Engineering Education Commons^™

An Experimental Comparison Of Student Motivation Between Two Computational Thinking-Based Stem Activities: Vex-Based Automation And Robotics And A Quadcopter Activity, Cory J. Ortiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare student motivation between two junior high level computational thinking based STEM curricular activities. These two activities were a newly developed quadcopter based curriculum and a VEX based curricular activity developed for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology – Automation and Robotics course. Student motivation was assessed using an assessment called My Class Activities which broke motivation into four constructs: interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment.

This study assessed students in three schools in a northern Utah school district. Students were assessed after receiving each curriculum. Assessment responses were then coded and analyzed. …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Enhanced Hands-On Intervention Versus Textbook Interventions To Understand Student Misconceptions In Particle Dynamics, Gang Liu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present dissertation research examined the effects of applying the enhanced hands-on intervention to reveal and correct student misunderstandings of the concepts in engineering dynamics, especially particle dynamics. We involved 36 student volunteers for three different research topics. The student participants were divided into two groups in each research topic: enhanced hands-on intervention and pure textbook groups. An interview and intervention was conducted with each participant individually.

The author introduced the “Think-Aloud” method with two kinds of interventions mentioned above. The participants were required to speak out their thought process loud as they worked on the two sets of assessment …

Attracting Secondary Students To Stem Using A Summer Engineering Camp, Murad Mahmoud

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to study the benefits of having middle school students attend a summer camp focused on the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A lot of research funding is being used in such camps to help get more students into STEM fields as there is a lack of graduates in those fields. Therefore, it is important to understand the benefits and effectiveness of such camps.

Students, teachers and parents were involved in this research. Students and teachers attended a one-week engineering camp at Utah State University while parents were involved via a blog …

Misconceptions And The Notional Machine In Very Young Programming Learners, Tony A. Lowe

School of Engineering Education Graduate Student Series

This study looks at very young learners make mistakes and possibly form misunderstanding when learning to programming. A variety of national efforts are extending programming education to younger learners who are materials many adults struggle to learn. For decades literature has captured common misconceptions in using programming constructs (e.g. conditionals, loops, and recursion) in older learners, but early learners may wait years before they tackle these complex concepts. Many model misconceptions as a missing or inaccurate notional machine. The notional machine is an individual’s mental model, representing how a programming language executes on a real device. The notional machine aligns …

Pathfinder: Affordable And Effective Web-Books For First Year Engineering Courses, Jess Everett, Scott Steiner

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

This paper describes the implementation of PathFinder (https://pathfinder.rowan.edu/), a website that facilitates the creation and dissemination of affordable web-books for college students. The purpose of this paper is to describe its implementation in an introduction-to-engineering curriculum at a public university in the north east, and to discuss the use of Pathfinder (or similar websites) in first and second year engineering courses in general.

The PathFinder website allows professors to create, maintain, and access an electronic database of engineering topic folders. Each folder contains information on a single topic and may contain an article and other content, e.g., variables, equations, images, …

Recommended Corrective Security Measures To Address The Weaknesses Identified Within The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute, Khadija Moussaid, Oum Keltoum Hakam

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The Shapash Nuclear Research Institute (SNRI) data book was issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2013. The hypothetical facility data book describes the hypothetical site, which is divided into two areas: the low-security area, known as the administrative area, and the very high-security area, known as the protected area. The book contains detailed descriptions of each area’s safety and security measures, along with figures of multiple buildings in both areas, and also includes information about the site’s computer networks.

This paper aims to identify security weaknesses related to the institute’s location, the Administrative Area (AA), the Protected …

What Does Hidden Curriculum In Engineering Look Like And How Can It Be Explored?, Idalis Villanueva, Laura Gelles, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Buffy Smith, Renetta G. Tull, Susan M. Lord, Lisa Benson, Anne Therese Hunt, Donna M. Riley, Gery W. Ryan

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This work in progress paper describes the initial stages of a project which aims to characterize the mechanisms of hidden curriculum (HC) in engineering and identify methods for exploring this phenomenon. To effectively study the complex nature of HC, this work brings together researchers with a range of expertise (sociology, engineering education, engineering, statistics, policy analysis, curriculum and instruction) to develop a holistic approach to explore HC in engineering. This work describes the process of gathering input from this multidisciplinary team as well as the literature to develop a mixed-method instrument and model to explore the mechanisms behind HC in …

Developing An Evaluation Tool To Examine Motivational Factors Of Non-Student Community Partnership Participants, Julia Thompson, Jinny Rhee

Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering

Research of engineering community engagement has primarily focused on the experiences and outcomes of students, yet it is often the faculty, administrators, and community partners who have a long-term commitment to the program’s success. In this study, we are developing and validating an assessment instrument that combines two previously identified aspects of community engagement programs: participant motivation and the nature of engagement relationships. Participant motivation refers to the reasons people stay engaged in the community engagement experience and can be categorized into: student learning and growth, personal and professional development, and benefits to the community organization. The nature of an …

The Redshirt In Engineering Consortium: Progress And Early Insights, Janet Callahan, Donna C. Llewellyn, Ann E. Delaney

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 with the goal of enhancing the ability of academically talented but underprepared students coming from lowincome backgrounds to successfully graduate with engineering degrees. The Consortium takes its name from the practice of redshirting in college athletics, with the idea of providing an extra year and support to help promising engineering students complete a bachelor’s degree. The Consortium builds on the success of three existing “academic redshirt” programs and expands the model to three new schools. The Existing Redshirt Institutions (ERIs) help mentor and train the new Student Success Partners (SSPs), …

A Project-Based Learning Approach In Teaching Simulation To Undergraduate And Graduate Students, Gokhan Egilmez, Dusan Sormaz, Ridvan Gedik

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In this study, application of experiential learning into graduate and undergraduate curricula of a industrial system simulation course is presented. Simulation has been among the courses against which students feel uncomfortable or frightened due to heavy software use, prerequisite of probability, and statistics knowledge, and its application requirements. To minimize this fear and improve student’s understanding about the subject matters and have them develop ample skills to build complex models, a project-based learning approach is proposed and used in undergraduate and graduate teaching settings. To achieve the project-based learning goals, a 15-week curriculum is designed to have a balanced lecture …

Effectiveness Of Gamification Activities In A Project-Based Learning Classroom, Eleanor Leung, Elizabeth Pluskwik

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

The purpose of this research is to analyze the effectiveness, and student's self-reported engagement with gamification tools on a student's learning of technical concepts when used in a project-based learning (PBL) engineering classroom environment. Gamification, as defined in this study, is the use of game-based elements such as online audience response systems with automated feedback in non-game situations. By adding gamification to the classroom, we hope to further build on the active and collaborative learning environment that our PBL program already provides. Five gamification activities were implemented during the Fall 2017 semester with junior and senior student engineers enrolled in …

Board 30: Enhancing Core Chemical Engineering Courses With Computationally-Intense Course Modules, Kevin Dahm, Ravi P. Ramachandran, Nidhal Carla Bouaynaya

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

This paper will present two new course modules that have been developed for junior-level Chemical Engineering core courses: Chemical Reaction Engineering and Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II. As currently offered, both of these courses integrate simulation and computer lab activities in which students devise models of key physical systems, and then interrogate the model to study cause-and-effect in these physical systems. These activities are designed to be completed in one 165 minute lab period. While these labs are an integral part of the courses, the single-period scope limits the complexity of the models that can be used.

The course modules described …

Encouraging A Growth Mindset In Engineering Students, Megan Frary

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A person’s “mindset” guides a great deal of how one approaches life -- and especially how students approach education. While someone with a fixed mindset believes that their intelligence is fixed and unchangeable, someone with a growth mindset believes that their intelligence is changeable and can grow as they learn more. Most people’s mindset lies along a spectrum with these two extremes at either end. In addition to other outcomes, the mindset that a person has determines how they interpret mistakes they make; whereas someone with a fixed mindset thinks mistakes result from their innate lack of ability, someone with …

Second Year Of Using The Sidekick Basic Kit For Ti Launchpad With Elementary School Students, Tara N. Kimmey, Cameron H. G. Wright, Thad B. Welch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper describes a second year, follow-on study in which 4^th and 5^th grade students were exposed to engineering-related topics using a microcontroller, input/output circuitry, sensors, and the associated software coding needed to achieve a desired functionality of the hardware. The first year study was described in a paper presented at the 2017 ASEE Annual Conference. This second year study took students to the “next level,” and showed very promising results.

Growing Entrepreneurial Mindset In Interdisciplinary Student Engineers: Experiences Of A Project-Based Engineering Program, Elizabeth Pluskwik, Eleanor Leung, Andrew Lillesve

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Engineering education models have recently embraced the entrepreneurial mindset as a desired outcome of undergraduate engineering education. Interdisciplinary active learning strategies have been suggested as an effective pedagogy for engaging student engineers in undergraduate engineering education. Recent research suggests that active, social learning in context can lead to improvements in learner innovation, problem-solving, curiosity, retention and accessibility of knowledge, value-creation, and other desired learning outcomes. Much of the recent adoption of active and collaborative learning, self-directed learning, problem-based and project-based learning (PBL), peer to peer learning, and other similar learning strategies are aimed at developing innovative and entrepreneurial mindset skills, …

Work In Progress: Institutional Context And The Implementation Of The Redshirt In Engineering Model At Six Universities, Ann Delaney, Donna C. Llewellyn, Janet Callahan

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Low-income students are underrepresented in engineering and are more likely to struggle in engineering programs. Such students may be academically talented and perform well in high school, but may have relatively weak academic preparation for college compared to students who attended better-resourced schools. Four-year engineering and computer science curricula are designed for students who are calculus-ready, but many students who are eager to become engineers or computer scientists need additional time and support to succeed. The NSF-funded Redshirt in Engineering Consortium was formed in 2016 as a collaborative effort to build on the success of three existing “academic Redshirt” programs …

A Gamification Approach For Experiential Education Of Inventory Control, Gokhan Egilmez, Ridvan Gedik

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In this educational research project, game-based in-class and after-class learning activities are developed to teach selected inventory control strategies to undergraduate and graduate students. Students from Supply Chain Management and System Simulation courses are targeted, who are taught by different instructors. The activities include teaching the inventory control policies to students in a regular class setting, then providing an overview on a game developed on MS Excel. In the game, the lead time and customer demand variables are defined uncertain, and not given to students, which make the assignment an ill-structured problem. A 12-month planning and execution period is given …

A Pilot Program In Internet-Of-Things With University And Industry Collaboration: Introduction And Lessons Learned, Mohsen Sarraf, Bijan Karimi, Ali Golbazi

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

Internet-of-Things (IoT) is one of the most prominent technological eco-systems and an engine of growth with an estimated market size of $14 Trillion to $33 Trillion by 2025 (McKinsey Global Institute). The IoT eco-system uses well-established technologies in many fields; and it adds new and often challenging requirements on extant techniques. For example, many wireless schemes are or being redesigned to address battery life and cost of solution issues. At the same time, the industry needs to hire and retrain many technical personnel to address these issues and support this newly evolving eco-system in many different markets. These facts culminate …

Integrated E-Learning Modules For Developing An Entrepreneurial Mindset: Direct Assessment Of Student Learning, Maria-Isabel Carnasciali, Ronald S. Harichandran, Nadiye O. Erdil, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Cheryl Q. Li

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In an effort to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in all our engineering and computer science students, the University of New Haven is embedding entrepreneurial concepts throughout the 4-year curricula in their majors. This is done with the use of several short e-learning modules developed by content experts. The modules are integrated into engineering and computer science courses by faculty who reinforce concepts through a related activity, project, or assignment. The e-learning modules, available online through course management systems, are self-paced and targeted at conceptual learning of 18 specific entrepreneurial topics. Using a flipped-classroom instructional model, students complete the modules outside …

Investigating The Entrepreneurial Mindset Of Engineering And Computer Science Students, Cheryl Q. Li, Ronald S. Harichandran, Nadiye O. Erdil, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Maria-Isabel Carnasciali

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

In recent years, numerous engineering programs around the country have introduced curricular revisions and co-curricular activities to develop entrepreneurial skills in students. The primary motivation of these efforts is to graduate engineering students who can rapidly contribute to the economic growth of the nation through entrepreneurship and innovation. A precursor to launching startups or creating new products or services is the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. Efforts focused on developing an entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students through curricular and co-curricular activities are emerging from the many partner institutions of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN). As these efforts strengthen, approaches …