Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Project Excel: Web-Based Scanning Electron Microscopy For K-12 Education, L. Scott Chumbley, Connie P. Hargrave, Kristen P. Constant, Brian Hand, Thomas Andre, E. Ann Thompson

Constance P. Hargrave

Project ExCEL (Extended Classroom for Enhanced Learning) brings the capabilities of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) into classrooms. University and industry personnel, working together, have developed a web-based interface to allow schools to control a modern SEM. The interface allows a user control of the operating parameters of the microscope, stage movement, and chemical analysis. Such total control is not available on any other system. Since Iowa State University (ISU) pioneered the idea of remote SEM for education, researchers have learned that providing teachers access to sophisticated equipment does not ensure that it will be used. Teachers are busy, and structured …

Project Excel—Web-Based Sem For K–12 Education, L. Scott Chumbley, Kristen P. Constant, Connie P. Hargrave, Tom Andre

Constance P. Hargrave

The goal of Project ExCEL, the Extended Classroom for Enhanced Learning, is to bring the capabilities of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) into elementary and secondary classrooms. We have developed an entirely web-based interface to allow schools to control a modern SEM. The web interface allows a remote user complete control of all the operating parameters of the microscope, including stage movement and x-ray chemical analysis. Such total control currently is not available on any other system. Since pioneering the idea of remote SEM use for K-12 education in the early 1990s, we have learned that merely providing schools and teachers …

Creating A Stem Identity: Investment With Return, Janet Callahan, Patricia Pyke, Susan Shadle, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

Establishing a strong STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) identity at Boise State University, a metropolitan campus with approximately 3,655 undergraduate STEM students and a total undergraduate enrollment of approximately 19,042 (16,136 FTE) has been an important step toward creating a climate conducive to facilitating fundamental change. Examples of such change include building collaborations among faculty within and across departments, establishing the identity of students as part of a community beyond their chosen major, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of university systems, and perhaps most importantly, developing a framework to think deliberately about ways to effect change. This paper is …

Lib 3010 Spring 2018: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort

The Engineering Admissions Partnership Program: A Navigation Strategy For Community College Students Seeking A Pathway Into Engineering, Marcia R. Laugerman, Mack C. Shelley, Steven K. Mickelson, Diane T. Rover

Diane Rover

This paper presents the evaluation of a program designed to improve transfer outcomes for community college students pursuing an engineering degree. The program, the Engineering Admissions Partnership Program (E-APP), was designed to improve the navigational success of community college transfer students through connections to the university. These connections include coordinated academic advising, peer-mentoring, campus visits, and online social and professional networks. The objective of the study is to determine the efficacy of the E-APP and its interventions, which will be measured by increased participation rates and increased university retention rates for E-APP participants. Outcome data for the students are analyzed …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Kate Perkins

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Lib 3010 Spring 2017: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort

Evolution Of A First-Year Engineering Course, Noah Salzman, Janet Callahan, Gary Leroy Hunt, Carol Sevier, Amy J. Moll

Amy J. Moll

The first-year engineering course at Boise State University has evolved significantly over the past decade as a result of continuous improvement with a particular focus on student retention. The course was originally created in 1999-2001 as an “Introduction to Engineering” course in order to recruit students to one of the fields of engineering, by introducing those fields of engineering as topics across the semester. Over the first ten years, the course continued that introductory-to-field focus while also introducing a significant design element solving openended engineering problems. As a result of a five-year grant aimed toward improving first-year retention, the first-year …

Evolution Of A First-Year Engineering Course, Noah Salzman, Janet Callahan, Gary Leroy Hunt, Carol Sevier, Amy J. Moll

Janet M. Callahan

The first-year engineering course at Boise State University has evolved significantly over the past decade as a result of continuous improvement with a particular focus on student retention. The course was originally created in 1999-2001 as an “Introduction to Engineering” course in order to recruit students to one of the fields of engineering, by introducing those fields of engineering as topics across the semester. Over the first ten years, the course continued that introductory-to-field focus while also introducing a significant design element solving openended engineering problems. As a result of a five-year grant aimed toward improving first-year retention, the first-year …

Leveraging Students’ Passion And Creativity: Ethos At The University Of Dayton, Margaret Pinnell, Malcolm Daniels, Kevin P. Hallinan, Gretchen Berkemeier

Kevin Hallinan

The Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities of Service-learning (ETHOS) program was developed in the spring of 2001 by an interdisciplinary group (electrical, chemical, civil and mechanical) of undergraduate engineering students at the University of Dayton (UD). ETHOS was founded on the belief that engineers are more apt and capable to appropriately serve our world if they have an understanding of technology’s global linkage with values, culture, society, politics, and the economy. Since 2001, the ETHOS program at UD has grown and changed. From conceptualization, to implementation, to maturation and national recognition, the program has addressed challenges of academic acceptance, programmatic …

Developing Inquiry-Based Laboratory Exercises For A Mechanical Engineering Curriculum, Sriram Sundararajan, Leann E. Faidley, Terrence R. Meyer

Terrence R Meyer

This paper describes the development of two inquiry-based experiments in a mechanical engineering curriculum at a land grant research-intensive university, aimed at providing students with the opportunity to design and perform experiments. One experiment in engineering measurements (system behavior) and one experiment in fluid dynamics were developed. In each case, students working on teams were posed with a scenario and question to answer. For example, in the system dynamics experiment, students were asked to verify that a thermal system and electrical system were mechanically equivalent systems. In the fluid dynamics experiment, students were asked to investigate drag coefficients for flow …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Dr Daniel Edwards

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Dr Jacob Pearce

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …

Lib 3010 Spring 2015: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort

Lib 3010 Fall 2015: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort

Exploring The Factors That Influence And Motivate Female Students To Enroll And Persist In Collegiate Stem Degree Programs: A Mixed Methods Study, Rosemary L. Edzie

Rosemary L Edzie

Nationally, the need for an increase in interest, enrollment, and degrees awarded from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degree programs continues to suffer. While students are enrolling in collegiate STEM degree programs, it is not occurring at a rate that meets the workforce demand. In addition to the concern that there is not a sufficient amount of collegiate STEM majors, there is a concern over too few females enrolling and persisting in collegiate STEM degree programs. This mixed methods sequential exploratory research study considered the factors that influence and motivate undergraduate female students to enroll and persist in collegiate …

Enhancing Precalculus Curricula With E-Learning: Implementation And Assessment, Janet Callahan, Seung Youn Chyung, Joanna Guild, William Clement, Joe Guarino, Doug Bullock, Cheryl Schrader

Janet M. Callahan

During Fall semester of 2007, a semester-long, quasi-experimental study was conducted at Boise State University to investigate the effectiveness of a systematically sequenced and managed, self-paced e-learning activity on improving students’ academic performance and motivation. A total of 125 students enrolled in 3 different sections of a Precalculus class participated in the study. The e-learning activity was implemented in 2 of the 3 sections as a required homework assignment. Students enrolled in one of the 2 selected sections were all engineering majors. The 3^rd section was a control group that did not use the e-learning activity. A pre-test, measuring …

Introducing Nonlinear Problems To Undergraduate Engineering Students, Mulukutla S. Sarma, Karl E. Lonngren

Sarma Mulukutla

It is argued that preparing good engineers to the present day challenging industry should involve the extension of homework problems to include realistic complications of nonlinearity and extensive use of the available computing facilities. This point of view has been illustrated through a simple Faraday's law problem of an electromechanical system that exhibits nonlinear effects if the resistance of the rails is taken into account. The procedure that is employed in this paper to solve the nonlinear equation is simple enough to be introduced at an undergraduate level for the engineering students

Lib 3010 Spring 2012: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort

Lib 3010 Spring 2011: Students Choose An Image To Represent Patent Searching, Jan Comfort

Jan Comfort