Board 45: Peer Mentoring for All: Investigating the Feasibility of a Curricular-Embedded Peer Mentoring Structure
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Civil Engineering
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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20
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30036
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30036
- Download Count
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365
Paper Authors
Molly A. McVey University of Kansas
Dr. Molly A. McVey is a post-doctoral teaching fellow at the University of Kansas School of Engineering where she works with faculty to incorporate evidence-based and student-centered teaching methods, and to research the impacts of changes made to teaching on student learning and success. Dr. McVey earned her Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas.
Caroline R. Bennett P.E. University of Kansas
Caroline is an Associate Professor in the KU Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering department, with a specialty in structural engineering and bridge structures. She works closely with KU Engineering’s post-doctoral Teaching Fellow and oversees the overall Engaged Learning Initiative in the School of Engineering. Caroline is responsible for overseeing KU Engineering’s active-learning classroom design and usage, prioritizing course assignments in the active-learning classrooms, helping faculty to advance their pedagogy by incorporating best practices, and advancing implementation of student-centered, active-learning approaches in the School of Engineering. Caroline is also active in contributing to university-level discussions in the area of course redesign, and has been closely involved with the KU Center for Teaching Excellence since 2006. She regularly teaches courses in bridge engineering, steel buildings, structural analysis, fatigue and fracture, elastic stability, and how to be an effective college teacher.
William N. Collins University of Kansas
William N. Collins is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. He received his BS, MS, and PhD from Virginia Tech in 2006, 2010, and 2014, respectively. His research interests include the study of fatigue and fracture mechanics for structural steel applications, the behavior of steel and concrete structural systems, and infrastructure field testing and monitoring.
Remy Lequesne University of Kansas
Rémy D. Lequesne is Assistant Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas. His research interests include the design and behavior of reinforced concrete structures subjected to earthquake-induced ground shaking. His teaching interests include introductory mechanics, structural analysis, reinforced concrete design, and reinforced concrete behavior.
Carl W. Luchies University of Kansas
Sara E. Wilson University of Kansas
Sara Wilson is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Academic Director of the Bioengineering Graduate Program at the University of Kansas. Dr. Wilson earned her PhD in Medical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also holds a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Wilson teaches courses in Control Systems and Biomechanics. Dr. Wilson also conducts research in the neuromuscular control of human motion using engineering principles from control theory and dynamics. She has studied the effects of occupational exposures such as vibration on the lumbar spine and low back disorders. She is involved in the development of medical devices used in physical therapy, obstetrics, and internal medicine.
Elaina J. Sutley University of Kansas
Dr. Sutley is an assistant professor in structural engineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Sutley's research is at the nexus of structural engineering, social science, and public policy, with an emphasis on woodframe buildings and housing. Her research works toward the development of holistic metrics of sustainability and resilience, and developing interdisciplinary science, particularly with respect to hazards and disaster research. Dr. Sutley is part of the NIST-funded Center of Excellence for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, currently serves as the chair of the SEI technical activities subcommittee on the Design of Wood Structures, and serves as secretary of the National Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure User Forum Committee.
Matthew F. Fadden University of Kansas
Dr. Fadden is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas. His research interests include novel structural systems for building construction and seismic design. He teaches structural engineering design courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Chris Melgares University of Kansas
Abstract
Peer Mentoring for All: Investigating the Feasibility of a Curricular-Embedded Peer Mentoring Structure
The benefits of peer mentoring in undergraduate STEM courses are well documented, and the literature indicates the greatest benefits of the experience may be to the peer mentor. However, in most peer-mentoring models it is only the best and brightest students who are chosen for mentor roles, who therefore gain the majority of the benefits of the experience. We are interested in the feasibility of a peer-mentoring program where all students act as mentors in some fashion. Therefore, we piloted a peer-mentoring program in two departments: Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE), and Mechanical Engineering (ME). Within each department, the peer mentoring projects were embedded into courses in a similar program stream (where the upstream and downstream courses were related to each other in terms of content). This pilot program focused on three types of mentoring: design process mentoring, engineering identity and student success mentoring, and technical skill/content mastery mentoring. The design process mentoring involved graduate students acting as consultants to undergraduate design students on their projects, meeting one-on-one to review their designs, ask questions, and provide resources and context. The engineering identity/student success mentoring and technical skill/content mastery mentoring involved students making short videos on topics to share with the class directly upstream of them (pre-requisites of the course they were in). Each instructor modified the mentoring assignment to investigate the feasibility and outcome of slightly different approaches.
Data describing participation, quality of the mentoring content, reflections from student mentors, and surveys from faculty and students in the courses with peer mentors will be presented. The primary questions investigated include: 1) Was the mentoring implementation effective (Did the mentors create useful and meaningful content and did they perceive the experience as worthwhile)? 2) What did the pilot project tell us about the feasibility of such a program? (What were the barriers to student and faculty participation? How much time was spent on “correcting” mentoring content, or coaching the mentors? Were the videos accessed and utilized by the upstream students?) 3) What was the impact of the mentoring experience on “average” students (we already have mentoring programs in place for the best and the brightest – did this implementation prove beneficial for students who may not have a chance at the programs already in place)? 4) What recommendations do we have based on this pilot study for scaled implementation of such a program?
McVey, M. A., & Bennett, C. R., & Collins, W. N., & Lequesne, R., & Luchies, C. W., & Wilson, S. E., & Sutley, E. J., & Fadden, M. F., & Melgares, C. (2018, June), Board 45: Peer Mentoring for All: Investigating the Feasibility of a Curricular-Embedded Peer Mentoring Structure Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30036
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