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A Study Of Grade Level And Gender Differences In Divergent Thinking Among 8th And 11th Graders In A Mid-Western School District., Leah Christine Roue

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Factors Influencing African American High School Students In Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy And Engineering-Related Goal Intentions, Chandra Yvette Austin

Dissertations

A current challenge in the United States is to increase African American pursuit of engineering careers. Minority students generally tend to be under-represented in such careers, as indicated by the National Academy of Engineering, in The Engineer of 2020-Visions of Engineering in the New Century. This study explores the career decision self-efficacy (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1993) and Engineering related goal intentions of African American high school students. There are a variety of reasons explaining the lack of choice of engineering as a career, and these were investigated. This study assessed the effect of specific influences (ethnic identity, demographic factors, …

Engineering Problem Finding In High School Students, Benjamin James Franske

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the engineering problem finding ability of high school students at three high schools in Minnesota. Students at each of the three schools had differing backgrounds including pre-engineering coursework, traditional technology education coursework and advanced science coursework. Students were asked to find problems in two different engineering scenarios which were presented to them on a paper and pencil instrument. Responses were scored by a panel of judges based on measures of creativity (flexibility, fluency, originality and elaborateness) and analyzed based on demographic data including gender, prior coursework and school. In addition student responses …

Impact Of Mentorship Programs On African-American Male High School Students’ Perception Of Engineering, Cameron De'leon Denson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mentorship programs on African-American male high school students’ perceptions of engineering. In this study, indicators of students’ perceptions included students’ perceptions of engineering, their self-efficacy in the area of math, and their self-efficacy in the area of science. This study used a two-group, posttest only, experimental design with randomly selected participants. A survey was used to collect data from 20 participants attending the Middle College at A&T. Using an independent t-test to determine a difference of statistical significance, inferential statistics were provided to answer the following research questions; (a) …

Perceptions Of Creativity In Art, Music And Technology Education, David Russell Stricker

Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of art, music, and technology education teachers with regard to creativity in their respective fields. The survey used in this study was designed around the themes borne out of creativity literature generally and creativity specific to the fields of art, music, and technology and engineering education. As a result the themes of creative process, products, personal traits, and environment shaped the items contained in the survey.

Although participants from all three subjects perceived the creative process as important to creative work generally, technology education teachers were less interested in the importance of …

Academic Performance As A Predictor Of Student Growth In Achievement And Mental Motivation During An Engineering Design Challenge In Engineering And Technology Education, Nathan James Mentzer

Dissertations

The purpose of this correlational research study was to determine if students’ academic success was correlated with: (a) the student change in achievement during an engineering design challenge; and (b) student change in mental motivation toward solving problems and critical thinking during an engineering design challenge. Multiple experimental studies have shown engineering design challenges increase student achievement and attitude toward learning, but conflicting evidence surrounded the impact on higher and lower academically achieving students.

A high school classroom was chosen in which elements of engineering design were purposefully taught. Eleventh-grade student participants represented a diverse set of academic backgrounds (measured …