Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Jonathan Krones, Boston College; Jenna Tonn, Boston College; Russell C. Powell

Tagged Topics

Diversity

course for BC’s newDepartment of Engineering which will enroll its first class in fall 2021. Seventy students enrolledin MMW, representing all the BC undergraduate schools and a number of different STEM andnon-STEM majors.As a designated “Complex Problems” course, MMW includes three pedagogical components:lectures, labs, and reflection sessions [1]. Lectures examine topics from major branches ofengineering (civil, mechanical, and electrical) and the history of science and technology since1800, with a focus on sociotechnical systems and their relationship to gender, race, disability,immigration, and nationality. Labs involve hands-on engineering modeling tasks as well as amulti-week human-centered design challenge focused on issues of access and

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Lesley M Berhan, The University of Toledo; Bryan Thomas Bosch, The University of Toledo

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Diversity

studentpersistence at the University (2nd to 3rd year retention). These specific outcomes were comparedto two distinct controls to measure rate of success, outlined below.UNDT Population (Control One): Population of students who were admitted to the College ofEngineering, but not to their chosen major based on the admissions criteria outlined previously.Most students were not admitted to their major based on their ACT/SAT score.Exploratory Studies population (Control Two): These students were not admitted to the Collegeof Engineering based on their admissions criteria, and were enrolled in University College priorto the inception of the GEARSET program (comparative data to prior year outcomes).Tables 1 and 2 reflect the raw data for past cohorts within

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Tracy Anne Hammond, Texas A&M University; Jacques C. Richard, Texas A&M University; Charles Patrick Jr, Texas A&M University; Lance Leon Allen White, Texas A&M University; Samantha Ray, Texas A&M University; Robert Harold Lightfoot Jr, Texas A&M University; Karan Watson P.E., Texas A&M University; Randy Hugh Brooks, Texas A&M University; Donna Jaison, Texas A&M University

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Diversity

reflected in her publications, research, teaching, service, and mentoring. More at http://srl.tamu.edu and http://ieei.tamu.edu.Dr. Jacques C. Richard, Texas A&M University Dr. Richard got his Ph. D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1989 and a B. S. at Boston University, 1984. He was at NASA Glenn, 1989-1995, worked at Argonne National Lab, 1996-1997, taught at Chicago State University, 1997-2002. Dr. Richard is an Instructional Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineer and NSF REU Program Director at Texas A&M since 1/03. His research focuses on computational plasma model- ing using particle methods with spectral methods on Maxwell and Boltzmann equations. He has applied the lattice Boltzmann method to study

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Jutshi Agarwal, University of Cincinnati; Cedrick Kwuimy, University of Cincinnati

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Diversity

“third nature” [6]. These traits build on biogenic [who you are] andsociogenic [how you are doing] [6] to make us who we are. As described by Kolb & Kolb [13],“because of our hereditary equipment [biogenic, who you are], our particular life experiences[sociogenic, how you are doing], we develop a preferred process of learning” [13]. Individuallearning style refers to style or learning methods used in the process of learning. Thinking,processing information and acquiring knowledge are processes that differ from student to student[14]. Fleming and Mills [15] suggested four modalities and the related questionnaire that seemedto reflect the experiences of the students in learning: Visual Learners (internalize and synthesizeinformation when it is

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Kristine K. Craven, Tennessee Technological University; Laura Cruz; Jennifer Renee Meadows

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Diversity

of college enrollment than othermeasures reflected in standardized testing, such as SATs (Park et al., 2010; Wai et al., 2009;Webb et al., 2007). The effect appears to weaken as the student approaches mastery, and thedegree to which such abilities are sufficient or necessary for advanced work across all STEMfields remains unclear. In engineering, however, spatial reasoning has been identified as a corecompetency for students at both the K-12 and university levels (ABET, 1998; Barr, 2012).Researchers are still exploring what factors may contribute to students’ abilities to reasonspatially. Previous research on gender gaps has proven to be inconclusive, but other factors suchas childhood play, video gaming, and early interventions appear

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Charmane Caldwell, Florida A&M University - Florida State University; Roxanne Hughes, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

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Diversity

performance as the general engineering student population.Please note that the information in Table 1 is self-reported by the students, while the high schoolperformance is obtained from official reporting sources. Reflective of most engineeringdepartments, each program has a majority of males but ranges from 21% females in the ECI 6-week summer bridge to 35% in the Engineering LLC. The demographic that varies most over thefour cohorts are first-generation, for example, the ECI 5-day summer bridge has less than 10%,and the general population has almost a quarter self-reported students. More than 40% of allgroups had students on free or reduced lunch, and over 80% Black students in each cohort.Because these aspects were self-reports, some students

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Jill Davishahl, Western Washington University; Emilia Mediavilla, Western Washington University ; Asaki Nelson, Western Washington University

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Diversity

disconnection that has occurred as a result of the pandemic.The authors share their insights and reflections on the process of adapting to online mentoringand summarize the challenges and opportunities of exploring new ways of connecting students.The new program will continue to be developed and modified as the department begins toresume in-person operations and adapts to the changing needs and expectations of incomingstudents.IntroductionIn March 2020, academic institutions all over the globe were forced to close classrooms andstudent gathering spaces, temporarily suspend programs, and move teaching and learning online,leading to significant challenges to the higher education community [1]. This sudden shift leftfaculty and students scrambling as they

Collection

2021 First-Year Engineering Experience

Authors

Carolyn Skurla, Baylor University; Joseph Anthony Donndelinger, Baylor University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

diameter of the opening during post-design reflective groupdiscussions. Failure was defined as either coins falling into the mug or falling onto the tablesurface. An example of a proof-of-concept bridge constructed by one of the authors is providedin Figure 4.Figure 4. Pilot test of design challenge constructed as a proof-of-concept by one of theauthors. Washers, nuts, and scrap steel were used as ballast.The design challenge was conducted in a 25-minute Zoom session divided into threeapproximately equal intervals. The first was used for introductions, providing directions for thedesign challenge, and addressing questions. The second was used for design-built-test. The thirdwas used for discussion of design strategies and results. After the first