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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Community College Engineering Degree Partnerships With 4-Year Universities, Jeffrey Mark Stear Apr 2024

Community College Engineering Degree Partnerships With 4-Year Universities, Jeffrey Mark Stear

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing the number of STEM professionals and reducing inequities in STEM are national priorities. Community colleges are important to address these concerns because they represent a higher percentage of underrepresented minority (URM) and women students. However, students starting 4-year STEM degrees in community college have had a lower completion rate. Partnerships between community colleges and 4-year universities have the potential to improve success for community college students, but more research is necessary. The purpose of this ex post facto, quantitative, correlational study was to determine the relationships among participation in different types of partnerships between community colleges and 4-year universities, …


Understanding Latina Undergraduate Engineering Student Persistence, Yarissa I. Ortiz-Vidal May 2020

Understanding Latina Undergraduate Engineering Student Persistence, Yarissa I. Ortiz-Vidal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In summary, this study focused on understanding the persistence of 20 Latina undergraduate engineering students enrolled at two public four-year Hispanic Serving Institutions. Key findings in this study showed that in order to contribute to their own persistence in engineering majors these Latina students activated their community cultural wealth: (a) not only to resist different forms of oppression, but also to thrive and excel in academic settings, (b) to take control of difficult and challenging experiences, (c) to take/receive knowledge from others, but also to give/share their knowledge (cyclical tendencies of CCW), (d) as well as revealing that helping others …


Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego Dec 2019

Exploratory Learning Activities In The Physics Classroom: Contrasting Cases Versus A Rich Dataset., Campbell Rightmyer Bego

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In exploratory learning, students engage in an exploration activity on a new topic prior to instruction. This inversion of the traditional tell-then-practice order has been shown to benefit learning outcomes, especially conceptual knowledge and preparation for future learning, but not always. In three studies, the current work examines whether the type of exploration activity impacts learning mechanisms and outcomes, on the topic of gravitational field in undergraduate physics classrooms. Activities using either contrasting cases (CC) or a rich dataset (RD) are compared in two instructional orders, explore-first (EF) and instruct-first (IF). Learning outcomes measured procedural knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and performance …


Student Perceptions And Persistence : Taking A Person-Centered Approach To Understand Undergraduate Engineering Retention., Brittany Flanery Crawford May 2019

Student Perceptions And Persistence : Taking A Person-Centered Approach To Understand Undergraduate Engineering Retention., Brittany Flanery Crawford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many students are leaving their engineering programs as early as the first semester of their undergraduate studies. Although some of the factors related to engineering retention are largely academic, others are tied closely to students’ beliefs or perceptions. Student perceptions data are useful, but often overlooked by researchers who wish to take a person-centered approach to uncover profiles of student beliefs, both adaptive and maladaptive, when it comes to understanding engineering retention. The sample consisted of full-time undergraduate engineering students (N = 834) in the first semester of their undergraduate engineering programs. I used latent transition analysis (LTA) to …


Influence Of Stem Education And Technology In Selecting Food And Agriculture Careers, Joan Hegerfeld-Baker Jan 2013

Influence Of Stem Education And Technology In Selecting Food And Agriculture Careers, Joan Hegerfeld-Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Currently market forces identify a growing need for professionals in food safety related careers. The investigation studied influential factors guiding students to choose career paths. Careers connected to the safety of the food supply require professionals with undergraduate and graduate degrees related to science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). Preparing and attracting students to post-secondary institutions needs greater attention to meet the demands of the food and agriculture industry. The investigation focused on college students and high school teachers. Students in three colleges (Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Biological Sciences, and Education and Human Sciences) offering STEM and non-STEM majors …