COMPARISON OF MECHANICAL APTITUDE, PRIOR EXPERIENCES, AND ENGINEERING ATTITUDE FOR MALE AND FEMALE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

摘要

We investigated ways to measure mechanical aptitude, including: a paper and pencil mechanical aptitude test (MAT), rating of expertise based observation of students doing hands- on tasks, and performance on physics computer games. Male students scored higher then female students on the MAT and physics games at statistically significant levels. Students also completed prior experience and engineering attitude questionnaires. We examined correlations between prior experiences and MAT performance and found activities such as operating machinery, repairing equipment, and using tools to correlate most highly. The prior experience results showed that male students spent many more hours engaging in the activities with the strongest correlations to MAT performance. The attitude survey included questions relating to confidence and enjoyment of figuring out how things work and troubleshooting. Based on the results, the male students had more confidence and enjoyment than female students at statistically significant levels.