Engineering Commons^™

Defining Characteristics Of An Integrated Stem Curriculum In K-12 Education, Vinson Robert Carter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to obtain consensus concerning the defining characteristics of integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum. This study utilized a three round modified Delphi study to solicit recommendations from experts of STEM education in order to: 1) create a set of categorical and defining curricular components needed to develop and implement appropriate integrated STEM curriculum; 2) identify the characteristics that set integrated STEM education curriculum apart from single-discipline curricula; 3) discuss the components necessary to gauge whether an initiative, project, or curriculum should be referred to as integrated STEM education; and 4) examine whether …

Educating For Evidence Based Decisions In Engineering: The View As Librarian And Instructor, Amy S. Van Epps

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The First Year Engineering program at Purdue University is regularly reviewed and revised to adapt to the needs of the students, feedback from teaching faculty, and the changing needs of the university curriculum. In the last year, a unifying theme was added to the class to help tie all the different activities together. That theme was “evidence based decision making in engineering”, a perfect fit for introducing and discussing information literacy many times throughout the semester, rather than in a single, isolated session.

As instructor for one section of the class, the author identifies benefits to including this message throughout …

Senior Design Theses: Moving To An Electronic Collection By Collaborating With The School Of Engineering, Susan K. Boyd

Staff publications, research, and presentations

For years, the University Library served as a literal “storage room” for the latest ten years of printed senior design or capstone theses. Both the receiving and cataloging of student undergraduate work were at best “spotty,” and incomplete. By working with the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and departmental administrative assistants, the library and the School of Engineering developed a new process for electronic submission of these documents, and this in turn resulted in the creation of the University Library’s institutional repository called “Scholar Commons.” The first collection within Scholar Commons will showcase the senior design theses. To inform students …

Cleerhub.Org Adoption By Eafit University Engineering Faculty Members: A Longitudinal Study, Diego M. Mendez Mena

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The main purpose of this study is to identify and comprehend faculty members’ perception of attributes of the diffusion of the technological innovation CLEERhub.org at EAFIT University, College of Engineering, in Medellin, Colombia. Moreover, this work attempts to understand causes and motivators that might lead to innovation adoption or rejection. The Diffusion of Innovations Theory serves as the framework to develop an appropriate assessing instrument that allows accurate measuring of user opinions towards the practice of CLEERhub.org in their educational research work in Engineering. In order to correctly assess user perception of the embracement process of such technological/cyberinfrastructure innovation, the …

Teaching Technical Engineering Courses From A Christian Perspective: Two Examples, Charles C. Adams

Pro Rege

Engineering professors, like those of the natural sciences, usually teach by breaking the subject matter into parts, that is, courses and activities that are logically abstract from each other. While together comprising a coherent whole, those individual parts too easily foster abstractionism, the view that such subjects as calculus, fluid mechanics, engineering design, and engineering ethics “really are” separable from one another. Such a view militates against a Christian perspective of engineering, technology, and reality in general by replacing the organic wholeness of life before the face of God with the compartmentalization that is characteristic of modern science and naturalism. …

Academic And Social Barriers To Black And Latino Male Collegians' Success In Engineering And Related Stem Fields, Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, Leroy L. Long Iii, Joseph Allen Kitchen, Michael Steven Williams, Meg E. Stenz

Publications

Historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (i.e. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) have experienced barriers to their success in engineering and related STEM fields. These student populations have had lower degree attainment rates, switch to non-STEM majors more frequently, and experience unique social challenges when compared to White and Asian Pacific Islander counterparts. To examine these findings, nearly 50 interviews were conducted and analyzed in the present study to better understand the academic and social experiences of African American and Latino American men in these fields. Interviews revealed that these students tend to (1) feel alone and invisible, (2) lack same …