Exploring Engineering Technology: A Multi-Year, Multidisciplinary Project-Based Engineering Technology Workshop

Many students enter engineering technology programs with a limited understanding of disciplinary differences, curricular expectations, and career pathways, contributing to early dissatisfaction and attrition. To address this challenge, we developed Exploring Engineering Technology, a multidisciplinary, project-based workshop that introduces students to Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering Technology through a shared robotic systems project. This paper presents a multi-year design-based educational research (DBER) study documenting the iterative refinement and sustained implementation of the workshop across three consecutive summers (2023–2025) at a large urban public college. Using a consistent post-workshop survey administered across cohorts and aggregate student progression indicators, we examine cross-year patterns in students’ self-reported disciplinary understanding, career awareness, and preparedness for college-level expectations. The study is guided by three descriptive research questions addressing cross-year stability in student perceptions, design decisions supporting instructional transferability and program stability, and the interpretation of contextual progression indicators. Results show stable and consistently positive patterns across cohorts and instructional teams. Student progression indicators are included to provide contextual follow-up rather than causal evidence. This study contributes a replicable, design-based model for early multidisciplinary exposure in engineering technology education and provides practice-informed insights into design evolution, instructional transferability, and institutional scalability.