While STEM education is widely acknowledged for enhancing national competitiveness and fostering creativity and innovation, it's important to note that certain marginalized groups, such as women and rural communities, still need to reap its benefits fully. To address these marginalized groups in the context of STEM education, this study aimed to investigate the impact of rural-focused design-based STEM instruction on high school students' attitudes toward STEM. Additionally, we explored the interplay between gender, school locale, and teachers' perceptions of STEM through multilevel modeling (MLM) analysis. Our study involved 597 high school students distributed across 35 classes. The results of our MLM analysis revealed a significant difference in STEM attitudes between genders following participation in the design-based STEM instruction, while no regional disparities were identified. Furthermore, our comprehensive MLM model analysis indicated a positive relationship between teachers' perceptions of the importance of STEM and students' attitudes toward STEM. This study implies that incorporating culturally familiar topics into design-based STEM instruction can enhance the STEM attitudes of rural high school students.