A persistent misconception about technology as an education field and the work of the engineer exists with younger students (13-16-year-olds). These young students need to determine at this age their own interests in pursuing future studies. To better support their choices, initiatives have been undertaken in collaboration with primary and secondary school science educators to develop learning activities promoting technology and discovery by mobilizing students around an open-ended project with project-based learning (PBL) approach. The project’s goal is to provide a learning activity during which young students (boys and girls) could experience in teams the design-build-test project development cycle through an open exploration mindset, anchored with a socially significant goal. During the project definition, it was found that science educators need better support to teach technology using more interactive and open methods. This paper presents the multiple activities that were combined to achieve this goal. The project started by building upon the knowledge acquired with undergraduate students through the development of active learning projects. The next step was to adapt those projects to younger student’s interests and motivations, such as social and environmental issues. To this end, a co-creation process was implemented; secondary school educators from the school board, Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, undergraduate engineering students, engineering professors, and Fablab personnel from École Polytechnique Montréal were involved in the development of hands-on activity for younger students. The open-ended social design challenge -a hydroponic system-, based on plant growth, motivated the students to conduct their own experiments while respecting the educational program requirements. The activity has been tested, with positive but also mixed results. Open-ended projects increase motivation with young students. However, the link between the project realization and a better understanding of the work of engineers could not be confirmed. More experiences are needed to better manage personnel and material resources to provide a long term sustainable initiative.
