Board 152: Effect of Evolving Design Requirements on Students' Motivation

Karinna M. Vernaza; Saeed Tiari; Scott Steinbrink; Lin Zhao

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--32270
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/32270
Download Count: 369

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Paper Authors

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Karinna M. Vernaza Gannon University

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Dr. Karinna Vernaza joined Gannon University in 2003, and she is the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering and Business and a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Her B.S. is in Marine Systems Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. She was awarded the 2012 ASEE NCS Outstanding Teacher Award, 2013 Gannon University Distinguished Faculty Award and 2013-2014 Gannon University Faculty Award for Excellence in Service-Learning. Dr. Vernaza does research in engineering education (active learning techniques) and high-strain deformation of materials. She is currently the PI of an NSF S-STEM.

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Saeed Tiari Gannon University

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Scott Steinbrink Gannon University

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Dr. Scott Steinbrink is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering.

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Lin Zhao Gannon University

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Lin Zhao received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada in 2006. She received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Shandong University, Jinan, China, in 1993 and 1996 respectively. From 1996 to 2002, she was a Faculty Member with the School of Control Science and Engineering and the School of Electrical Engineering, Shandong University. From 2002 to 2007, she was first a Research and Teaching Assistant and then a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Applied Electrostatic Research Center, the University of Western Ontario. Since 2007, she has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University, Erie, PA, where she is currently a Professor. Her research interests include electrical machinery design, modeling and analysis of electric drives, and control of electric drives.

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Abstract

In 2008, Gannon University was awarded a National Science Foundation S-STEM grant, known as SEECS (Scholars of Excellence in Engineering and Computer Science) which provided scholarship funding for academically talented students having financial need. Since then, the grant has been funded twice more; the current award period started in 2017 and will run until 2021. As a requirement for the SEECS program, all students must participate in a community-based design project, undertaken for a non-profit entity in the local region. This project is nominally a two-year effort, though some projects have taken longer to complete. Recently, a project has experienced several significant setbacks: 1) the original project sponsor decommitted at the end of the first year due to funding concerns; 2) the project location changed four times due to uncertain sponsor requirement and city regulations; 3) the design itself has required substantial alteration several times due to unexpected circumstances (largely due to sponsor issues.) After two and a half years, the project remains only about 50% complete, still requiring additional system level design, installation and testing. This team of SEECS students has been coping with each “sharp turn” of the project as well as may be expected. They have produced design sketches, prototypes, and conference presentations. Yet signs of confusion, frustration, and low motivation level have been observed among students and have been evidenced through student satisfaction surveys, which are administered to all SEECS students each semester. This work-in progress paper details the evolution of student perceptions of the validity of the project, compares that evolution to historic data obtained from previous design groups, and speculates about the cause/effect relationship between externally-imposed design changes and student perceptions. In particular, the effect of design changes on student enthusiasm and sense of purpose is to be examined. Preliminary conclusions and trends will be drawn from the study. The periodic evaluation, adjustment and intervention of advising will be suggested to guide students to fully benefit from such real-life project experience.

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Vernaza, K. M., & Tiari, S., & Steinbrink, S., & Zhao, L. (2019, June), Board 152: Effect of Evolving Design Requirements on Students' Motivation Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32270

TY - CPAPER
AB - In 2008, Gannon University was awarded a National Science Foundation S-STEM grant, known as SEECS (Scholars of Excellence in Engineering and Computer Science) which provided scholarship funding for academically talented students having financial need. Since then, the grant has been funded twice more; the current award period started in 2017 and will run until 2021. As a requirement for the SEECS program, all students must participate in a community-based design project, undertaken for a non-profit entity in the local region. This project is nominally a two-year effort, though some projects have taken longer to complete. Recently, a project has experienced several significant setbacks: 1) the original project sponsor decommitted at the end of the first year due to funding concerns; 2) the project location changed four times due to uncertain sponsor requirement and city regulations; 3) the design itself has required substantial alteration several times due to unexpected circumstances (largely due to sponsor issues.) After two and a half years, the project remains only about 50% complete, still requiring additional system level design, installation and testing. This team of SEECS students has been coping with each “sharp turn” of the project as well as may be expected. They have produced design sketches, prototypes, and conference presentations. Yet signs of confusion, frustration, and low motivation level have been observed among students and have been evidenced through student satisfaction surveys, which are administered to all SEECS students each semester.
This work-in progress paper details the evolution of student perceptions of the validity of the project, compares that evolution to historic data obtained from previous design groups, and speculates about the cause/effect relationship between externally-imposed design changes and student perceptions. In particular, the effect of design changes on student enthusiasm and sense of purpose is to be examined. Preliminary conclusions and trends will be drawn from the study. The periodic evaluation, adjustment and intervention of advising will be suggested to guide students to fully benefit from such real-life project experience.

AU - Karinna M. Vernaza
AU - Saeed Tiari
AU - Scott Steinbrink
AU - Lin Zhao
CY - Tampa, Florida
DA - 2019/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 152: Effect of Evolving Design Requirements on Students' Motivation
UR - https://peer.asee.org/32270
DO - 10.18260/1-2--32270
ER -