Engineering Education Commons^™

The Peer Collaborative: Supporting Engineering Education Research Faculty With Near-Peer Mentoring Unconference Workshops, Alice L. Pawley, Adam R. Carberry, Monica E. Cardella, Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, Shanna R. Daly, Jenna L. Gorlewicz, Geoffrey L. Herman, Morgan M. Hynes, Shawn S. Jordan, Nadia N. Kellam, Micah Lande, Matthew A. Verleger, Dazhi Yang

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

The PEER Collaborative National Network is a national peer mentoring network for early career tenure-track or mid-career tenured faculty who conduct and are primarily evaluated based on their research related to engineering education. This paper discusses the development, logistics, and outcomes of two PEER workshops built around a community of practice framework. Data from internal and external evaluations are presented to provide insights into aspects that worked well and aspects that need further development. Additionally, by reflecting on the workshops, participants crafted vignettes describing the impact the PEER workshops had on their personal and professional lives. The paper concludes with …

Ethical Reasoning Development In Project-Based Learning, Elizabeth Pluskwik, Puteri S. Megat Hamari

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

This paper will describe the method of ethics instruction in a specific project-based learning program with the aim to improve the current level of moral reasoning skills in the engineering students enrolled in the program. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) have endorsed efforts to improve the teaching of ethics in the engineering curriculum. Criterion 3-f of the ABET outcomes,specifically calls for student attainment of an understanding of ethical and professional responsibility. In response, engineering educators seek to develop curriculum to improve moral reasoning skills, which should lead to increased …

The 360° Of Information Fluency Delivery To Freshman Engineering Students, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen, Robin A.M. Hensel, Mary L. Strife

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

For three years, engineering librarians from West Virginia University (WVU) have been teaching information fluency skills to 700-1000 freshman engineering students per year, using a specific information fluency cycle. The librarians’ responsibilities in the Fall 2013 course syllabus included teaching once in each section, providing a two-hour, in-library group sessions to accommodate almost 700 students, delivering an intellectual property Blackboard™ module for students to complete over a specific period of time, and requiring students to complete a Plagiarism Avoidance Tutorial with quiz. Some of these components are similar to those of past semesters. However, past collection of the data was …

An Integrated Approach To Developing Technical Communication Skills In Engineering Students, Ronald S. Harichandran, David J. Adams, Michael Collura, Nadiye O. Erdil, David Harding, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Amy Thompson

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) is being implemented across seven engineering and computer science undergraduate programs. The overarching goal of PITCH is to develop written, oral and visual communication skills and professional habits in engineering students. PITCH activities begin in the very first semester and are reinforced and extended through all four years of each program. Senior design becomes the culminating experience in which students demonstrate the skills and habits acquired through PITCH courses. Student outcomes for the project were established based on an extensive survey of employers, alumni and faculty. Communication instruments include technical memoranda, poster …

Incorporating Active Learning Into The Graphical Communications Course, Lulu Sun

Publications

Active learning, is a student-centered learning strategy which has recently gained considerable attention in higher education. The literature has shown that active learning has led to better student attitudes and improvements in their thinking, communication, leadership, and writing skills. The core elements of active learning are student activities and engagement in the learning process. As more faculty look for alternatives to traditional teaching methods they have strongly advocated active learning. However, the potential challenges for faculty with such an approach cannot be ignored such as increased class preparation time, the risks of student dissatisfaction, the use of instructional technology, and …

The Status Device, John Worcester, Jon Pace, Gabe Guodace, Santos Perez

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

We have come across an issue, that has saddened us deeply. The problem being that there are numerous stories across the nation about elderly patients with dementia and Alzheimer are getting lost and dying. These are not just stories about people losing track of where they live, but elderly patients under the care of senior home staff. Obviously not everyone can be everywhere at once, and we don't expect that. What we want to do is make it easier for the staff, assurance for the families, and almost importantly, for the patient.

What our plan is to do, is to …

Medibox, Bronson Kim, Chris Halverson, Devon Straub, Rose Adrian, Theo Nyguen

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Thoughts on design Concepts:

• Product must fill a need and appeal to its target consumer.
• A product must be wanted

The Industry's design concept for the elderly:

• Slightly alter products aimed toward other people.
• Promise to improve their lives by adding something new to their routine.

Our Findings and Ideas:

• The elderly have developed their methods and routines.
• They don't need something new to worry about.
• A product for the elderly should enhance their lives without burdening or inconveniencing them.
• Utilizing a familiar form and with an inventive look at exiating functionality.
• It is important to allow the elderly to …

Rotostorage Shelf Storage System, Alden Akeman, Garrett Cheadle, Jared Chin, Louis Duvoisin, Flynn Hutchinson, Paige Hval, Louie Liu, Yiling Liu

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

A problem faced by the elderly is the accessibility and ergonomics of storage space. The elderly often are unable to store items in higher places due to physical limitations. The current options for reaching items in high places are bulky, hard to use, and impractical.

After interviewing the elderly at , it was found that many seniors were not comfortable with storing items in higher places as they did not want to climb chairs to access the items. They also did not want to stoop to reach items in lower places due to the physical strain.

Our storage solution increases …

Building A Better Computer For The Aging Generation, Gretchen Baird, Boryeon Kwon, Dylan Lasner, Parker Swensen, Zane Ross, Adrik Gurganus

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

The problem which we have ventured out to solve is that the aging community does not have easily accessible computers and technologies.

The Smart Clock, Cory Koehler, Addison Loda, Hannah Posey-Scholl, Isak Rask

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Modern technology continues to change and improve constantly as people find ways to make things faster, smaller, and better - but these changes often leave the elderly behind. This year’s Innovation Challenge asked groups to focus on how to create and improve technology geared towards the aging generations. For our initial research, the Grant High School team and mentors visited an elderly care center and interviewed a few of the residents, asking what types of technology currently improve their lives, and what types of technology could potentially improve their lives.

The Problem: After the interviews, we were able to identify …

Making Way For Clearer Sound, Barbara Little, Jacob Stearn, Jake Elsewhere

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Problem: Hearing aids are posing difficulties for the elderly using them because of several factors. One of these factors is the filtering of background noise. Many affordable hearing aids on the market today do not produce quality sound because of inferior filtering of background noises.

Opportunity: Our team didn’t understand why this is still a problem since we have the technology currently that is capable of solving this. For instance, we have microphones and speakers that filter out background noise by removing or lessening it. After some research we found that Google Glass is working on a prototype of something …

Lifebrace: The Advanced Health Tracking Wristband, Jeremy Ferrando, Dylan O'Brien, Daniel Ortiz, Jonah Paivarinta

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

Over 28 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Every 33 seconds someone dies of heart disease, claiming more lives than AIDS and all forms of cancer combined. Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non fatal injuries to elderly people.

These problems require constant supervision and frequent treatments to keep a patient stable, and they all become more serious with age. People with diabetes, heart conditions, or other debilitating conditions need frequent check-ups, and are always in danger of accidents. They also often need frequent doses of medicine.

The only way that these conditions can be monitored properly is …

Tech For Arthritis, Alex Gaiovych, Anna Velikoretskikh, Ephraim Lee, Karl Stephenson, Kevin Wu, Miguel Campos, Veyda Campos

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

In an era where technological advances are made on almost a daily basis, there are still many people who aren’t able or are scared to use modern technology. While computers and phones get smarter and more powerful, they are also getting smaller and more precise. Trying to push a tiny button, either real or virtual, can be a real problem for those who suffer from arthritis.

According to www.arthritis.org, over 50 million people are diagnosed with arthritis, most of which are senior citizens. Many of these seniors don’t use technology to its full potential because they simply can’t. For some, …

Examining Young Students’ Problem Scoping In Engineering Design, Jessica Watkins, Kathleen Spencer, David Hammer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Problem scoping—determining the nature and boundaries of a problem—is an essential aspect of the engineering design process. Some studies from engineering education suggest that beginning students tend to skip problem scoping or oversimplify a problem. However, the ways these studies often characterize students’ problem scoping often do not reflect the complexity found in experts’ designing and rely on the number of criteria a student mentions or the time spent problem scoping. In this paper, we argue for methodological approaches that take into account not just what students name as criteria, but also how they weigh, balance, and choose between criteria …

High School Student Information Access And Engineering Design Performance, Nathan Mentzer

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Developing solutions to engineering design problems requires access to information. Research has shown that appropriately accessing and using information in the design process improves solution quality. This quasi-experimental study provides two groups of high school students with a design problem in a three hour design experience. One group has access to the internet while the other does not. Quality of design solution was measured and the two groups were compared. Solution quality did not change significantly. Student information requests were categorized and the most commonly requested piece of information related to cost of materials. Students spent substantially more time in …

A Framework For Quality K-12 Engineering Education: Research And Development, Tamara J. Moore, Aran W. Glancy, Kristina M. Tank, Jennifer A. Kersten, Karl A. Smith, Micah S. Stohlmann

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Recent U.S. national documents have laid the foundation for highlighting the connection between science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the K-12 level. However, there is not a clear definition or a well-established tradition of what constitutes a quality engineering education at the K-12 level. The purpose of the current work has been the development of a framework for describing what constitutes a quality K-12 engineering education. The framework presented in this paper is the result of a research project focused on understanding and identifying the ways in which teachers and schools implement engineering and engineering design in their classrooms. The …

Focus Groups For Informing Awpa’S Engineering Workforce Study 2014: Final Report, Daniel Edwards, Jacob Pearce, Kate Perkins, Justin Brown

Higher education research

This report highlights the findings of a project undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) for the Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency (AWPA) that will contribute to a wider study of the Engineering Workforce. The project involved the development, coordination, implementation of focus groups and the reporting of outcomes in a way that generates first-hand information about the experiences and attitudes of specific groups of people in relation to the engineering labour market – women, mature-age workers and new graduates. The work here also explored the views of the next generation of engineers, gathering information from school students …

A Review Of Steel Content Taught In U.S. University Construction Management Programs, Jeremy Miles Thompson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Throughout the rocky mountain region there are 18 universities that offer a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management (CM). Only two of those universities, Colorado State University and Brigham Young University Idaho, offer an in-depth course on the application of steel in the construction industry. The other universities offer structures courses that teach only the basics of steel in the construction industry, like how to calculate loads using steel beams and columns.

Improving Automotive Troubleshooting Skills, Kevin C. Roner

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project gathered and analyzed data for two cohorts of students at Weber State University. The final performance exam data from the engine controls course and the Automotive Service Excellence certification results were gathered on each student from two cohorts. A skills survey was developed to determine each student’s skill level. The survey was delivered to the students and their mentor technicians in the field. The data was analyzed to identify correlating items across the data sets. Those correlations were used to determine which lessons within the course in the content area of diagnostic troubleshooting required improvement. The project resulted …

Expert Vs. Novice: Problem Decomposition/Recomposition In Engineering Design, Ting Song

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to investigate the design behavior. A commonly used design strategy called “problem decomposition and recomposition” was the focus of the study. Dyads of engineering experts, dyads of engineering seniors, and dyads of engineering freshmen completed an engineering design challenge within an hour. The entire design process was video and audio recorded. After the design session, participants participated in a group interview.

The conversation and behavior from the design were transcribed, segmented, and coded. Two coding systems including the FBS ontology and “levels of the problem” were used in this study. A series of statistical …