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Relationship between High School STEM Self-Competency and Behavior in a Parametric Building Design Activity

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 9

Tagged Division

Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

21

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44095

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44095

Download Count

191

Paper Authors

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Stephanie Bunt The Pennsylvania State University

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Laura Hinkle

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Andrew Walton

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Nathan C. Brown

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Abstract

Building designers receive discipline-specific education which prepares them to address distinct design goals, but they may struggle to address criteria not considered part of their profession based on their disciplinary identity. In STEM subjects, such as engineering, high school students’ perception of their own competency is positively related their performance. Although this is beneficial for engineering design, it is unclear how students who identify strongly with STEM prior to professional training may account for non-STEM design objectives compared to STEM-related criteria. This research considers how pre-design students’ STEM self-competency can predict their behavior when responding to a building design task with technical and non-technical goals. A study was conducted which asked high school students about their STEM competency and instructed them to develop a conceptual skyscraper design in an age-accessible, digital design environment. The design tool contained a parametric model which provided visual and performance feedback about energy use, daylight, and cost as the students changed skyscraper variables. Students with higher STEM self-competency (SC) selected higher-performing designs, viewed more design iterations, and ranked the building’s appearance as their lowest priority. These results inform future design educators about student outlook prior to any professional training and reveal potential limitations in student approaches to multidisciplinary building design tasks.

Bunt, S., & Hinkle, L., & Walton, A., & Brown, N. C. (2023, June), Relationship between High School STEM Self-Competency and Behavior in a Parametric Building Design Activity Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44095

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