Conference Session

Curriculum Development in Civil ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Aiman Kuzmar

topics includedetailing all of the above structural components. The instructor starts typically with abrief theoretical background. The application of this theoretical introduction is usuallyfollowed by solving real or close to real life applications like designing a beam, a columnbase plate, or a footing. In many cases, design aids are available for students to performthis task. This may include tables, charts or computer programs.A common practice among instructors is to assign a project at the end of these courses.The essential function of such a project is to integrate what the students learn in bits andpieces throughout the term into one big task at its end. The main objective of this projectassignment is to make the learning process more

Conference Session

Computer & Web-Based Instruction

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Brianno Coller

productivity. Sadly, physical scientists who want to learn such things usually have to teach themselves.The project described here provides an authentic context in which our undergraduatemechanical engineers gain such computing expertise and more. Programming, design,simulation, and analysis are all intertwined in a project-based setting designed to beengaging for engineering students. We have patterned our approach after what cognitivepsychologists call a macro-context [7], connecting lessons and assignments to ameaningful overall goal that gives learning purpose. Research has shown that suchcontextualized learning is significantly more effective than traditional classroom learning[1,2,6].In addition to enriching the educational experiences of

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jameson Wetmore

as much as possible.What is important about this case is that the engineers involved recognized the dangers andactively took steps to reduce them. When we think about what engineers do, we usually envisionthem building or designing. But there are aspects of the job that often go unnoticed that areincredibly important to society. For the last decade, engineers involved with air bags could notsimply sit in a lab and research and design. They have had to stand before congressionalhearings, be interviewed by the media, find social solutions to technical problems, and some ofthem even had to face the rage of parents who’s children had been killed by air bags. They didnot always have a completely accurate picture of the risks, but they recognized

Conference Session

Undergraduate Retention Activities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Laura Kramer

difference. Whether the rhetoric of weeding is articulated or not, traditionalteaching practices and curricular design keep weeding alive. Climate research indicates acontinued student perception of engineering classrooms as relatively chilly.27 Psychological and social factors are essential to the practice of industrial and muchenvironmental engineering; it was not unusual for me to be told (by engineers from the four coredisciplines) that these fields aren't "really" engineering. They explain the higher numbers ofwomen in these fields by the presumably greater interest in the subject matter for thosesocialized in traditionally female ways. The labeling of industrial engineering as a marginal fieldin engineering preceded its inclusion of

Conference Session

Documenting Success

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Mickelson

Professor of Agricultural and BiosystemsEngineering (ABE) at Iowa State University. Dr. Mickelson is the teaching/advisingcoordinator for the ABE department. His teaching specialties include computer-aidedgraphics, engineering design, soil and water conservation engineering, and landsurveying. His research areas include soil quality evaluation using x-ray tomography,evaluation of best management practices for reducing surface and groundwatercontamination, and manure management evaluation for environmental protection of waterresources. Dr. Mickelson has been very active in the American Society for EngineeringEducation for the past 16 years. He received his Agricultural Engineering Degrees fromIowa State University in 1982, 1984, and 1991.THOMAS J

Conference Session

Teaching Software Engineering Process

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark Sebern

. As in other disciplines, aproxy is a substitute measure, chosen because it is easier to estimate. For example, the floor areaof a house is usually a very good indicator of the final construction cost, but it may be difficultfor the prospective owner to visualize in advance. The number and relative size of the rooms inthe house is easier to comprehend; if such a proxy can be reliably related to the final floor area,then it can provide a basis for effective estimation. In the initial PSP research, Humphrey foundthat program size, measured in LOC, was a good predictor of the total development time. Hethen developed a proxy based on the number and relative size of classes in a high-levelconceptual design for the software product being estimated

Conference Session

Education Ideas in Software Engineering

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Lonnie Welch; Karin Sandell; Chang Liu

%) (92%)3. Teaching Communication Skills in CS456/556To better prepare future software engineers so that they can quickly become productive ina team environment, we included communication theories and techniques as a formalcomponent of CS456/556 “Software Design and Development.” We adoptedCommunicate! 8 as the second textbook of the course and selected topics in fourimportant areas for software engineers to cover in class. The four areas were foundationsof communication, interpersonal communication, group communication, and publicspeaking. Our emphasis was on interpersonal and group communication, because suchskills could have a direct impact on the success of student projects. The foundations ofcommunication provided theoretical grounding for

Conference Session

Assessing Where We Stand

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Pangborn; Renata Engel

, but at the general education curriculum as a whole and the multi-dimensional opportunities it affords to students in meeting the career and life goals that they, aswell as other stakeholders – faculty, future employers, etc.– deem important. The AmericanAssociation for Higher Education espouses similar best practices for assessing student learning,including involvement of “representatives from across the educational community,” and the useof approaches that “reveal change, growth and increasing degrees of integration,” by focusing onexperiences that lead to the expressed learning outcomes. As will be seen later, our design forassessment draws heavily on these principles.Another fundamental change made to the general education program at Penn

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Lancaster; Susan Walden; Teri Murphy; Deborah Trytten

Page 10.1268.10 does diminish the quality of the office hours experiences of students, as the reviewer reasonably suggests, it may lead more female students to attrite from these majors than male students. For departments with gender parity as a priority, this suggested relationship between student-faculty ratio and the Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education disproportionate impact of student-faculty interactions on females could provide sound footing for seeking additional faculty lines.STEPHEN M. LANCASTER is a graduate student in mathematics at the

Conference Session

Undergraduate Retention Activities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Moshe Hartman; Harriet Hartman

Leaving Engineering: Gender Differences Harriet Hartman, Moshe Hartman Rowan University/Ben-Gurion UniversityAbstractThe paper focuses on retention in an innovative undergraduate engineering program with many“female-friendly” features despite its design as best practices for all students. Both male andfemale “stayers” in the program are compared to “leavers” on a variety of characteristics,including pre-college and family background, grades, satisfaction with the Rowan program,engineering self-confidence, and future expectations about their engineering major and career.Data come from a special 2000-1 survey of all Rowan engineering students.IntroductionStudent

Conference Session

Academic Standards & Issues/Concerns & Retention

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

R. William Graff; Paul Leiffer

Student Observations over the Last 25 Years R. William Graff, Paul R. Leiffer LeTourneau UniversityAbstractMost engineering faculty who have taught for over ten years have raised a question atsome point: “Is it me, or have students changed since I began teaching?”Using input from university statistics, faculty, staff, and student surveys, publishedliterature, and course grade records over twenty-five years, the authors have identifiedtwelve trends and observations regarding current students that impact student success andpreparation for engineering careers. While many of these trends are positive and shouldbe encouraged, a few are disturbing and should be

Conference Session

Women in IT Fields

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven P. Thomas

commonqualitative method practiced in organizational research (Lee, 199928). The major researchmethod for this study was in-depth, semi-structured telephone interviews with a group of twenty-five women in executive level positions in information technology occupations from across theUnited States. An interview guide was developed to obtain detailed information in order toproduce an in-depth understanding of the career development and aspiration of the womenexecutives. This strategy was utilized because it allows for rich data, thorough responses,probing, and clarification of meanings (Merriam, 199833). The random sample of 25 women inexecutive level positions in information technology was selected from the National Center forSupercomputing Applications