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Full-Text Articles in Engineering Education
Pre-College Engineering Participation Among First-Year Engineering Students, Noah Salzman, George Dante Ricco, Matthew Ohland
Pre-College Engineering Participation Among First-Year Engineering Students, Noah Salzman, George Dante Ricco, Matthew Ohland
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
In recent years, engineering content is increasingly appearing in the K-12 classroom. This growth can be attributed to increased acceptance of engineering as an area of study at the K-12 level, the growing inclusion of engineering content in state and national educational standards,and the growth of outreach activities intended to increase students’ interest in pursuing degrees and careers in engineering. As pre-college engineering programs grow, first-year engineering students are arriving in university engineering programs with significant prior exposure to engineering content and practices. Despite this growth, little research exists that explores the prevalence of participation in these programs or the …
Design For The Other 90% And Appropriate Technology: The Legacies Of Paul Polak And E.F. Schumacher, Lindsey Anne Nelson
Design For The Other 90% And Appropriate Technology: The Legacies Of Paul Polak And E.F. Schumacher, Lindsey Anne Nelson
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Recent movements showcase engineering design activities on behalf of poor people, inspiring engineering educators to create global service-learning programs. People who encourage engineers to “design for the other 90%” envision globally engaged businesses paving a new way forward for poverty eradication while other engineers pursue forms of “appropriate technology”to create socially-just technological systems. The engineering practices related to these phrases raise questions of which people benefit from engineering design for poverty alleviation, how engineers define “poor” people, what indicates “success” when engineers design for poverty alleviation, and how engineering educators create meaningful global service-learning programs for students.This paper uses mediated …
Building Effective Partnership Networks When Working Internationally, Lindsey Anne Nelson
Building Effective Partnership Networks When Working Internationally, Lindsey Anne Nelson
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Building Effective Partnership Networks In order to engage communities around the world, engineering educators must build networks with relevant community organizations. Many factors can compound building effective networks. Organizations have different philosophies about how engineers should undertake community engagement. These philosophies include convictions that engineers should develop low-cost products suitable for markets in marginalized communities, engineers should devise clever solutions to help people living in poverty meet basic needs, engineers must effectively respond to socio-cultural considerations when proposing solutions, and engineers should work to empower local artisans who have already begun seeking solutions to pressing problems.Additionally, university programs have to …
Engineering And Engineering Education As Spiritual Vocations, Julia D Thompson, Mel Chua, Cole H. Joslyn
Engineering And Engineering Education As Spiritual Vocations, Julia D Thompson, Mel Chua, Cole H. Joslyn
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Spirituality and engineering (education) are often kept in separate compartments in our lives. They may slip out occasionally for conversations during ethics classes or service learning projects, but speaking -- and living -- our spiritual/religious values as engineers and engineering educators/researchers is still uneasy territory for many. The spirit of free inquiry and reflection that permeates the liberal arts urges us to integrate our spirituality into the human and natural worlds we inhabit. How do we bring such thinking into the technical realms?In this session, we will describe our personal journeys toward engineering education and how we actively and reflectively …
Motivation Of Community Partners And Advisors To Participate In Community Engagement Engineering Programs, Julia D Thompson, Brent Jesiek
Motivation Of Community Partners And Advisors To Participate In Community Engagement Engineering Programs, Julia D Thompson, Brent Jesiek
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Since 2000, research in service-learning has started to investigate partnerships and community voice, but this research trend has received little attention among engineering education scholars. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a richer understanding of community-university partnerships in engineering community engagement from the perspectives of academic programs and served communities. In part inspired by the existing service-learning literature, this study addresses the question: Why are individuals and local community organizations involved in engineering service-learning partnerships? This study utilizes a single case study design, with data collection including in-depth interviews with community partners, faculty and program administrators (n=11) …
Parents As Critical Influence: Insights From Five Different Studies, Brianna L. Dorie, Tamecia R. Jones, Meagan C Pollock, Monica Cardella
Parents As Critical Influence: Insights From Five Different Studies, Brianna L. Dorie, Tamecia R. Jones, Meagan C Pollock, Monica Cardella
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Parents play a number of roles in engineering education: they can motivate children’s interest in engineering in early childhood, as well as later when their child is in the process of selecting a major at college, they can provide support in learning engineering concepts and thinking skills, and can serve as role models if they themselves are engineers. Several empirical studies have shown that parents play a significant role in the occupational aspiration and career goal development of their children. In addition,parents’ own beliefs and aspirations have been found to be important factors in children’s career and academic aspirations. In …
Capturing The Design Thinking Of Young Children Interacting With A Parent, Brianna L. Dorie, Monica Cardella, Gina Navoa Svarovsky
Capturing The Design Thinking Of Young Children Interacting With A Parent, Brianna L. Dorie, Monica Cardella, Gina Navoa Svarovsky
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Children have often been labeled as “natural engineers” whose curiosity about the world around them evokes comparisons to skills used by professional engineers and taught to undergraduate engineering students. Building towers out of blocks, taking things apart and figuring how things work are a part of childhood and have been considered to be precursors to engineering thinking.However there has been considerable debate around what engineering looks like for young children. Can young children engage in design and if so, what does that look like? How can we differentiate “design” (especially “modeling” or “create”) activity from normal everyday play?Several design models …
The Distribution Of Family-Friendly Benefits Policies Across Higher Education Institutions: A Cluster Analysis, Corey T. Schimpf, Joyce B. Main
The Distribution Of Family-Friendly Benefits Policies Across Higher Education Institutions: A Cluster Analysis, Corey T. Schimpf, Joyce B. Main
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
Cluster Analysis of Family-Related Benefits Policies across U.S. Academic Institutions Although the under-representation of women in science and engineering tenure-track faculty positions is often linked to the conflict between childcare responsibilities and the normative academic tenure-track pathway, previous studies have tended to focus on individual life choices,rather than the effects of institutional-level policies and structure. More recent research on work/life policies in higher education have pushed our understanding of how organizational structure and political climates at the department and institution levels influence the ability of faculty members to integrate career and life responsibilities. Many post-secondary institutions offer more generous work/life …
Structured Pairing In A First-Year Electrical And Computer Engineering Laboratory: The Effects On Student Retention, Attitudes, And Teamwork, Nicholas D. Fila, Michael C. Loui
Structured Pairing In A First-Year Electrical And Computer Engineering Laboratory: The Effects On Student Retention, Attitudes, And Teamwork, Nicholas D. Fila, Michael C. Loui
School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series
This paper describes a simple technique, structured pairing, for organizing student teams in engineering instructional laboratories. This technique was adapted from pair programming, which was previously found to improve student confidence, satisfaction, and retention in computer science. A study of structured pairing was implemented in a large required course for first-year students in electrical and computer engineering. Six laboratory sections implemented structured pairing, and the other seven laboratory sections operated in a traditional way (i.e., unstructured team interactions). Data were collected from a student survey, two focus groups, and course enrollment records. Structured pairing students reported significantly higher confidence in …