Rural Readiness: Influencing Elementary Students' Perceptions of and Interest in Engineering

Most precollege engineering curricula are designed to increase students' understanding of engineering and change their perceptions about the work of engineers. This study reports on the impacts of conducting a one‐day professional development workshop to rural elementary teachers and its impact on their rural students' potential changes in perceptions of the work of engineers after participating in Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum and instruction. While findings revealed a significant increase in students' conceptions of engineering with large effect sizes for general knowledge of engineering and technology, improvement in gender stereotypes, the influence on students' attitudes toward engineering, conceptions about the work of an engineer, and how engineers use mathematics were small effects. These results suggest that the use of a single EiE curriculum unit with elementary‐aged students can significantly enhance students' overall understanding of the work of engineers; however, it did not have as much impact on their perceptions of how engineers apply mathematics in their work and their changes in attitudes towards engineering.