Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Bryan Pfaffenberger; Susan Carlson-Skalak; John P. O'Connell; Timothy P. Scott; Mark A. Shields

2653 Teaching Professional Development in the First-Year Writing Course Bryan Pfaffenberger, Susan Carlson, John P. O'Connell, Timothy P. Scott, Mark A. Shields School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia Abstract to ethical dilemmas are prized just as highly as problem-solving expertise. Engineering educatorsTwo of the significant thrusts of reform in the first- are calling for curriculum reforms that will bringyear engineering curriculum--creating enthusiasm

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Martha Ostheimer; Hal Tharp

, peer-evaluation, and group evaluation of problemsolving strategies, as well as written and oral communication skills. The course is built around uniqueteam-projects that each group creates. The course also includes significant writing-to-learn activities thatencourage students to reflect on and develop an awareness of their problem solving processes andcommunication skills. The students also work in teams, and in pairs, to evaluate the process of solvingproblems. Their written and oral presentations are also self-evaluated and peer-evaluated. This emphasison students becoming more self-aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their problem solving abilities,and on students becoming capable of evaluating the effectiveness of their communication

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Craig Gunn

Multidisciplinary Engineering Design” (Journal ofEngineering Education) report that at Harvey Mudd College, engineers enrolled in design classes must, aspart of their design experience “interact with their clients in a professional manner and communicate with avariety of audiences (peers, faculty members, clients, etc.) orally and in writing. ” It is, therefore, vitallyimportant that engineering students realize the place of communication in their lives. This realization appearsto be awakening in students because a survey conducted at The Colorado School of Mines (Miller, Olds 1993) shows that 95.3’XO of students in multidisciplinary Senior Courses felt that “Good communication skillsare an essential attribute of a professional design engineer. ” In

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ian A. Waitz; Edward C. Barrett

hands-on learning, cooperative education, writing-to-learn, and mentoring. The courses jointly serve to educate students in a variety of aspects of professionalengineering practice including solving open-ended problems, integration of disciplinary coursework, projectdevelopment and planning, oral and written communication, peer review, and teamwork. The Experimental Projects Lab is similar to an undergraduate thesis in scope. Each team of two stu-dents chooses an original research project and is guided by a faculty advisor over the span of two semesters.The students participate in all aspects of experimental research including project definition, proposing, design ofthe experiment, construction of apparatus, completion of the experiment

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

G. Kardos; C. O. Smith

of an engineering activity as the work actual-ly progressed. Cases are often written, or may be presented, in segments with each portionterminating at a critical decision point. Cases illustrate examples of good and bad engi-neering. Since cases represent real engineering activity, the judgments and decisions re-quired of students can be critically compared by them and their peers with those made bythe professionals in the case. Students discover their decisions may be as good as thosemade by the principals in the case, and perhaps better. Even when answers differ, explor-ing the nature of the difference and the underlying reasons can be valuable. Fmphasis incase use is on how results were obtained rather than demonstrating validity of a

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Judith E. Miller; James E. Groccia; David DiBiasio

Bloom were studied and discussed. An essential component was cooperative and active learning techniques. This included course design for cooperative learning and task design for effective structuring of cooperative learning activities. Students were exposed to a novel method of CL management that has been developed at WPI. For the past three years, we have had a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation to improve educational quality and faculty productivity through peer-assisted cooperative learning. In the Davis model, qualified upperclass undergraduates are hired to serve as peer learning assistants (PLAs) in courses where cooperative learning structures are used extensively. These

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Ph.D., Robert D. Borchelt

is offered every third semester at present. This is a laboratory-oriented course in which the students workas a team to design and develop working automated manufacturing cells involving machining and/or assemblytasks. Students are required to design and build the appropriate fixtures, robot grippers, electronic systems,etc. and write the complete protocol and software for the machining/assembly operation. In the early weeks ofthe course, the laboratory work involves primarily “demonstration” experiments to acquaint students with thelarger hardware available in the laboratory. This equipment includes robots, machine tools and programmablecontrollers, as well as the appropriate programming and control software needed to utilize them

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Betsy M. Aller

was usuallybecause that student knew a lot about the topic and cared deeply about passing that knowledge on to others. Iincreasingly became aware that a key problem with poorly-written papers was the lack of “ownership” by theirauthors, many of whom were uneasily just “killing ink” on an unfmiliar topic in order to get a grade. This can hold true with engineering repom as well, as many of us have experienced. If even seniorstudents in a capstone laboratory course don’t understand the audience for their report, the objectives of theirexperiment, what data they ‘re supposed to end up with and what it means when they do get it, they tend toproduce poorly written reports--vague, unsure of claims, disorganized. They ‘re uncomforrdble writing

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Dianne Atkinson

informal short speeches, all intended for peer audiences.Engineering students, if they are to move toward competence in an increasingly media-intensive workplace,need experience with more professional tasks, e.g., technical collaboration on design projects. Considerableinstructional investments already support written communication skills; engineering schools have longemphasized formal laboratory reports. The agenda now is to find ways to build better oral communication skills.2 Design in the Curriculum The increased emphasis on design in engineering curricula does offer an important opportunity tosupport oral skills. One implication of incorporating more design work into the curriculum, especially designprojects carried out with small

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Jennifer M. Jacobs; Elizabeth A. Eschenbach

to executethe TA Development Program, TFs create a teaching support network and through peer review,sharpen their teaching skills. TFs improve their presentation styles, use a variety of teaching 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings Page 1.171.1methods, and learn pedagogical theory. As Steffen Parratt, a former TF, mused, "I have probablylearned more from this program than any of its participants. The program threw me in with someexcellent teachers and forced me to work hard on my teaching skills.'' Experienced TFs are a resource for all TAs in the College of Engineering. Most TFs

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Daryl R. Kipke

Session 2309 Computer Applications in Bioengineering: An Active-Learning Laboratory Course for Undergraduates Daryl R. Kipke Arizona State UniversityIntroduction Bioengineering is a diverse field that bridges several traditional engineering disciplines to medicine andbiology. In competing for bioengineering-related jobs with peers from traditional engineering disciplines, theB.S.-level bioengineer should have particular knowledge and experience about making measurements from oranalyzing

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

R. H. Parsons; S.J. Steiner; K C Dee; G. Judd

subject• show that they care about their students• make efforts to be available for extra help• review course material with the students before exams/finalsSome relevant quotes from the surveys: "He writes summaries of the material covered and then e-mails them to us. His summaries explain the material very well." "She explains what Professor ---- attempts to teach." "He gets to know all the students well. It makes for a comfortable atmosphere where questions are easy to ask." "She is the only reason I am passing the course."The "worst" TAs:• were not approachable• were short-tempered• ran recitations which the students considered "not helpful"• were not prepared for class• got "annoyed" when

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lucian P. Fabiano

%,~y!:~ ‘ Members of a project team must have expertise in the functional I areas they represent. Their expertise must be sufficient to ‘Sddress project issues and to provide the project manager with the information required for successful project development . Communication between the project manager and project team - members is intensive, and must take place on a regular basis. Regular weekly or hi-weekly meetings, and project status reports are not uncommon in successful projects. In NJIT’s EET senior capstone project course, the project team concept is emphasized through “peer design reviews”. Early in the semester project teams

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Dr. John W. Nazemetz; Dr. John B. Solie; Dr. David R. Thompson

team’s grade is distributed based on individual contribution. The individual grades are distributed based on the instructors’ observations and the peer input and the grades given within a team is such that the average of the individual grades equal the grade on the team effort (i.e. if the report is a B, the three team members could get B/B/B or A/B/C or A/C/C, etc.) This effectively deals with the requirement for all team members to contribute to the project.Overall Conclusions Overall, it can be concluded that freshman can do well in the course and benefit from theexperiences that it provides. Input from a self assessment paper that each student writes at the end of thesemester indicates that the students are realizing the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Silvia G. Middleton; Monika Lumsdaine; Kimberly A. Buch; J. William Shelnutt

acclaimed book, The Seven Habits ofHighly Successful People and to write a paper on use of each of the habits by themselves or someone else theyknew. This provided the framework for using other awareness and development tools, such as the MeyersBriggs and HBDI. Students were encouraged to share their individual results with their teams and were requiredto create an approximate team profile to facilitate discussion of individual strengths and weaknesses in regards toteam operation. Assessment Measures. Individual and team assessments were used throughout to determine theeffectiveness of the students and the courses. Peer appraisals, grades on team and individual assignments, self-reported development plans, and final written and oral report

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Samuel S. Lee; R. Narasimhan; M. Lewis Temares

the new environment,especially with regard to study habits, prioritization of tasks, and time management. Many students fail their firstcalculus course and lose interest in engineering. Many students who have successfully completed themathematics sequence are still unable to apply their math skills in solving physical problems (i.e., wordproblems). Several initiatives have been taken to help students adjust, such as proactive advising, earlyintervention, peer counseling, tutoring and the “Freshman Forgiveness Program.” All these efforts haveproduced some positive results. However, to educate students effectively and provide them with an engineeringeducation for a changing world, the entire curriculum requires careful review and re-design with

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lucian P. Fabiano

comments are provided with the graded draft specification. During t h e first Semester s t u d e n t s a r e g r o u p e d into t h r e e p e r s o n teams. T h e p u r p o s e o f a t e a m is to perform design r e v i e w s o n t h e p r o j e c t o f e a c h team m e m b e r . E a c h s t u d e n t t a k e s a turn in p r e s e n t i n g his o r her p r o j e c t t o the o t h e r t e a m m e m b e r s . These o t h e r t e a m manbers review t h e p r o j e c t t e c h n i c a l l y a n d f r o m a m a n u f a c t u r a b i l i t y , testability, a n d s e r v i c e a b i l i t y p e r s p e c t i v e . Each student is responsible for calling the meeting, running it, and for writing the meeting minutes of

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Eric J. Shaw

students have the opportunity and personal motivation to acquire computing skills, but theinstruction by peers that typically takes place is usually informal and tends to be eccentric at best. (Engineeringeducators sometimes suffer the same handicap, having made the transition, perhaps reluctantly, frommainframe batch computing to desktop computing, after a huge investment in non-portable experience andcoding). For an effective understanding of computer operation, basic concepts must be introduced early in thecurriculum. In the freshman-level Engineering Graphics course in the UAH Mechanical Engineering Department,new engineering students are introduced to computer maintenance and security issues. While not as interestingas multimedia, such

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Lueny Morell de Ramírez; Carlos Velazquez

section). Project-wide (AMP project), a quiz graded by peers. total of 777 students from various SEM disciplines and universities participated. One-minute papers: one or two minutes before the end of the class period, the Outcomes of this experience proved to professor would ask the students to write be extraordinary. Final grades for the Mass and on a piece of paper what they learned in Energy course’s three sections in the pilot class that day. This activity was held experiment (I semester 92-93) are shown in once or twice during the semester, Figure 1. Overall, 77.4°A of the students

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Blake Bath

humanities, social science, physical science, and engineering courses, Page 1.93.1 ., . ..- - {~:$~ 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings ‘..+,13TyL.~ ● modifing existing pedagogical practices (primarily passive lectures in most courses) to —- - include extensive use of active learning and cooperative learning strategies, team teaching, and writing as a learning and inquiry tool. - - - - - ● developing a comprehensive peer study group system to encourage interpersonal growth and support among freshmen in the Connections

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Gordon; Joel Greenstein; Jack Hebrank; Douglas E. Hirt; Daniel P. Schrage; Bill Mason; Tom Miller; Jim Nau

freshman engineeringcurriculum, enabling students in other engineering majors to take the course as well. A number of innovationshave been introduced in this course, including: Page 1.169.3 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings • Introductions to the product development process and engineering practice through course activities and real world design projects in the first course of the industrial engineering curriculum. • An early and continual focus on the customer and users of the product. • Integration of a variety of writing and speaking activities into the course to

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

James V. Masi

by the student’s acceptance, in writing, of the project as described. Next step is the meeting, forclarification and specificity, of the professor, student, and medical personnel. If industrial sponsorship is involved, the industrialadvisor also enters into this meeting. Either at this meeting or the next, the patient is introduced to the team (who should, by thistime, have their act together). At this time everyone finally hears “what the customer (patient) ordered. Hopefully, this coincideswith what has been discussed in the previous meetings. The grade for the course is given as a composite of the committee’s evaluation, with the student as a non-voting member, ofcourse. Any potential patent rights are usually foregone in hopes that the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas M. West; Kimberly D. Douglas

number of years. We are currentlyattempting to use the teams more extensively for assisting in identifying instructional process improvementopportunities. Students have been serving as facilitators on TQM teams and in the fall terms of 1994 and 1995senior engineering students were used to assist teams in the Engineering Orientation (ENGR 111) course. TheENGR 111 facilitators are required to write a report at the end of the term detailing their experiences withfacilitation and making recommendations on how to improve the course. From this student feedback, it becameapparent that they were being expected to fill a role that they essentially had no formal preparation to fill.Facilitators were often selected for their maturity, professionalism, and

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Geraldine B. Milano; Richard Parker; George Pincus

Proiect. The humanities faculty played a key role in . -developing techn~cal writing skills ~nd-improving bra~ communication. Students wer; graded ‘on finalreports and presentations of their project designs. Since students worked as a team, the team shared thegrade of the final reports. 4 ADOPTION AND ADAPTATION OF THE E PROGRAM AT NJIT The original intent of the FED 101 course at NJIT was to offer one project covering all major areasof engineering. However, the logistics of teaching schedules for team teaching and the type of project hasvaried over time and is still

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Dan Budny

of all the professors in the department and/or college promoted based on teaching.If a list exists, then you know the university values teaching and you are on the right team. If a list does not existthen get “face to face” with your department head and dean and ask them point blank if they will support you forpromotion based on teaching. If they say no, then leave the university, if they say yes, and put it in writing, youmust be prepared to take the next step. &eD ~ To get the game started, you must get nominated by someone on the Primary Committee. Thus,the next step is to find a full professor in your department that believes in the value of teaching and develop arelationship with this person(s). You need an advocate on the

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Sylvia D. Pifion; Elsa Q. Villa; Connie Kubo Della-Piana

intraditional lectures assimilate far less information than those in which some type of active learning is taking place.Various types of active learning exist such as peer teaching, cooperative learning (formal and informal), writing inthe classroom, computer-based instruction, visual-based instruction, to name a few. One particular type of active learning is cooperative learning which is the instructional use of small groupsin which students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning5. Research shows that smallgroups using cooperative learning techniques are positively correlated with student cognitive development, .retention, and sense of community The effective use of cooperative learning

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Sheila C. Palmer; Pamela M. Norris

in the programreinforced their desire to pursue a career in academia. When asked if there were any drawbacks to participating in the program, all of the respondentscommented that the program was time-consuming. The time required for participation was, in some cases,an additional stress during a time when dissertation research and writing was nearing completion. However,balancing teaching and research commitments as a student provides good exposure to the expectations thatall new faculty face. Page 1.176.4 1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

Collection

1996 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Pfeffer; Rajesh N. Dave; Jonathan Luke; Ian S. Fischer; Anthony D. Rosato

specialized topics such as techniques basedon fuzzy clustering, robust clustering and evidence collection (such as Hough transforms) were also considered.These techniques were considered specifically with an objective of detection of shapes such as circles andellipses, since in many particle technology experiments, one must detect particles which are usually spherical.The course required that the students write a complete set of computer codes for binary image analysis forcomputing geometric as well as topological properties of binary images. They were also introduced to PC basedcommercial image analysis packages such as VISILOG (by Noesis Corporation) and OPTIMAS (by OptimasCorporation). Comments about the Image-Analysis Course Grading of