Engineering Commons^™

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

R. Eric Landrum

Integrating Cognitive Science With Innovative Teaching In Stem Disciplines, Mark A. Mcdaniel, Regina F. Frey, Susan M. Fitzpatrick, Henry L. Roediger Iii

Books and Monographs

This volume collects the ideas and insights discussed at a novel conference, the Integrating Cognitive Science with Innovative Teaching in STEM Disciplines Conference, which was held September 27-28, 2012 at Washington University in St. Louis. With funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the conference was hosted by Washington University’s Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE), a center established in 2011. Available for download as a PDF. Titles of individual chapters can be found at http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/circle_book/.

What Matters In College For Retaining Aspiring Scientists And Engineers From Underrepresented Racial Groups, Mitchell J. Chang, Jessica Sharkness, Sylvia Hurtado, Christopher B. Newman

Christopher B. Newman

This longitudinal study examined factors that contribute to the persistence of underrepresented racial minority (URM) undergraduates in STEM fields. The primary source of data came from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program’s 2004 The Freshman Survey (TFS) and 2008 College Senior Survey (CSS). The sample included 3,670 students at 217 institutions who indicated on the TFS that they intended to major in a STEM field, 1,634 of whom were underrepresented minority (URM) students. Findings indicate that Black and Latino undergraduates were significantly less likely to persist in STEM majors than were their White and Asian American counterparts. Background characteristics and college …

African American And Hispanic Stem Students' Engagement At Predominantly White Institutions, Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, Fei Bie, Leroy L. Long Iii, Blossom A. Barrett

Publications

Although research has shown that involvement is a helpful predictor of students’ future success, underrepresented minorities (i.e., African Americans and Hispanics) face unique obstacles at predominantly White institutions, which limit their engagement in educationally purposeful activities. Survey data from a 2007 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were analyzed to measure African American and Hispanic students’ engagement in educationally purposeful activities. Results from the present study found that student satisfaction in college is positively related to time spent preparing for class and frequency of interactions with faculty members about careers. Furthermore, African American and Hispanic science, technology, …

Open Source Software To Enhance The Stem Learning Environment, Maurice E. Dawson Jr., Imad Al Saeed, Jorja Wright, Festus Onyegbula

Maurice Dawson

This chapter examines the use of Open Source Software (OSS) technologies that can be used to improve the learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Explored are the various methods that can be utilized to improve the percentage of STEM majors in the American educational system with resources such as: Open Source as Alternative (OSALT), virtualization, cloud computing, Linux distributions, open source programming, and open source hardware platforms. Increasing the amount of students that pursue STEM majors is important because the projected job growth in the STEM field compared to non-STEM jobs is 33%. OSALT provides cost-effective alternatives to …