Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for a First-Year Biomedical Engineering Course​

Sun Moon is a third-year Biomedical Engineering student at Johns Hopkins University. He is involved in various teaching activities, such as serving as a teaching assistant in many BME and undergraduate courses, leading a peer group-problem solving session, and serving as a student leader in Tutorial Project.

visit author page

biography

Meera R Bhat The Johns Hopkins University

visit author page

Meera R. Bhat is an undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include engineering education, senescence, cellular aging, adipose tissue, and neonatal health. At Johns Hopkins University, she currently serves as an undergraduate teaching assistant for several biomedical engineering courses where she develops engineering curriculum for underclassmen students.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

First-year biomedical engineering (BME) students take the introductory course, Biomedical Engineering and Design (BMED), and are mentored by lab managers who are enrolled in The Effective Teaching and Management of Engineering Teams (ETMET) course. These lab managers are integral to the success of first-year students, as BMED is a team-based, flipped, active-learning course. Upperclassmen lab managers provide crucial support and guidance to first-year students to enhance their engineering experience. The lab managers are the first-year students' first-line resource on how to obtain and analyze data, present information in written reports and oral presentations, and divide group projects into manageable tasks to meet deadlines. Thus, the topics of conflict management, design of assessments, ethics, group development, peer review, public speaking, and technical communication are essential for lab managers to be successful mentors.

We created seven three-to-five-minute videos to teach ETMET students about each of the previously mentioned topics throughout the semester and plan to test their efficacy next fall. We will first administer a baseline quiz at the beginning of the semester and then an end-of-semester quiz to assess the lab managers’ understanding of the topics presented. We will follow up with a post-semester survey with two to three questions for each module. Students will rank their confidence using a Likert scale of 1-5, with 1 representing “Strongly Disagree” and 5 representing “Strongly Agree.” Differences between pre- and post-modules will be assessed with Wilcoxon paired t-tests. Based on the data analysis and survey results, we can assess if these modules aided ETMET students in being better mentors to students in BMED and provided the necessary skills to navigate their engineering education as members of future engineering teams. Moreover, we will obtain feedback from the first-year students at the end of the semester to gauge the lab manager's effectiveness. This feedback will serve as a valuable indicator for identifying areas of improvement to enhance first-year experience in the future.

Citation
Format

Sadlowski, A. J., & Haase, E., & Moon, G. S., & Bhat, M. R. (2024, July), Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for a First-Year Biomedical Engineering Course Paper presented at 15th Annual First-Year Engineering Experience Conference (FYEE), Boston, Massachusetts. 10.18260/1-2--48628

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -  

First-year biomedical engineering (BME) students take the introductory course, Biomedical Engineering and Design (BMED), and are mentored by lab managers who are enrolled in The Effective Teaching and Management of Engineering Teams (ETMET) course. These lab managers are integral to the success of first-year students, as BMED is a team-based, flipped, active-learning course. Upperclassmen lab managers provide crucial support and guidance to first-year students to enhance their engineering experience. The lab managers are the first-year students&#39; first-line resource on how to obtain and analyze data, present information in written reports and oral presentations, and divide group projects into manageable tasks to meet deadlines. Thus, the topics of conflict management, design of assessments, ethics, group development, peer review, public speaking, and technical communication are essential for lab managers to be successful mentors.  

We created seven three-to-five-minute videos to teach ETMET students about each of the previously mentioned topics throughout the semester and plan to test their efficacy next fall. We will first administer a baseline quiz at the beginning of the semester and then an end-of-semester quiz to assess the lab managers’ understanding of the topics presented. We will follow up with a post-semester survey with two to three questions for each module. Students will rank their confidence using a Likert scale of 1-5, with 1 representing “Strongly Disagree” and 5 representing “Strongly Agree.” Differences between pre- and post-modules will be assessed with Wilcoxon paired t-tests. Based on the data analysis and survey results, we can assess if these modules aided ETMET students in being better mentors to students in BMED and provided the necessary skills to navigate their engineering education as members of future engineering teams. Moreover, we will obtain feedback from the first-year students at the end of the semester to gauge the lab manager&#39;s effectiveness. This feedback will serve as a valuable indicator for identifying areas of improvement to enhance first-year experience in the future. 
AU  - Angela Jin Sadlowski
AU  - Eileen Haase PhD
AU  - Gyeongtae Sun Moon
AU  - Meera R Bhat
CY  - Boston, Massachusetts
DA  - 2024/07/28
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for a First-Year Biomedical Engineering Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48628
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--48628
ER  -