Engineering Education Commons^™

A Mixed-Methods Approach To Explore Student Perceived Needs For Peer Mentorship In A College Of Engineering, Darcie Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

“Nobody makes it alone. Nobody has made it alone” (NOVA SHRM & Dulles SHRM, 2012, p. 5). Mentoring generally has positive outcomes, such as increasing output, staying in work or school, increasing confidence, and others (Campbell & Campbell, 2007; Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Eby et al., 2008; NASEM, 2019; Pfund et al., 2016). This dissertation study focused on student perceived needs for peer mentorship in engineering, which can fill in gaps of traditional mentorship by pairing mentors and mentees at similar levels, increasing comfort and emotional support to mentees (Allen et al., 2017; Haggard et al., 2011; Kram & Isabella, …

Investigating The Habits Of Mind Of Practicing Engineers, Theresa K. Green

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One goal of undergraduate engineering education is to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and decision-making strategies that are necessary for success in engineering practice. One proposed method to teach students these skills is to incorporate habits of mind into K-12 and undergraduate curricula. Habits of mind are the intelligent, social behaviors that engineers should aspire to have when solving problems, engaging with others, and dealing with uncertainty. Previous literature has suggested that incorporating ideas about habits of mind in educational curricula can teach students the disciplinary skills, technical knowledge, and social values that would help prepare them to enter …

Practicing Self-Regulation Of Cognition And Motivation During Problem Solving In Engineering And Mathematics, Oenardi Lawanto

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Career: Support Our Troops: Re-Storying Student Veteran And Service Member Deficit In Engineering Through Professional Formation And Community Advocacy, Angela L. Minichiello

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Transfer Of Learning For K-12 Stem Teachers: From The Gear Up Engineering Camp Professional Learning Experience To The Classroom, Ryan F. Barlow

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because of the new Utah Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) standards, which are based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Utah science teachers in K-12 schools are now being asked to incorporate engineering into their science classes. Many science teachers in the State of Utah do not have a background in engineering and have not received training in how to incorporate engineering into their classes. To help remedy this problem, six STEM teachers from the State of Utah, and one STEM teacher from Nevada, came to the campus of Utah State University in July 2019 to participate with a …

"You Can Tell They Care": A Phenomenographic Study Of Student Experiences With Empathic Concern Expressed By Professors In Engineering, Kate Youmans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In order to address the increasingly complex challenges of the 21st century, there is a need to continue to grow the technical workforce by improving graduation rates of engineering students. To accomplish this, the culture of engineering programs must shift from demanding or intimidating to more inclusive and supportive. Professors can play a critical role in creating these cultures by building relationships with students. Empathic concern is essential in building relationships that can encourage student growth and development. This form of empathy, sometimes referred to as care or concern, is expressed through actions of understanding, compassion, and non-judgement. While research …

Systems Thinking In Engineering Design: Differences In Expert Vs. Novice And Relationship To Personality Traits, Yuzhen Luo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Systems thinking is the ability to see the big picture and the related elements when designing, and how these relationships form the big picture. In engineering design, systems thinking is valuable to both industry, as well as engineering education. As such, it creates opportunities for researchers to better understand systems thinking of both professional engineers in industry, who are assumed to be the experts, and engineering students in higher education, who are assumed to be the novices. The purpose of this study was to compare and identify the differences between expert and novice systems thinking in engineering design. Additionally, the …

Developing A Mobile Application‐Based Particle Image Velocimetry Tool For Enhanced Teaching And Learning In Fluid Mechanics: A Design‐Based Research Approach, Angela L. Minichiello, David Armijo, Sarbajit Mukherjee, Lori M. Caldwell, Vladimir Kulyukin, Tadd T. Truscott, Jack Elliott, Aditya Bhouraskar

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

A robust and intuitive understanding of fluid mechanics—the applied science of fluid motion—is foundational within many engineering disciplines, including aerospace, chemical, civil, mechanical, naval, and ocean engineering. In‐depth knowledge of fluid mechanics is critical to safe and economical design of engineering applications employed globally everyday, such as automobiles, aircraft, and sea craft, and to meeting global 21st century engineering challenges, such as developing renewable energy sources, providing access to clean water, managing the environmental nitrogen cycle, and improving urban infrastructure. Despite the fundamental nature of fluid mechanics within the broader undergraduate engineering curriculum, students often characterize courses in fluid mechanics …

Learning From Engineers To Develop A Model Of Disciplinary Literacy In Engineering (Year 3), Theresa Green, Angela L. Minichiello, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Christina Marie Hartman, Jared W. Garlick

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Purpose This paper will the describe the overall project goals, activities, preliminary findings, and future work on this project. The purpose of this project is to develop a model of Disciplinary Literacy Instruction (DLI) in engineering that can be used in both K-12 and undergraduate engineering settings. This model of DLI will be informed by knowledge about the ways practicing engineers across four disciplines of engineering (i.e., electrical/computer, mechanical/aerospace, civil/environmental, and chemical/biological) read, interpret, evaluate, and generate texts in the context of their work environment. This information will be translated into a model of DLI in engineering to teach students …

Using An Embedded Researcher Approach To Explore Student Outcomes And Relationship Development During An Intensive Engineering Apprenticeship Program, Lori M. Caldwell, Angela Minichiello

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the emotions, outcomes, and interpersonal relationship development of high school aged students who participated in a three-week intensive engineering apprenticeship program (EAP) during the summer of 2019. This EAP introduces students to engineering by placing them in teams and asking them to build an underwater vehicle that can complete a timed obstacle course. Program mentors provide minimal lecture based instruction and focus on encouraging each team to create their own unique design. The primary purpose of the EAP is to increase student interest in engineering by improving student understanding of …

Applying Real-World Learning Through Amusement Parks To Help Teach The Upcoming Changes To Utah Core Standard, Phil Lundgreen, Amanda Otterstrom

Utah Space Grant Consortium

To assist educators in satisfying the Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards the Utah State University (USU) Physics Department has developed a curriculum centered around USU Physics Day at Lagoon.

With an upcoming change to Utah's core standards and a shift to more hands-on learning styles, the use of real-world learning offered by amusement park applications is analyzed in its ability to satisfy the Utah State Bureau of Education’s (USBE) SEEd standards. Amusement park learning allows educators a vehicle to capture students’ attention in the classroom by discussing science principles in a fun and exciting manner with a promise of …

Reu Site: Engineering Education Research On Undergraduate Engineering Students' Problem Solving Capacity, Oenardi Lawanto

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Information Visualization Of Metacognitive Skills During The Software Development Process Based On An Adapted Engineering Design Metacognitive Questionnaire, R. R. Adisurya, H. B. Santoso, S. Fadhilah, Oenardi Lawanto

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

In software development, either alone or in a team, there are many aspects that determine the success in developing the software, including each developer's skills. Studies show that the application of metacognition can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of software development. To measure a metacognition skill, there need to be a metacognition measurement tools. One example of this measurement method is adapted engineering design metacognitive questionnaire. However, the respondents feel that existing tools still have not given them any benefits. This research is conducted to develop an information visualization tools for the metacognition measurement from an adapted engineering design metacognitive …

Peer-Prompted Engineering Design: How Do Adolescents Interact And Strategize?, Kristin Marie Strong, Oenardi Lawanto, Amy Wilson-Lopez

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Engineering design was integrated into K–12 science education in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), but teaching design remains a challenge for educators. Design problems are ill-defined, ill-structured, and complex problem-solving tasks. Their solutions require creativity and recursive, metacognitive processes that cannot be taught with simple algorithms. Moreover, adolescents do not demonstrate fully developed metacognitive skills because they are undergoing profound developmental changes. In this comparative case study, we explored how peer-delivered metacognitive prompts supported adolescents during a design challenge. We investigated how scripted prompts sparked reflection and stimulated design changes and identified which prompts were most …

Career Prospects And Resources Of Domestic Engineering Doctoral Students, Laura A. Gelles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Career prospects are a motivating factor for entry and retention of doctoral students, especially in the discipline of engineering. While doctoral student training provides them with highly specialized skills to be an independent researcher, they may not have the requisite skills or guidance to secure the job position of their choice. Therefore, it is important to provide doctoral students with opportunities, training, and information (i.e., resources) about different types of careers to not only ensure they are productive contributors of teaching and research, but also equip them for future career prospects. Research techniques based upon in-depth narrative interviews and combining …

The Influences Of Calculus I On Engineering Student Persistence, Amie Baisley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

About half of the students that are declared engineering majors end up leaving engineering within their first two years at the university. This happens following the required math and science courses that these students must take before getting into the technical engineering coursework. There are two systems that students must be a part of at the university to feel comfortable and have the desire to continue on in their degree. These include the academic system and the social system. The experiences engineering students have during their first required math course, Calculus I, is likely not promoting integration into these two …

An Initial Exploration Of The Perspectives And Experiences Of Diverse Learners' Acceptance Of Online Educational Engineering Games As Learning Tools In The Classroom, Kimberly Cook-Chennault, Idalis Villanueva

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

This Work-In-Progress falls within the research category of study and, focuses on the experiences and perceptions of first- and second year engineering students when using an online engineering game that was designed to enhance understanding of statics concepts. Technology and online games are increasingly being used in engineering education to help students gain competencies in technical domains in the engineering field. Less is known about the way that these online games are designed and incorporated into the classroom environment and how these factors can ignite inequitable perspectives and experiences among engineering students. Also, little if any work that combines the …

A Race Re-Imaged, Intersectional Approach To Academic Mentoring: Exploring The Perspectives And Responses Of Womxn In Science And Engineering Research, Idalis Villanueva, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Laura Gelles, Paul Vicioso Osoria, Sheree Benson

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

In academic mentoring research, there is a need to include empirical designs that consider more sociocultural perspectives. The purpose of this exploratory study was to race re-image academic mentoring by considering its sociocultural perspectives (i.e., intersectionality, tokenism, and awareness).

For this, a qualitative-dominant, convergent mixed-methods approach was used to explore the perspectives and responses of twelve womxn graduate students and faculty involved in science and engineering research. Using multi-modal approaches that included two structured interviews and electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors, participants were asked to respond to case studies of achievement-, race-, and gender-equity through an academic mentoring lens.

Our qualitative …

Understanding Industry’S Expectations Of Engineering Communication Skills, Lilian Maria De Souza Almeida

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The importance of communication in the engineering profession is widely acknowledged by various stakeholders, including industry, academia, professional engineers, and engineering students. Even though alternative strategies to help students improve their ability to communicate professionally have been approached by many engineering programs across the country, research indicates a continued dissatisfaction of employers when it comes to the performance of engineers as communicators in the workplace. This perspective suggests efforts to improve students’ communication skills in universities may be inconsistent with workplace needs, revealing an apparent gap between what is taught and what is expected from engineering professionals. This gap provides …

Evaluation And Modeling Of The Effect Of Tool Edge Radius On Machined Surface Roughness In Turning Uns A92024-T351 Aluminum Alloy, Ning Fang, P. Srinivasa Pai

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Tool edge radius plays a significant role in affecting the surface integrity of machined products. The vast majority of existing research, however, takes no account of the effect of tool edge radius in the evaluation and modeling of machined surface roughness, an essential indicator of surface integrity. The present study fills this important research gap and has performed a total of 45 turning experiments on Unified Numbering System (UNS) A92024-T351 aluminum alloy with carefully selected cutting tools with three levels of tool edge radii. This article describes the experimental setup and measurements of tool edge radius and machined surface roughness. …

Task Affect And Task Understanding In Engineering Problem Solving, Oenardi Lawanto, Angela L. Minichiello, Jacek Uziak, Andreas Febrian

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Within the self-regulated learning literature, motivation is considered to be an essential feature of students’ self-regulatory processes. Additionally, task affect (i.e., personal objectives and task value) is thought to influence students’ self-regulatory processes; insufficient task affect may lead to failures to self-regulate effectively. In a school setting, task affect is a form of motivation for completing the course tasks in order to attain course-level goals that are inherently valued. In this study, motivation is operationalized as students’ personal objectives and task values, and self-regulation refers to students’ understanding of tasks (also called task interpretation skill) involved in a course. This …

"Mentoring Is Ethical, Right?": Women Graduate Students And Faculty In Science And Engineering Speak Out, Laura Gelles, Idalis Villanueva, Marialuisa Di Stefano

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The relationship between graduate students and their research advisors within academia is pivotal to the development and success of the research enterprise. Graduate students rely on their faculty advisor to be a source of information, a departmental negotiator, and a role model to guide their professional and ethical behavior. However, if an advisor does not fully recognize a student’s best interest or they are unaware of how to be an “ethical mentor”, they may overlook the unique social capital of the graduate student (e.g., background, culture) and jeopardize the research relationship. This work aims to explore how women graduate students …

A New Computational Intelligence Approach To Predicting The Machined Surface Roughness In Metal Machining, Ning Fang, P. Srinivasa Pai

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Machined surface roughness is an important parameter used in the evaluation of the surface integrity of machined parts and components. This paper proposes a new computational intelligence approach to predicting the machined surface roughness in metal machining. In this approach, wavelet packet transform (WPT) is incorporated into artificial neural networks (ANN) to develop two ANN models for predicting average roughness Ra and root-mean-square roughness Rq, respectively. Each model has eight inputs, including the cutting speed, the feed rate, energy of wavelet packets for three cutting force components, and energy of wavelet packets for three cutting vibration components. Forty-five machining experiments …

Using An Engineering Design Process To Bring The Local Community Into The Technology And Engineering Education Classroom, James M. Baker

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

This plan B project documents the practice of using an authentic project to teach an engineering design process to high school pre-engineering students and documenting the project preparing a manuscript for journal publication.

The manuscript prepared for publication explores the details of working with local business owners and teachers from different departments and curricular foci to design, fabricate, and install an illuminated sign for a local business. This sign project was presented by an alum of the school to provide an authentic project for multiple courses to collaboratively create a solution for a local community business. Twenty-five students in two …

Supporting Adolescent Metacognition In Engineering Design Through Scripted Prompts From Peer Tutors: A Comparative Case Study, Kristin Marie Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2013, developers of the Next Generation Science Standards implemented national K-12 directives and elevated engineering design to the level of scientific inquiry. Teaching design, however, is challenging to educators due to the complex nature of design problems, which cannot be solved via simple algorithms. Solving design problems requires a more reflective and iterative approach that emphasizes metacognitive skills like planning, monitoring, and taking another person’s perspective. Educators are further challenged by children’s immature metacognitive skills, which may be insufficient to engage in the entire design process.

A qualitative study of paired seventh graders demonstrated a pragmatic learning activity for …

Spatial Ability Degradation In Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students During The Winter Semester Break, Benjamin J. Call

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spatial ability represents our ability to mentally arrange, rotate, and explore objects in multiple dimensions. This ability has been found to be important for engineers and engineering students. Past research has shown that many interventions can be created to boost an individual’s spatial ability. In fact, past research has indicated that engineering students significantly increase in spatial ability without an intervention while they are enrolled in certain engineering courses. Some researchers have claimed that the spatial ability boosts are permanent after an intervention. However, most researchers do not check the validity of that claim with continued assessment after more than …

Incorporating Drones In My Classroom: Survey Data From High School Teachers 2018, Tyson Sorensen, Kelsey Hall, Olivia Horning, Joshua Dallin, David Francis

Browse all Datasets

Survey data collected from 69 high school and middle school teachers. Survey gauges intentions of integrating drone curriculum concepts into the classroom.

Dataset includes summary data, raw data and survey instrument.

Hidden Curriculum Awareness: A Comparison Of Engineering Faculty, Graduate Students, And Undergraduates, Idalis Villanueva, Marialuisa Di Stefano, Laura Gelles, Katherine Youmans

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

In order for an engineering academic body (e.g., facultyand students) to navigate their surroundings, they must first become aware of the hidden curriculum around them. Hidden curriculum represents how particular assumptions, values, attitudes, and beliefs about schooling manifests in practice. When understood, these types of lessons or messages allow students, faculty, and staff to more easily navigate the academic and socio-political customs needed for success.

As part of a larger study, a total of 224 participants across 57 engineering programs in the United States and Latin America were asked to comment on a survey that asked respondents about the expectations …

Uncovering The Hidden Factors That Could Compromise Equitable And Effective Engineering Education, Idalis Villanueva, Janice Mejia, Renata A. Revelo

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Literacies are central to the social and cultural practices that are intertwined with identities, who gets to participate in engineering, and the knowledge that is valued in the discipline. However, identifying these literacies is not a straightforward process for engineering faculty. The purpose of this workshop is to help engineering faculty identify equity- oriented literacies that challenge hidden curriculum frameworks in engineering and influence engineering identity formation.

Critical Theoretical Frameworks In Engineering Education: An Anti-Deficit And Liberative Approach, Joel A. Mejia, Renata A. Revelo, Idalis Villanueva, Janice Mejia

Engineering Education Faculty Publications

The field of engineering education has adapted different theoretical frameworks from a wide range of disciplines to explore issues of education, diversity, and inclusion among others. The number of theoretical frameworks that explore these issues using a critical perspective has been increasing in the past few years. In this review of the literature, we present an analysis that draws from Freire’s principles of critical andragogy and pedagogy. Using a set of inclusion criteria, we selected 33 research articles that used critical theoretical frameworks as part of our systematic review of the literature. We argue that critical theoretical frameworks are necessary …