Out-of-School Media Representations of Science and Technology and their Relevance for Engineering Learning

Many adolescents develop ideas about and attitudes toward engineering through their exposure to out-of-school representations of science and technology. Yet few studies have investigated the nature of these representations and found ways to use them in formal engineering learning. This article explores media representations of science and technology that today's adolescents are familiar with. It analyzes how the embedded representations compare with those found in academic engineering and examines how these representations influence students' knowledge of and dispositions toward engineering. Because out-of-school representations have the potential to shape adolescents' interests, we need to understand how they create both opportunities and obstacles for engineering education and public communication.