2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Emotions are an integral part of STEM learning and play a critical role in shaping what it means to become a STEM professional [1]. However, within engineering, the work is often portrayed as unemotional, with little attention given to learners’ emotional experiences [2]. Research shows that STEM professionals experience a range of emotions, including excitement, joy, anxiety, and frustration while engaging in their work [3]. Despite this, in educational contexts, children’s negative emotions are frequently overlooked, with an emphasis placed on fostering positive emotional experiences [4-6]. In this study, we worked with children in grades 3-5 who attended a 12-week afterschool program framed around engineering design tasks to explore the notion through the following research question: What emotions were experienced and expressed by elementary students about their engagement with engineering design tasks? The study included nine students (four girls, five boys) from diverse backgrounds. After each session, the students were interviewed by parents or university student volunteers, using a structured set of questions to capture their emotional responses. These responses were categorized into positive and negative emotions and analyzed to understand how the students’ emotional experiences mirrored those of engineering professionals. Results revealed that students predominantly expressed positive emotions (88%), such as excitement, happiness, and interest, particularly during hands-on tasks and when witnessing their projects succeed. Negative emotions (12%), including frustration and confusion, were expressed when students encountered failure or struggled with understanding their designs.
This study contributes to the limited literature on emotions in engineering education by examining young children's emotional experiences in an afterschool program. It also responds to calls for greater attention to emotional phenomena in diverse educational contexts [7]. While the program facilitated predominantly positive emotional experiences, the findings suggest that addressing negative emotions is equally important, as it reflects the emotional complexity inherent in real-world STEM work. Embracing both positive and negative emotions could better prepare students for the emotional challenges faced by STEM professionals.