Ac 2011-1502: Eliciting Mexican High School Students' Images Of Engineering: What Do Engineers Do?

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions held by Mexican high school students about engineering and the types of work engineers perform. A pilot study was conducted using a modified version of the Draw an Engineer (hereafter DAE) test. One large urban public high school from Ciudad del Carmen, in the state of Campeche, was selected to conduct the study; a total of 187 students (58% female) completed the modified DAE test. The drawings and openended responses were analyzed following an inductive data analysis approach. Four main categories emerged to describe the data: 1) engineers in action, 2) characteristics of an engineer, 3) gender, and 4) work context. Our findings indicate that the majority of participants in this study perceive engineers as male individuals that perform activities related to the construction and oil industries.