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An Evaluation of the Mexican culture on students hands on research experiences

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Accreditation, Program Evaluation, and Education Resource's Impact in Latin America

Tagged Division

International

Page Count

16

Page Numbers

23.163.1 - 23.163.16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--19177

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/19177

Download Count

640

Paper Authors

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Erick Jones University of Texas, Arlington

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Vettrivel Gnaneswaran University of Wisconsin-Platteville

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Beatriz Murrieta Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Queretaro

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Abstract

“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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