Engineering Education Commons^™

Sea-Phages Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience For Creating A Biotechnology Workforce Development Pipeline, Daphne Fauber, Kari Clase, Carol Weaver

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

Purdue University has been a member of the SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science) program since 2011. This program, created in conjunction with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), facilitates undergraduate curriculum for the authentic discovery of novel bacteriophages within the classroom. Since joining the program, undergraduates at Purdue have harnessed wet lab and bioinformatics principles to contribute over 200 previously uncharacterized bacteriophages and 25 novel genomes to the wider scientific literature. The SEA-PHAGES classes at Purdue have resulted in tangible professional deliverables for students through conference presentations and publications. Student outcomes also include transferable skills …

An Intervention To Promote Growth Mindset And Stem Self-Efficacy Of High School Students: Exploring The Complexity Of Beliefs, Amy Kramer, Emily Dringenberg, Carter Morris, Darcy Mccarthy

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

The marginalization of women in engineering is a persistent problem. The overall goal of our collaborative project was to promote interest and participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), particularly for high school girls. We took an action research approach with a local high school science teacher to develop, implement, and research the impact of a classroom-based intervention designed to encourage growth mindset and STEM self-efficacy beliefs using mixed methods. We analyzed pre- and postsurvey data collected using a control-treatment design to determine the impact of the intervention on high school boys’ and girls’ self-efficacy and mindset beliefs. We …

Recognition Of Design Failure By Fourth-Grade Students During An Engineering Design Challenge, Ron K. Skinner, Danielle B. Harlow

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

The practice of persisting and learning from design failures is essential to engineering design and offers unique ways of knowing and learning for K-12 students. To understand how students engage in the practice of persisting and learning from design failures, we must first understand how, if at all, they recognize that a design failure has occurred. We studied a classroom of fourth-grade students engaged in an engineering design challenge and examined the ways in which design failure occurred and how students recognized, neglected to recognize, or misinterpreted design failure. We found that, in addition to anticipating failure, conducting fair tests, …

Reflect To Connect, Sophia Rae Guzules

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Engineering statics is an important course and a prerequisite for many subsequent courses for many engineering majors. It is often students’ first exposure to technical engineering sciences. Most statics concepts are addressed in ways disconnected from students’ prior experiences and interests. Utility Value Interventions (UVIs) have been employed in fields like biology and chemistry to help students connect concepts in class and their lives outside the classroom. However, UVI usage in engineering so far has been limited. In this Senior Project paper, I will describe the process that the team Critical Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREATE) and I …

The Afit Engineer, Volume 5, Issue 1, Graduate School Of Engineering And Management, Air Force Institute Of Technology

AFIT Documents

In this issue:

• 2023 Graduation
• WMD research at AFIT
• NOAA aerosol research at AFIT
• AFIT Model Shop

Integrating Ace And Mca Requirements Into The Civil Engineer Officer Occupational Competency Framework, Stone D. Williford

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Civil Engineer officer career field has made dedicated efforts to the professional development of its company grade officers. In response to the 2015 Air Force Strategic Master plan, the Civil Engineer officer career field adopted a competency-based education approach. In 2020, the Civil Engineer Officer Career Field Education and Training Plan was published, officially integrating the career field’s operational requirements into a competency framework. However, since 2020, the Air Force has adopted an updated force generation strategy, and with it, changes to the way the Air Force assets are employed in contingency environments. This new scheme of …

Exploring Narratives Of Researcher Development For Student Researchers Abroad, Kirsten A. Davis, Teirra Holloman, Jessica Deters, David B. Knight

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Background: Research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students have the potential to provide significant learning experiences, but most research of these experiences focuses primarily on their outcomes. To better design such experiences for a diverse range of students, it is important to understand student narratives of researcher development and identify significant experiences in their development as researchers.

Purpose: In this study, we explored narratives of researcher development for seven US civil engineering students in an eight-week research experience in Australia. Through these narratives, we sought to identify categories of significant experiences to characterize the early stage of the researcher development …

Approach To Problem Solving And Use Of Intuition By Engineering Technology Students, Meher R. Taleyarkhan, Anne M. Lucietto, Natalie L. F. Hobson, Therese M. Azevedo

Journal of Global Education and Research

Engineering technology students often forgo a methodical approach of solving or answering questions on assignments or exams in favor of an intuition-based approach, emphasizing educated guessing (Broberg et al., 2008). Faculty observations have noted these student solutions often provide explanations, usually sans calculations, to support answers the students believe to be reasonable when in reality deviated from the correct answer. An extensive study was developed to assess several distinctions between student intuition and use of cognition in problem solving, as related to a generalized student population. The study was comprised of a survey and interview. The survey utilized two instruments, …

Early Introduction Of 3d Modeling Modules Promotes The Development Of Simulation Skills In Downstream Biomedical Engineering Curricula, Mary S. Jia, Raj R. Rao, Mostafa Elsaadany

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Recent advancements in additive manufacturing have made 3D design a desirable skill in combating the historically slow development of biomedical products. Due to the broad applicability of additive manufacturing to biomedical engineering, 3D design and 3D printing are attractive educational tools for biomedical engineering students. However, due to the multidisciplinary nature of biomedical engineering, finding a suitable spot in the curriculum to teach students basic and application-based skills for 3D manufacturing is difficult. Furthermore, prior training in fundamental 3D design skills may be needed to support the use of application-based supplementary content.

Results

We designed a SolidWorks Simulations toolkit …

School Personnel Lived Experiences Related To High School Engineering Education And The Covid-19 Pandemic, Justina R. Jackson, Katherine L. Boice, Stephen Cochran, Brooke Skelton, Jeffrey Rosen, Marion Usselman

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

This study investigated the teaching experiences of three school personnel at a public high school during the 2020–2021 school year as they implemented a unique science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) unit with in-person and virtual students in their engineering classes during the Covid-19 pandemic. A research team interviewed two teachers and one administrator at the school to better understand the nuances of pre-college engineering during a pandemic year and how changes in school and district policy affected the instructional delivery of STEAM projects. Narrative analytic methods were utilized to understand each participant’s experience and an inductive content thematic …

The Impact Of Girl Scout Engineering Experiences On The Identity Development Of Middle Schoolers, Abigail M. Clark, Rachel Kajfez

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

Despite years of recruitment efforts, women remain significantly underrepresented throughout engineering. While research into precollege engineering education has expanded, it has primarily focused on formal learning settings, even though students spend significantly more time outside of the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, including the time spent outside of the classroom in informal environments. Specifically, programs had to evolve to provide online content and at-home activities. Some programs even shut down completely. Within this context, our study sought to understand the impact of one informal engineering learning experience, a Girl Scout engineering badge, which also shifted online due to the …

Adapting A Narrative Curriculum To A Remote Format In The Context Of Socially Distanced Middle School Education Resulting From Covid-19, Jeremiah Pina, Rebecca Mazur, Glenn Ellis, Al Rudnitsky, Beth Mcginnis-Cavanaugh, Sonia Ellis, Isabel Huff, Crystal Ford

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

This paper describes the development of two versions of an NGSS-aligned principles of engineering design unit for use in middle schools. By employing a narrative framework that can help students to connect more deeply with the human contexts and consequences of the engineering design process, our goal was to enhance students’ cognitive and emotional engagement in the learning of engineering design concepts. We first detail the design of an initial version of the unit, titled The Survivorama, which used narrative to enrich a primarily traditional, in-person teaching approach. We then describe the adapted version of the unit, titled the Molasses …

Work Performance Evaluation As A Motivational Approach For Early-Career Self-Management, Francesc Torres, Santiago Silvestre, Ariadna Llorens, Antoni Elias

Practice Papers

This article presents the main characteristics of an academic experience based on the concept of "work performance evaluation", whose objective is to facilitate a smooth transition to the technological labor market. Its aim is to motivate STEM graduates to acquire relevant early professional skills and a self-management attitude in their careers. The results of a satisfaction survey after a pilot course experience with 30 bachelor engineering students at UPC, within the framework of the Engine4STEMers project [Torres, 2022], are also presented. This experience starts with the concept of “direction of service” and the rapid change in attitude and work methodology …

Teach As You Preach: Teacher Training For Stem-Educators At Dtu, Pernille Rattleff, Ditte Strunge Sass

Practice Papers

At technical universities today, we are training students for jobs that do not yet exist, to use technologies that have not been invented, to solve problems, we do not even know are problems yet. To succeed, we must create sustainable learning processes allowing our students to construct proper conceptual understanding and be able to retrieve, transfer, and apply knowledge, skills, and competences in new complex settings. To facilitate such learning processes, higher education institutions must train excellent teachers. This paper presents the framework for STEM teacher training at DTU – Technical University of Denmark. A framework that claims exactly to …

Developing A Flexible Materials Testing Curriculum For Future Engineers, Anja Pfennig

Practice Papers

Engineering students as future maker of things will face the challenge of keeping pace with rapidly evolving technologies and staying up-to-date with the latest innovations in their field. To cope with these demands a flexible course concept is developed for an undergraduate Materials Science lab course: Materials Testing at HTW Berlin based on a blended learning teaching concept implementing inverted classroom lecture scenarios. High quality micro modules are defined that may individually be combined or restructured and therefore offer sufficient flexibility to match the individual scientific background of the lecturer, the course learning outcome, main study subject or actual need …

An Autoethnography Of Becoming An Innovative Engineering Academic: Punk, Pirate And Guerilla Pedagogy, Michael Murray

Practice Papers

In this Autoethnography (AE) I consider, “becoming” the Most Innovative Teacher (2018) at my university. My identity as a university teacher, my epistemic beliefs, and my choice of vocational pedagogical techniques, have been influenced by my working-class background. No school qualifications, becoming the wrong sort of engineer (plumbing), and a twenty-three-year journey to a doctoral qualification. In 2013 my employer declared that I did not have a ‘significant responsibility for research’ (SRR). I was transferred to a teaching only contract as a punitive measure for not fulfilling my employers research expectations. My lateral migration to a teaching post was the …

Engineering Society: The Role Of Intersectional Gender And Diversity Studies For A Sustainable Transformation On The Case Of Interdisciplinary Engineering Education, Jennifer Bosen, Sebastian Bernhard, Evamaria Fauster, Marie Decker, Miriam Lämmerhirt, Carmen Leicht-Scholten

Practice Papers

Technological innovations are impacting societies in manifold ways and can accelerate a transformation toward sustainability. To enable a sustainable transformation through engineering, engineers educated to create technological solutions for global challenges must be educated in sustainability principles as postulated under ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) in the Agenda for Sustainable Development. In technological fields, the ecological, as well as the economical perspective of sustainability, are often addressed, but as recent research has highlighted, sustainability needs to be addressed holistically; this means including the social dimension to a greater degree and applying an intersectional understanding of gender and diversity throughout all …

Problem-Based Learning Of Heuristic Methods For Decision Problems In Mathematics, Computer Science And Industrial Engineering, Felix Engelhardt, Christina Büsing, Sabrina Schmitz

Practice Papers

In a digitalized world, most processes can be formalised, measured and described mathematically. The use of analytical methods to optimise such models and decisions constitutes operational research (OR), developing new methods for a specific problem and analysing them are part of discrete optimisation (DO). However, there is limited research on OR and application driven DO in higher education. Furthermore, neither is well integrated into engineering education research.

In this work, we present a case study of an interdisciplinary Master’s course on heuristic methods in the context of OR and DO. We discuss to what extent wellestablished approaches from engineering education …

Continuous Assessment In Electric Power Engineering For Marine Engineers, Jimmy Ehnberg, Stefan Lundberg

Practice Papers

To tackle the climate challenge, all sectors need to contribute, including electrified shipping. Electrified shipping is not only propulsion but also loading and unloading equipment. This transformation requires increased skills and understanding of electric power engineering for the personal onboard, not least for the marine engineers. Therefore, a changed in the curriculum was needed. However, when more theoretical course content was added to two consecutive courses, the student view and passing rate dropped. Although the student view improved quickly, the passing rate recovered slower. To address this issue, continuous assessment was introduced to counteract the drops. The aim of this …

Insider Action Research On Ai Needs Within The Eit Innoenergy Ecosystem, Inge De Waard, Albert Gonzalez, Anouk Gelan

Practice Papers

This practice paper describes an ongoing insider action research within the EIT InnoEnergy ecosystem. Its goal is to inspire teaching staff from the seven EIT InnoEnergy double degree Master of Science programmes to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and knowledge into their courses based on joint learning. This insider action research runs from 2023 to the end of 2024. In late 2022, a problem statement of ‘AI tools for Education’ was identified by EIT InnoEnergy teachers as being crucial for their future learning and teaching processes. To align the needs of teaching staff with the complexity of emerging AI tools, …