Engineering Education Commons^™

Cleerhub.Org Adoption By Eafit University Engineering Faculty Members: A Longitudinal Study, Diego M. Mendez Mena

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The main purpose of this study is to identify and comprehend faculty members’ perception of attributes of the diffusion of the technological innovation CLEERhub.org at EAFIT University, College of Engineering, in Medellin, Colombia. Moreover, this work attempts to understand causes and motivators that might lead to innovation adoption or rejection. The Diffusion of Innovations Theory serves as the framework to develop an appropriate assessing instrument that allows accurate measuring of user opinions towards the practice of CLEERhub.org in their educational research work in Engineering. In order to correctly assess user perception of the embracement process of such technological/cyberinfrastructure innovation, the …

Teaching Technical Engineering Courses From A Christian Perspective: Two Examples, Charles C. Adams

Pro Rege

Engineering professors, like those of the natural sciences, usually teach by breaking the subject matter into parts, that is, courses and activities that are logically abstract from each other. While together comprising a coherent whole, those individual parts too easily foster abstractionism, the view that such subjects as calculus, fluid mechanics, engineering design, and engineering ethics “really are” separable from one another. Such a view militates against a Christian perspective of engineering, technology, and reality in general by replacing the organic wholeness of life before the face of God with the compartmentalization that is characteristic of modern science and naturalism. …

Academic And Social Barriers To Black And Latino Male Collegians' Success In Engineering And Related Stem Fields, Terrell Lamont Strayhorn, Leroy L. Long Iii, Joseph Allen Kitchen, Michael Steven Williams, Meg E. Stenz

Publications

Historically underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (i.e. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans) have experienced barriers to their success in engineering and related STEM fields. These student populations have had lower degree attainment rates, switch to non-STEM majors more frequently, and experience unique social challenges when compared to White and Asian Pacific Islander counterparts. To examine these findings, nearly 50 interviews were conducted and analyzed in the present study to better understand the academic and social experiences of African American and Latino American men in these fields. Interviews revealed that these students tend to (1) feel alone and invisible, (2) lack same …

Surveying First-Year Students Prior Conceptual Understanding Of Direct Current Resistive Electric Circuits: An Update, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

There is an increasing diversity of educational background of students entering Level 7 and Level 8 programmes in engineering in Irish third level education. Student reasoning about basic electricity concepts often differs from accepted explanations. The paper reports, analyses and reflects on the results of a multiple-choice diagnostic test to assess student understanding of such concepts (developed by Engelhardt and Beichner (2004) for U.S. high school and college students) taken by four cohorts of students, on the same DIT Level 7 engineering programme, from 2008-12 (n=106) and two cohorts of students, on the same DIT Level 8 engineering programme, from …

Future Critical Issues And Problems Facing Technology And Engineering Education In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Petros Katsioloudis, Johnny J. Moye

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research was to determine the future critical issues and problems facing the K-12 technology and engineering education profession in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This study was based on the Wicklein nationwide studies (1993a, 2005). Even though this study did not exactly replicate the Wicklein studies--since it was limited to the Commonwealth of Virginia--the method and questions used were identical. The modified Delphi research design was used to draw consensus among technology and engineering education experts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Seventy-five percent of the participants agreed with one another concerning the top five critical problems and …

A Teaching Practice Review Of The Use Of Multiple-Choice Questions For Formative And Summative Assessment Of Student Work On Advanced Undergraduate And Postgraduate Modules In Engineering, Aidan O'Dwyer

Articles

This paper reflects on, reports on and evaluates the use of multiple-choice questions, in both formative and summative assessment modes, on control engineering modules taken by advanced undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, over four academic years. The material covered by the modules is analytical in nature. The rationale for examining the assessment strategy was the poor performance by students in a closed book traditional terminal examination on one of the advanced undergraduate modules over some years. The change in assessment strategy has improved student learning, as measured by assessment data; student feedback on the assessment methods is broadly positive. The …

Asynchronous Use Of Engineering (Materials) Education Videos, Craig Johnson, Arthur D. Morken

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Engineering education delivery is dynamic and increasingly asynchronous. An observation that students had very different levels of knowledge and skills as they progressed through our programs, led the authors to use audio/visual media as a leveling intervention. In this effort the authors collected data to determine if audio/visual media can be used to increase performance in the development of a program related task and guide students to higher levels of learning on Blooms Taxonomy through the development of student created learning aids.

One specific need was reflected in the disparate skills of our majority component of ‘transfer’ students in our …

Statistical Analysis When The Data Is An Image: Eliciting Student Thinking About Sampling And Variability., Margaret A. Hjalmarson, Tamara J. Moore, Robert Delmas

School of Engineering Education Faculty Publications

Results of analysis of responses to a first-year undergraduate engineering activity are presented. Teams of students were asked to develop a procedure for quantifying the roughness of a surface at the nanoscale, which is typical of problems in Materials Engineering where qualities of a material need to be quantified. Thirty-five teams were selected from a large engineering course for analysis of their responses. The results indicate that engagement in the task naturally led teams to design a sampling plan, use or design measures of center and variability, and integrate those measures into a model to solve the stated problem. Team …

Successful Engineering And Technology Student Mobility: Key Student Perspectives And Quality Determinants Before, During And After Student Exchange Under The Atlantis Programme, Mike Murphy, Donal Mchale, Michael Dyrenfurth, James Barnes

Articles

The EU-US Agreement through the Atlantis Programmes supports consortia of higher education and training institutions working together at undergraduate or graduate level to improve their educational services, to compare and modernise curricula and to develop joint study programmes with full recognition of credits and qualifications. The EU-US Atlantis Programme funds innovative projects across three strands: mobility projects, double or joint “transatlantic degrees” for students in the EU and US and policy-oriented measures. The main focus of activities must be on transatlantic rather than intra-European or intra-American interactions. Funded activities, such as the development of curricula, joint study programmes, exchanges and …

Critical Issues And Lessons Learned In Establishing Concurrent International Ms Degree Programs In Engineering Technology, Mike Murphy, Michael Dyrenfurth, Gary Bertoline, Robert Herrick, Kathryne Newton, Sancho Maria-Ribera, Nuria Castell, James Barnes, Matthias Kuder, Gareth O'Donnell

Articles

Globalization, competitiveness, and innovation are frequently employed themes as governments, business and industry and universities attempt to respond to the challenges facing them. Clearly business as usual is not likely to be successful in the future. One strategic response for universities has been a significant impetus – in many parts of the world – towards dual, joint or concurrent degree programs involving international partners. It is perhaps not surprising that engineering is among the disciplines that make most use of international collaboration but it seems that engineering technology programs do not yet participate as extensively in this aspect of international …

An International Comparison Of Engineering Programs In Their Emphases And Professional Skills Development, Gul Okudan Kremer, Mike Murphy, Brian Bowe

Articles

In the face of grand challenges for engineering, several efforts have been undertaken to identify the vision for what we should expect from our undergraduate engineering students. For example, one of the significant reports indicates that our graduates should aspire “to have the ingenuity of Lillian Gilbreth, the problem solving capabilities of Gordon Moore, the scientific insight of Albert Einstein, the creativity of Pablo Picasso, the determination of the Wright brothers, the leadership abilities of Bill Gates, the conscience of Eleanor Roosevelt, the vision of Martin Luther King, and the curiosity and wonder of our grandchildren.” This statement implies that …

Engineering Professional Development Design For Secondary School Teachers: A Multiple Case Study, Jenny L. Daugherty

Publications

The effectiveness of teachers has been regarded as crucial to the success of standards-based reform (Fishman, Marx, Best, & Tal, 2003). Research, particularly within science and mathematics, has underscored the need for professional development to help teachers understand (a) subject matter, (b) learners and learning, and (c) teaching methods (Loucks-Horsley, 1999). In addition to focusing on teacher professional development, national reform efforts have also emphasized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (i.e., Rising Above the Gathering Storm, NRC, 2006). While substantial work has been conducted in mathematics and science, the efforts in technology and engineering education are much less …

Engineering Student Outcomes For Infusion Into Technological Literacy Programs: Grades 9-12, Craig Rhodes, Vincent Childress

Publications

In 2004, the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) secured funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to infuse engineering design into the schools through technology education. In order to reach this goal the researchers, in cooperation with NCETE, conducted a two phase study to identify outcomes for high-school students studying engineering. The first study (referred to as a Phase I) focused on students who intended to enter an engineering program after high school, answering the question:

What are the engineering student outcomes that prospective engineering students in grades 9 through 12 should know and be able to …

Using Abet Assessment Requirements As A Catalyst For Change: Enhancing And Streamlining The Engineering Management Undergraduate Program At Missouri S&T, Stephen A. Raper, Susan L. Murray, Christa Moll Weisbrook, William Daughton

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Engineering Management (EM) undergraduate degree program at Missouri University of Science & Technology (formerly University of Missouri-Rolla) was the first program of its kind. The program started over 40 years ago and it is one of only five ABET accredited undergraduate EM programs [1]. The initial degree program included a senior year of management courses in conjunction with three years of courses in common engineering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering. In the 1990s the program underwent a major restructure and students combined core engineering management classes with an emphasis area inside the department. Industrial, manufacturing, packaging, …

Delivering Core Engineering Concepts To Secondary Level Students, Chris Merrill, Rodney L. Custer, Jenny Daugherty, Martin Westrick, Yong Zeng

Publications

Within primary and secondary school technology education, engineering has been proposed as an avenue to bring about technological literacy (Lewis, 2005; Dearing & Daugherty, 2004). Different initiatives such as curriculum development projects (i.e., Project ProBase and Project Lead The Way) and National Science Foundation funded projects such as the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) have been developed to infuse engineering into primary and secondary education. For example, one key goal of the technology teacher education component of NCETE is to impact the focus and content of the technology education field at the secondary level (National Center for …

Using Engineering Cases In Technology Education, Todd R. Kelley

Publications

The article discusses issues related to the use of engineering case studies in technology education in K-12 classrooms. Experts from K-12 education, universities, industry and U.S. government officials came to an agreement on the need to implement engineering in K-12 schools. In relation to the proposed use of engineering case studies in technology education, several definitions of the term "design case studies." The presentation of cases using multimedia formats is also cited as a powerful format of engineering design cases.

Motivation While Designing In Engineering And Technology Education Impacted By Academic Preparation, Nathan Mentzer, Kurt Becker

Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine if high school students’ academic preparation was correlated with change in motivation during an engineering design challenge. The research was conducted in a high school classroom in which elements of engineering design were taught in a technology education context to eleventh-grade student from diverse academic backgrounds (measured by grade point average [GPA]). Participant motivation was assessed by the California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3). The CM3 measures student motivation to apply critical thinking skills and reasoning to solve problems in five subscales: mental focus, learning orientation, creative problem solving, cognitive integrity, and …

Why Do School-Leavers Study Engineering In The Technological University Dublin And How Do They Get There: A Report Of A Survey Of 390 First Year Engineering Students In The Technological University Dublin And A Summary Of The Data Collected Since 2003., Eddie Conlon, Kathleen Murray

Reports

This report sets out the findings of a survey of 389 first year engineering students who commenced studying in the Technological University Dublin (DIT) in September 2007. The questionnaire was completed online using WebCT.

The background information on students is taken from DIT records.This data is based on the records of 525 students who were attending DIT courses in October 2007.

Analogical Reasoning In The Engineering Design Process And Technology Education Applications, Jenny Daugherty, Nathan Mentzer

Publications

This synthesis paper discusses the research exploring analogical reasoning, the role of analogies in the engineering design process, and educational applications for analogical reasoning. Researchers have discovered that analogical reasoning is often a fundamental cognitive tool in design problem solving. Regarding the possible role of analogical reasoning in the context of technology education; analogies may be a useful tool to develop student’s design skills, teach abstract or complex concepts, and build students’ analogical reasoning skills for general problem solving. The positive and negative educational implications of analogical reasoning being explored by researchers are also discussed.

Civil And Mechanical Engineering Students Learning Mechanics In A Multidisciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Gregory Broderick, Samuel Bogan Daniels, Michael Collura, Richard Stanley

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

This paper describes how mechanical and civil engineering students are introduced to and develop an understanding of mechanics concepts through a sequence of integrated courses as part of a new curriculum taken during the freshman and sophomore years. The Multi- Disciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral is a four-semester sequence of engineering courses, matched closely with the development of students’ mathematical sophistication and analytical capabilities and integrated with course work in the sciences. Students develop a conceptual understanding of engineering basics in this series of courses, which stress practical applications of these principles. Mechanics concepts are introduced in a pair of first …

A Hybrid First Year Science Course For Engineering Students – Integrating Biology With Chemistry, David Harding, Pauline Schwartz, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Agamemnon Koutsospyros

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Biology is playing an increasingly important role in many engineering fields. With the typical engineering program already having a high credit hour requirement, the question becomes, how to best integrate biology concepts into a packed engineering curriculum. A typical biology course is not likely to introduce the important concepts of biology to engineering students. The solution here is to develop a hybrid course that integrates chemistry and biology. In the course, Chemistry with Applications to Biosystems, the concept is to develop a course that integrally links important concepts of chemistry and biology. The course focuses on the areas of biology …

Five Good Reasons For Engineering As The Focus For Technology Education, Robert C. Wicklein

Publications

The article presents information on a paper which discusses why engineering design should be the focus for technology education. Technology education is still viewed as a non-essential instructional program and this is because school administrators and counselors have inadequate understanding of it. Even general populace have inadequate understanding concerning technology education. The pervasiveness of technology literally affects every living creature in our society. Therefore, it is of critical importance that the educational system includes and supports the study of technology in the general curricula. The deficiency within the technology education profession to formulate a clear and defined target for the …

National Center For Engineering And Technology Education, Christine Hailey, Thomas Erekson, Kurt Becker, Maurice Thomas

Publications

The article reports that the overall impact of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) is to strengthen the nation's capacity to deliver effective engineering and technology education in the K-12 schools. Further, it informs that the National Science Foundation established the Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT) program to address needs in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. The CLT program has three goals, based upon stated national needs. First, CLT are expected to renew and diversify the cadre of national leaders in STEM education. The CLT includes partners with strengths in engineering and in …

Bioengineering Instructional Framework For Technology Education, Philip A. Reed, Technology Education Department, Old Dominion University, Virginia Bioengineering Writing Team

STEMPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Stem Initiatives: Stimulating Students To Improve Science And Mathematics Achievement, Robert Q. Berry Iii, Philip A. Reed, John M. Ritz, Cheng Y. Lin, Steve Hsiung, Wendy Frazier

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The article focuses on how concepts in science, technology education, and mathematics show powerful relationships when it comes to student learning. Learning theorists believe that, through designed learning environments (contexts) and learning with hands-on projects, new knowledge can not only be learned, but learned in such a way that the knowledge can be transferred for other applications. Scholars in the applied sciences (school science, technology, and mathematics) believe that these subjects have transfer among themselves and that engineering activities can establish the contexts to learn these subjects, plus aid in the transfer of knowledge. This collaborative movement is referred to …

Privatization Initiatives: A Source For Engineering Economy Case Studies, Paul Kauffmann, Tarek Abdel-Salam, Keith Williamson, Carol L. Considine

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

A case study method which reviews the basic structure of the circular A-76 privatization decision model is discussed. It highlights the possibilities for development of case studies that can challenge student teams to apply engineering economy tools while developing skills in a range of circular areas that are important to undergraduate engineering education and career success in engineering practice. Beyond building quantitative and qualitative business analysis skills, engineering economy cases can enhance student skills in other topical areas such as technical presentations, and report writing. The privatization initiatives and related decision models can also enhance human relations oriented skills in …

A Turn To Engineering: The Continuing Struggle Of Technology Education For Legitimization As A School Subject, Theodore Lewis

Publications

In the long march from manual training, the subject which today we call technology education has always had to contend with the question of its legitimacy as valid school knowledge. In this regard, it shares a similar history of struggle with other subjects whose initial entry into the curriculum was based on a utilitarian rather than an academic rationale. Goodson (1983) documents such cases (e.g. geography and biology) showing how in their struggle for acceptance, the primary strategy of advocates was to try to enhance the academic bona fides of their subject. He explained that utilitarian knowledge is associated with …

Using Spreadsheet Programs In Teaching Machine Design, Cheng Y. Lin, Gary R. Crossman

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

This paper presents an approach on using spreadsheets to teach machine design. It also lists detailed procedures on how to implement the teaching scheme. Results show that spreadsheet programs can help students organize their design procedures. By using the characteristics of spreadsheet programs, students do not have to repeat the same calculation and can get the alternate solution of a design almost instantly when given different values on the inputs. When compared to the method taught by using calculators, students can significantly improve their performance on homework problems and tests. From teaching evaluations, their interest in taking such a course …

Automobiles, Computers And Assault Rifles: The Value-Ladenness Of Technology And The Engineering Curriculum, Charles C. Adams

Pro Rege

Charles Adams received the 1989 Mikol Award for this essay, which was originally presented to the North Midwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Soviet Science And Engineering, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Powell Speeches

No abstract provided.