A Comparative Investigation of Middle School 5th and 7th Grade Students' of Perceptions on Engineers and Scientists

The aim of this research is to examine the perceptions of the fifth and seventh grade middle school students on engineers and scientists and to make comparisons according to class levels. This research in the survey model was realized at the end of the second semester of the 2015-2016 academic year. Study group of the research consisted of 131 fifth grade students and 103 seventh grade students who were studying in a middle school in Istanbul. Students were asked to draw engineers and scientists according to their imagination. The data related to the engineer perception showed that students generally imagined of a “civil engineer”. The data related to the scientist perception showed that students generally imagined of scientists as “experimenter” while findings from the research revealed that the students had less knowledge about engineers. Moreover they perceived engineers and scientists as just “male”. STEM education is proposed as a solution