Asee peer logo

S-STEM Becoming Engaged Engineering Scholars (BEES): Insights from Year 1

Download Paper |

Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

NSF Grantees: S-STEM 1

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--35171

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/35171

Download Count

406

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Sura Alqudah Western Washington University

visit author page

Dr. Sura Al-Qudah is an assistant professor in the Engineering and Design Department at Western Washington University. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from State University of New York at Binghamton in August 2014 and August 2010 respectively, and her B.S. in Electronics Engineering from Yarmouk University, Jordan, in 2004.

Dr. Al-Qudah research areas of interest are in process improvement methodologies (Lean Six-Sigma), applied operations research, and engineering education pedagogies. Before joining WWU in the Fall of 2014, she worked as a graduate teaching and research assistant in the Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Department at SUNY Binghamton. She also served as an assistant instructor for Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training courses offered through SUNY Binghamton for six consecutive training courses since 2012.

Dr. Al-Qudah is a member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE) professional societies, as well as Alpha Pi Mu honor society. Dr. Al-Qudah holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certificate.

visit author page

biography

Elizabeth Litzler University of Washington

visit author page

Elizabeth Litzler, Ph.D., is the director of the University of Washington Center for Evaluation and Research for STEM Equity (UW CERSE) and an affiliate assistant professor of sociology. She has been at UW working on STEM Equity issues for more than 15 years. Dr. Litzler is a member of ASEE, incoming chair of the ASEE Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and a former board member of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Her research interests include the educational climate for students, faculty, and staff in science and engineering, assets based approaches to STEM equity, and gender and race stratification in education and the workforce.

visit author page

biography

Joseph Arthur Brobst Old Dominion University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-0605-757X

visit author page

Joe Brobst, a research assistant professor at Old Dominion University's Center for Educational Partnerships, holds a BS in Biological Sciences, MA in Curriculum and Instruction, and Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, all from the University of Delaware. Formerly a high school biology teacher, he is now an educational research and program evaluation specialist with experience working on a wide range of projects sponsored by organizations including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Office of Naval Research, U.S. Department of Education, and Corporation for National and Community Service. His areas of interest and expertise include broadening participation in STEM higher education, K-12 STEM teacher professional development, and preservice teacher preparation in STEM.

visit author page

biography

Jill Davishahl Western Washington University

visit author page

Jill Davishahl is Assistant Professor and First Year Programs Director in the Engineering + Design department at Western Washington University. Jill's teaching, service, and research activities focus on enhancing the engineering and design first year student experience by providing the foundational technical skills, student engagement opportunities, and professional skill development necessary to improve success in the major, with emphasis on supporting traditionally underserved student populations. Her current research focuses on creating inclusive and equitable learning environments through the development and implementation of strategies geared towards increasing student sense of belonging.

visit author page

biography

Andrew G. Klein Western Washington University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-6464-9269

visit author page

Andrew G. Klein is a professor in Electrical Engineering at Western Washington University (WWU), having joined in 2014 with a joint appointment to the department of Engineering and Design (Electrical Engineering Program) and the graduate faculty of Computer Science. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He then worked for awhile at several Silicon Valley startup companies before returning to Cornell to pursue a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. Prior to his arrival at WWU, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Supélec/LSS near Paris, France and was a faculty member at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

The Becoming Engaged Engineering Scholars (BEES) is an NSF S-STEM project that responds to the challenges in recruiting and retaining academically talented, low-income students from diverse backgrounds into undergraduate engineering programs. The new, ABET-accredited engineering programs at Western Washington University (WWU) have faced unique challenges in recruitment and retention, particularly in the first two years for pre-engineering students. Building on the success of prior S-STEM awards in other disciplines at WWU, the proposed program provides a systematic sequence of academic, social, and career support services specifically designed to enhance the success of engineering students during these first two years of undergraduate study. The primary program goal is to ensure the engineering programs offer an equitable pathway into engineering careers, particularly for low-income, academically talented students. In addition to providing financial support for participants, the BEES program adapts existing institutional support structures to offer a one-week bridge program prior to the start of their first year, implements a multi-level mentoring system that includes internal and external mentors, engages students in multiple curricular and co-curricular activities including an engaged engineering project experience, and offers a first-year seminar focused on engineering and society. The project devotes significant resources to studying the impact of the proposed activities. Specifically, the research seeks to answer how and to what extent the program activities support retention through the end of the 2nd year of engineering study, as well as how and to what extent the program activities impact students' self-efficacy, identity, and sense of belonging. In this paper, the proposed program and its various support structures are described in detail, and some insights and results from the first year of the project are reviewed and discussed.

Alqudah, S., & Litzler, E., & Brobst, J. A., & Davishahl, J., & Klein, A. G. (2020, June), S-STEM Becoming Engaged Engineering Scholars (BEES): Insights from Year 1 Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35171

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2020 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015