and experts. Freshmen and seniors spend little time determining the feasibility of their ideas, evaluating alternative ideas, and making decisions. High school students engage in design thinking with little understanding of the problem from the client's perspective. Students tend to become fixated on a single solution rather than comparing alternatives. By encouraging development of alternative solutions, K-12 engineering education teachers could foster opportunities for critically evaluating solutions against the problem definition to their students.