Achieving Black STEM Students (HABSS) longitudinal study. Her research explores psychological and sociocultural factors affecting international STEM students’ undergraduate process. Page 13.178.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008An Examination of the Use of Social Cognitive Career Theory toExplore Factors Influencing the Post Baccalaureate Decisions of High Achieving Black Engineering Students Page 13.178.2 1 An Examination of the Use of Social Cognitive
AC 2008-592: UTILIZING A SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORETICALFRAMEWORK TO INVESTIGATE THE INFLUENCES OF A SUMMERUNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCE ON PARTICIPANTS’ACADEMIC AND CAREER PLANSJulie Trenor, University of Houston JULIE MARTIN TRENOR is a Research and Instructional Assistant Professor at the University of Houston, and is the Director of Undergraduate Student Recruitment and Retention for the Cullen College of Engineering. Dr. Trenor holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in the same field from North Carolina State University. Dr. Trenor develops and teaches freshman engineering courses, and directs the women-in-engineering program
partnership of 13 university-based laboratories supported by the NSF. The NNIN alsohas extensive education outreach programs for the K-gray population. One such program is ourNNIN Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). NNIN has a strong commitment to thebroader mission of nanotechnology education, knowledge transfer, and outreach for the nation.Since 1997, NNIN (and its predecessor NNUN) has conducted a network wide, multi-site REUprogram. Between 40 and 80 students participate annually in the NNIN REU and over 500undergraduates having completed this summer research program. We have several years’ worthof evaluation results from annual surveys which we use to modify the program and to measurethe impact of our program on career choices. The
AC 2008-1537: LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERINGGRADUATES: PERCEPTIONS OF WORKING TIMEJames Trevelyan, University of Western AustraliaSabbia Tilli, University of Western Australia Page 13.857.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Longitudinal Study of Australian Engineering Graduates: Perceptions of Working TimeAbstractA longitudinal study of a single cohort of university engineering graduates is providing detailedinformation on the early career of Australian engineering graduates at a time of unprecedenteddemand for engineers. The graduates respond to web-based surveys every 2 or 3 months and asub-sample provide
nature of thetask undertaken.A number of researchers have looked at self-efficacy as it relates to careers and have found thatself-efficacy is strongly related to both the range of career options as well as careerpreferences2,3. For example, Hackett 4 and Hackett and Betz 5 have examined mathematical self-efficacy because of the importance of quantitative skills to science, technology, engineering andtechnology careers. Their research indicates that individuals avoid some careers because ofperceived mathematical ability rather than actual mathematical ability. Interest in specific aspectsof a career and self-efficacy go hand in hand. Individuals with an high self-efficacy in sciencehave a strong interest in theoretical abstract activities and
and the associated expectancies for success in engineering, both as an engineeringstudent and with regard to a future career in engineering. Figure 1: Eccles’ expectancy-value model of achievement choices 8Expectancies can be defined as one’s belief as to how well he or she will perform on anupcoming task or in a future event. 5 Expectancies include one’s perception of both his or herability and the task difficulty. 4 Numerous studies have examined expectancies of success. 6, 9, 10Important outcomes include: 1) evidence supporting higher expectancies for success as beinglinked to better task performance 4, 9, 2) competence beliefs shown to contribute to subjectivetask values 10, 3) competence beliefs found to decrease with age in
that those students with a more positive perception of active learning techniques ingeneral will also likely find the activities used in the course to be positive.2. What is the relationship between students’ perceived relevance of course and their perceptionof active learning?We hypothesize that students who perceive the course to be more relevant to their future and ofgreater interest to them will be more likely to endorse principles of active learning. Many of thestudents in the class are planning careers in industry as opposed to academic positions. Wehypothesize that students who have a greater interest in teaching will also likely feel morepositive about teaching strategies that have an active component.3. What differences exist between
, she is the PIC IV Chair and a frequent speaker on career opportunities in engineering, especially for women and minority students. Page 13.1287.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Thinking About Graduate SchoolAbstractLess than 18% of graduating engineers in the US go directly full-time to graduate school andvery few women and underrepresented minority students go on to graduate school. Our countryneeds more diverse researchers in engineering, and students do not realize the creative andchallenging work that they can obtain with a graduate degree. There are many reasons for thelow
Institute and State University MAURA BORREGO is an assistant professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Borrego holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Her current research interests center around interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering and engineering education, including studies of the collaborative relationships between engineers and education researchers. Investigations of interdisciplinary graduate programs nationwide are funded through her NSF CAREER award.Jenny Lo, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University JENNY LO is an advanced instructor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Lo
the concept of dual degreeprograms is consistent with recommendations contained in recent reports regarding therelationship between undergraduate and graduate education (advocating that we move towardsthe master’s degree being the professional engineering degree7,8).With more schools adding dual degree programs, we believe that schools need a greaterunderstanding of how students decide to pursue a dual degree or other graduate degree. Theinformation about this decision process should enable programs to better support their students’in this phase of their education and career planning. It will also give schools insights into how tostructure effective dual-degree programs to support the students considering graduate workthrough a dual degree
. 4) Incorporating career development, such as resume, portfolio and evaluations, explicitly into the lessons to prepare students for obtaining, securing, and succeeding in a job or computer-based career. Seventy-five percent of the study participants worked or are currently working in an Information Technology (IT) related position. They cited the above four elements as invaluable for their initial employment and continued success. PCM guided our curriculum development to ensure that all aspects necessary for a well-educated student were addressed. This model was originally developed for gifted and talented education. However, it shows promise for technical curricula that prepare
contribute to the students' skills/knowledge and identity? What elements contribute to students’ persistence in an engineering major and persistence in the engineering profession? 4. What skills do early career engineers need as they enter the workplace?Given the scale of the APS investigation with multiple schools and student populations, theanswers to these questions will allow us to identify educational practices that contribute tostudents persisting and thriving in engineering, and potential strategies for attracting morestudents to the study of engineering.This paper describes the evolution and implementation of the Academic Pathways Study (APS),a five year, multi-institution study designed to address these questions and
identification of theskills needed by early career engineers as they enter the workplace.The Academic Pathways Study was originally designed to investigate these research questionsusing data from four cohorts of participantsa. In 2005, a fifth group was added (referred to as theCross-sectional Cohortb) that included students not in the original design and provided cross-sectional data from all four undergraduate years.APS Longitudinal data were collected at four pseudonymous institutions: Technical PublicInstitution, Urban Private University, Suburban Private University, and Large Public University.The Cross-sectional Cohort data were collected at a fifth institution (another large publicuniversity). The Broader Sampling Cohorts expanded the number of
. Borrego holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Her current research interests center around interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering and engineering education, including studies of the collaborative relationships between engineers and education researchers. Investigations of interdisciplinary graduate programs nationawide are funded through her NSF CAREER award. Page 13.970.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Perceptions of Engineering EducationAbstractThe impact of engineering education seems to be felt in all veins of
elements of students’ engineering education contribute to the changes observed in questions one and two? What do students find difficult and how do they deal with the difficulties they face? Page 13.633.2 • WORKPLACE: What skills do early-career engineers need as they enter the workplace? Where did they obtain these skills? Are there any missing skills? How are people’s identities transformed in moving from school to work?The APS has utilized a variety of methods including surveys, structured interviews, ethnographicmethods, engineering design tasks, and academic transcripts to gain a broader and richer pictureof
AC 2008-609: IMPLEMENTING INFORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND AFEEDBACK AND REVISION LOOP TO ENHANCE LEARNING INENGINEERING COURSESWarren Hull, Louisiana State University Warren R. Hull, Sr. is the Engineering Communications Coordinator at Louisiana State University. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and an M.S. in Environmental Health from Harvard University. His engineering career spans nearly 40 years. He is a licensed Professional Engineer who was previously an engineering consultant, and is also a retired military officer.Warren Waggenspack, Louisiana State University Warren N. Waggenspack, Jr. is currently the Associate Dean for Engineering Undergraduates
sophomore engineering students’academic experience and engineering identity. Finally, a broad range of divergent and parallelviews shed light and provide insights about diversity and its impact on their potential careers astold by a cross section of sophomores from around the United States; yet, these data are notmeant to generalize beyond the population from which it was taken. This paper contributesimportant knowledge to the growing body of literature in engineering education and diversity.IntroductionBurgeoning research on diversity in engineering consistently reveals that engineering strugglesto keep pace with trends in the increasingly growing global marketplace1. Numerous ideas havebeen put forth as to why student attrition among some groups
introductory physics classes at theinner-city university, (2) involve undergraduate science majors in the implementation,assessment, and creation of innovative teaching materials, and (3) document the effectiveness ofthe implementation in promoting student learning through the use of multiple assessmentinstruments.Almost all students enrolled in these introductory courses are majors in the science, technology,engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In order for these students to succeed as theymove through their academic and professional careers, they require preparation that goes wellbeyond what the traditionally taught physics course often provides. Rather than developing askill set that involves pattern matching and formula manipulation
, andconcluded that “employment during college enhances the development of career-related skills.”While most of these studies were based on student self-reports of the benefits of these workexperiences, data from employers suggests that they agree with students’ self-assessments.Casella and Brougham9 found that a majority of employers they surveyed reported that studentswith work or internship experience “produced higher-quality work, accepted supervision anddirection more willingly, demonstrated better time management skills, and were better able tointeract with coworkers on team projects.” Similar to internships, the influence of coops might beexpected to be even stronger because these experiences are typically longer in duration and moreintegrated
AC 2008-1086: JOURNAL CLUBS AS PEDAGOGY FOR INTERDISCIPLINARYGRADUATE EDUCATIONMaura Borrego, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University MAURA BORREGO is an assistant professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Borrego holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Her current research interests center around interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering and engineering education, including studies of the collaborative relationships between engineers and education researchers. Investigations of interdisciplinary graduate programs nationwide are funded through her NSF CAREER award.Lynita Newswander, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
., & Dantzler, J. (2002). Effect of a freshman engineering program on retention and academic performance [Electronic version]. Proceedings - Frontiers in Education 32nd Annual, 3, S2C-16-S2C-22.11. Blaisdell, S. L., & Cosgrove, C. R. (1996). A theoretical basis for recruitment and retention interventions for women in engineering. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference.12. Marra, R. M., Moore, C., Schuurman, M., & Bogue, B. (2004). Assessing Women in Engineering (AWE): assessment results on women engineering uvwfgpvuÓ beliefs. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Conference.13. Betz, N. E., & Hackett, G. (1981). The relationship of career-related
in ones .6 .7 professional career 3) understands questions from others well .7 .6 4) shows confidence when presenting orally .8 .7 5) delivers a well-organized oral presentation .7 .8 6) uses appropriate presentation techniques (correct eye contact, use of .8 .8 voice, etc.) 7) keeps audience engaged when presenting orally .7 .4 .8 8) is able to interpret results for various audiences .7 .8 9) adjusts presentation to each audience and purpose
government and non-profit organizations. He claimed to be very interested and vested in his teaching career and teaching-related issues. Overall, he seemed reasonably satisfied with his student ratings, reporting them as good to excellent. However, he felt the need to improve his ratings and did so by continuing to modify the courses that he teaches, and to seek out resources when developing new courses.• Fay: Fay is an engineering educator who was trained in a traditional engineering discipline and has 15+ years of teaching experience within a traditional engineering department. She reported having limited industry experience, which consisted mostly of internships while she was a student. In her position at the time of the
post-tests covering conceptual information, and researcher field noteswere used as the primary sources of data. From these data, themes were identified, and actionswere taken to address each of these feedback themes to better correspond to the learning goalsidentified for the lesson.IntroductionThe face of science, engineering, and technology is rapidly changing. The biggest trends are alsothe smallest, as nano-scale phenomena prove to be more and more important in a wide range ofapplications. However, we still have yet to include these nano-scale phenomena in oursecondary science curricula, leaving students unprepared to enter important careers innanoscience, engineering, and technology.Professional development efforts are one way to combat
assessments show that through repeated practice, peer leaders become more adept athandling larger numbers of students in group settings, and they become more confident andcapable in leading workshops. Systematic assessments show that students who are engaged Page 13.549.5through PLTL have higher grades, faster time to graduation, and improved retention ofundergraduate students. Students and peer leaders report that students arrive early to PLTLsessions and more fully engage in the process of acquiring conceptual understanding. Ongoingassessments suggest that students exposed to and use cooperative learning early in theirundergraduate careers more
’ Retention based on Cognitive and Non-cognitive FactorsAbstractEngineering students’ affective self-beliefs can be influential factors directly or indirectlyaffecting their academic success and career decision. This paper examines whether students’non-cognitive factors can be used, alone or in combination with cognitive factors, in artificialneural network (ANN) models to predict engineering student’s future retention. Four ANN basedretention prediction models using different combinations of non-cognitive and cognitive factorsare presented. The independent variables includes survey items from nine non-cognitiveconstructs (leadership, deep learning, surface learning, teamwork, self-efficacy, motivation,meta-cognition, expectancy-value, and major
the challenges ofpractical application.Sometime around a student’s sophomore or junior year, they realize that engineering is not anexact science. Conditions surrounding the choice of theories and/or equations are often the mostdifficult to judge. During their academic studies, they are helped in the decision-making by thesectioning of material but once they begin their professional career they suffer from doubt,uncertainty and the loss of the answers in the back of the book. The challenge then forengineering and engineering technology professors is in preparing students to apply classroommaterial to “real life” situations while still supplying them with the essential fundamentals.This paper discusses a class assignment that inspires students
. I mean, the most successful people, they’re in the industry, and the ones who will, um, be noticed for their work and who will advance in their careers the fastest are not necessarily the ones who, um, are-are the best, um, fundamental engineers. (Darrell, SPRI, Year 3).Darrell noted that the engineers who were successful were not necessarily those who had themost excellent mathematical abilities, but rather those who possessed skills such as working withothers, communication, and the ability to present one’s work. That is, it is not primarily anunderstanding of science that enables one to be successful in engineering, but also, and morecentrally, abilities that have to do with conditions of working with others, such
working on this project - and produced a successful Stirling engine. (1B)The following annotation does not include any first person statements, which makes it difficultfor the reader to necessarily know what the student is claiming that they know. CONCURRENT ENGINEERING Many mechanical engineers will design and create products for a career. By using concurrent engineering, the time and cost of manufacturing can be reduced along with improving the quality of the part. This is done by considering how the product will be manufactured when designing the product, which is concurrent engineering. During the designing process, mechanical engineers should consider what materials are available, how easy it is to form the product