Atlanta, Georgia
June 23, 2013
June 23, 2013
June 26, 2013
2153-5965
Accreditation, Program Evaluation, and Education Resource's Impact in Latin America
International
16
23.163.1 - 23.163.16
10.18260/1-2--19177
https://peer.asee.org/19177
640
“An Evaluation of the Mexican culture on students Research Experiences” Over the last two years U.S. students participated in a summer international researchexperiences in Querétaro, Mexico in a program sponsored by NSF between UTArlington and ITESM QRO. The program sought to: 1) enhance their research skills; 2) facilitate cross-‐cultural research opportunities in internationally emerging engineering fields of study under the mentorship of a faculty researcher; and 3) Increase students’ comfort level when working with people from different cultures by exposing them to the technological, economic, and socio-‐political aspects of Mexican society. Mexico is increasingly developing its domestic firms and attractingmultinational firms (MNF) in the areas of manufacturing and distribution, the need forincreasing research activity and education in engineering logistics, distribution, andtransportation is growing. The research focus for the program in emerging automaticdata capture technology’s including RFID technologies was the basis for studentresearch projects. The assessment activities included both quantitative and qualitative assessments viadirect and indirect measures of the cognitive and affective components of theundergraduate students’ research experience in a culturally different environment. Theseassessment efforts resulted in formative continuous use of information to makenecessary changes throughout the program. These changes describe the impacts on thepedagogy, project selection and development, faculty and student interactions, andcultural encounters. The main assessment question that will guide the overallassessment process is: “How does the International Research Experience for Studentsin Mexico Program influence the overall student learning experience in preparing futureengineers who are culturally prepared to confront global science and engineeringchallenges. The results from the program evaluators produced interesting findings aboutstudents perceptions of working with the Mexican culture before and after theexperience. Also the importance of the language in not just international teams but USteams was discovered by some of the students.
Jones, E., & Gnaneswaran, V., & Murrieta, B. (2013, June), An Evaluation of the Mexican culture on students hands on research experiences Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19177
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