describingproblems experienced by youth, e.g. “If I could change one thing about school, it would be…”, “I wish thepeople around me would…”, “I wish teachers knew…”, etc. These two activities provided youth withopportunities to think not only about the game mechanics they will be designing but also about the story ofthe game and how they want players to feel. The second stage, problem-framing, involved youth thinking together as a group about thechallenges they observe among their peers. Participants were asked to write down on a collaborative boardideas about challenges youth face at home, at school, at work, but also challenges they envision for theirfuture or for future generations. Once each team had brainstormed a list of issues, they would
talk about their responsibilities as college-level learners (e.g., know what is expected,do the work, manage time, present work clearly, write effectively, create productive groups, andcommunicate professionally). A “lack of social integration” is addressed by providing weeklyopportunities to connect with their peers (e.g., partnered in class activities, peer tutoring), withfaculty (e.g., office hours, one-on-one advisement sessions), and with major resources (e.g.,study rooms, major events like mixers, college events like career fairs).The content delivery is designed to be engaging and student-centered. Experiential learningapproaches such as active learning, project-based learning, and service learning are the norm inthe intervention, as is
pathway offers a lower-cost, quality education, allowing students of allmath levels access to an engineering degree with courses that transfer to a four-year institution.These students gained the skills necessary to be successful and were able to earn an engineeringdegree with little debt. Relationships with peers and authority figures were crucial to thestudents’ successful journey.Through collaboration, students learn more and gain a deeper understanding of the material.Students need multiple sources of encouragement, recognition, and successes to persist towardan engineering degree. Seeing themselves in a role model is beneficial. Engineering lifestyle,comfort, money, and making a positive difference were factors in choosing an
and presentations,with the possibility of incorporating peer evaluations in the future. The course's inclusivity,accessibility, and ability to support diverse learners were evaluated by analyzing the courseevaluations. Figure 2 presents the course evaluation responses from students. Course completionrates and enrollment trends will be examined once enough students have participated. Figure 2: Course evaluation responses of the studentsConclusionAt the time of writing, the number of students surveyed was limited, and observations are noteduntil more data is collected from a larger sample size.1) The course's ability to motivate students and foster interest in robotics programming wasevident.2) The real-life examples presented during the
, interviews, self-reflection, and peer assessment [22] are common and valuable approaches to assessingindividuals' teamwork performance. Critical Team Behaviors Form (CTBF) measures teamworkskills in tactical decision-making teams, in which the critical skill dimensions and behaviorsmust be identified and presented in reports. Multiple raters strive for consistency in theirjudgments on assessment reports (David Kraus). Furthermore, the format for the measurementmethodology must be readily understandable and usable [20]. Teamwork assessment tools usedin engineering education have also been studied in the existing literature, for example, self-reflections [23], peer assessment [24], e-portfolio [25], online assessment tools [26].3.2 Methodological
lab activities in this course, students were tasked with a visual depiction to showdifferent types of bias. The details of this activity and resultant student visual depictions will bediscussed in this section. The lab for this week consisted of a 75 minute course block with areading and question prompts assigned for after the lab period. In the lab, the first activity forstudents was to discuss and define the word bias with their peers. At this point in the semester,students have not encountered a formal statistical definition of bias in data. In the next step,students were tasked to read a comic inspired by Dr. Joy Buolamwini’s work on gender shades(Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018). This comic was drawn by Vreni Stollberger and published in
. This approach encourages motivation through emotionallearning and emphasizes collaborative, integrative, and constructive learning. The approachintegrates placed-based learning with journaling and sketching to foster observation, curiosity,imagination, and creativity while also employing rigorous homework practices that involvecritical reading and reflective, analytical, and critical writing. The approach of providing studentswith cumulative and integrated transdisciplinary learning content, equips them with thenecessary knowledge and heuristic abilities to work effectively in HDT teams, even before theyembark on their design projects.Pedological MethodologyLearning methodologies in Holistic Engineering (HE) draw on numerous established
are reported on threefocus groups held with ten women, all students, former students, and teaching professionals froma Construction Engineering degree program at a private Chilean university. This methodologypresents results regarding participant perception of their sense of belonging, their positive andnegative experiences in an environment related to construction, whether in the campus or workcontext, and their proposed solutions for enhancing this sense of belonging within the sector.Despite differences in participants' life stages, they all believe that self-confidence, recognitionfrom peers and leaders, social interactions, and knowledge and skills are critical factors thatimprove their sense of belonging.Keywords: focus groups; sense of
, such as the final project,were vital to our learning as engineering students. Specifically, the way our professor taught thecourse was rated either on par or higher than the department and university mean in theeffectiveness of instruction. Along with the 5-point scale, students were also able to leaveanonymous feedback about their opinions of the course. A response from one of our peers sumsup our views on the course by saying, “If you devote the time and energy to [our professor’s]class[,] it is extremely rewarding as you will come out with coding experience, 3D modeling, aswell as tangible products and technical writing.”The course also helped us with our time management skills. One of our peers said, “He [ourprofessor] has a strong focus
ourinstrument was guided by the research question: What influence does the instrumental andpsychosocial support that engineering graduate students perceive from their advisor haveon their thesis self-efficacy? Using SCCT as our theoretical foundation, this work focuseson the development and validation of the Advisor Support and Self-efficacy for Thesiscompletion (ASSET) instrument with graduate students pursuing master’s and doctoraldegrees in engineering disciplines.Our resultant construct of Thesis Self-efficacy measures the confidence that a student has in theirabilities to complete specific tasks that are key to the writing of their dissertation, thesis, orapplied project report, while our Advisor Support construct measures a student’s perception
not necessarily result in all students completing the required activities. Some students takeon little responsibility for the team activity and depend on their peers to complete the work.Since it is a team activity, these students benefit academically from their peers’ efforts thoughtheir new knowledge is limited. Thus, assessing the outcomes of team projects may noteffectively measure individual student learning.This study addresses one means to increase the responsibility, and thus learning, of individualteam members when completing a team-based project. It reports on an intervention the courseinstructor made to increase individual contribution to a team design project and theintervention’s result on student learning and contribution
Teaching AssistantsAbstractThis complete experience-based practice paper describes the ongoing development of diversity,equity, and inclusion (DEI) training for undergraduate engineering teaching assistants in a first-year, team project-based design course. At a large private university, undergraduate teachingassistants play a key role in first-year student success and the mentorship of their cornerstonedesign project. As the first points of reference for students, they assist with content delivery,guide students through hands-on labs and projects, and deliver regular feedback on assignments.Effective teaching assistants are leaders, thus their training as educators is essential to our first-year students’ success. To support this endeavor, peer
passion for increasing Hispanic representation in STEM. She currently lives with her husband Andr´es, their two sons David and Sebasti´an, and their minia- ture schnauzer Lucca in Winter Garden, Florida.Esther Gonzalez Esther Gonz´alez, MPA, MBA, ABD is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with subject matter expertise in organization behavior and diversity management. Her research is multidisciplinary and applies methods and fields in public policy and management. She is a published author in several peer reviewed journals with media mentions in Forbes. Previously, she served as Director on the Research and Innovation team at the Society of Hispanic Professional
been the winner of a number of prestigious awards including IEEE Achievements Award, Young Engineer Award, Global Engineering Impact Award and Graphical System Design Achievement Award. She has published more than 30 papers in peer reviewed journals and conferences in her field and is the sole author of Map- ping Biological Systems to Network Systems (Springer). She was also featured on TedX, Qatar held by TedXAlDafnaEd in Qatar and her work is covered in professional and major trade publications, major media, such as Microwave Journal, Everything RF, Financial Express, Science Reporter, the Times of India, and India Today. She has been invited as a panelist, TPC member and has been a chair for multiple sessions
the instructorneeds to move between students quickly or even worse…students may “fall through the cracks”as demand for help outpaces the instructor resources available. The result is students leaving labwith knowledge gaps regarding the topic that prevent them from creating a solid foundation onwhich to build their basic programming knowledge. Even worse is the fact this approach teachesstudents when they are handed a programming task to dive straight to code as fast as possiblewhich may not be consistent with how they will work in industry.The goal of this paper is to outline a new paradigm for structuring the lab period which teachesstudents how to work with peers to solve a problem, think before they code, and build conceptualunderstanding
courses to that which is tangibleand relatable through the iterative practices that they go through in trying to design a solution toa problem under the anticipatory guidance of professors with their peers.14 They also receivefirst-hand team experiences in this process and begin to understand the value of multipleperspectives in solving engineering problems. They can connect their future work to the businessworld as well. It keeps them motivated during the early period of their undergraduate programsbecause they see immediate relevance to that which they are working on. Adding a makerspacecomponent to this process further reinforces the “hand-on” nature of engineering problemsolving and iterative design processes.15,16Impacts of human centered
choice of one National Academy of EngineeringGrand Challenge, was burdensome for students to write and for the instructors to grade [2].Overall, instructors and students felt that the course did not provide enough opportunities forapplication, reflection, or meaningful contextualized learning.Motivation for Course RedesignSeveral factors motivated the redesign of the introduction to engineering course. The main onesinclude the following: To address attrition of first year engineering students, the university embarked on an “engineering reimagined” strategy to bolster student success and improve retention. One of this paper’s authors, and an instructor in the course for three years prior to the redesign, noticed early on that it was
] including: a first-yearexperience course sequence with broad early exposure to engineering academic and careeroptions; community-engaged learning through participation in STEM outreach events; a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE); a place-based learning community withintegrated instruction across multiple disciplines spanning two quarters.BackgroundWCC engineering students generally form a community of peer support at the 200-level becausemost engineering fundamentals courses are offered once per year, resulting in a cohort programby default. Students with similar transfer goals tend to have similar course schedules and buildcommunity around their shared interests. Unfortunately, many students who start WCC at the100 (or pre
projects that they completed. The logs were graded by the instructors for completeness. The struggles portion of the log format was used to provide additional resources or supplements. The instructors provided samples of good learning logs to help students with the content and writing. The format for the learning log can be found in Appendix C. 3. Peer Assessment: Students worked in learning groups and met weekly to engage in learning activities and problem solving. These sessions were documented to reflect on the learning that took place within the group. Students came together to discuss the grading and comments provided by the instructor and to learn from each other. The learning groups worked
: a. Diagnose team challenges and devise and implement solutions b. Coach your peers, team leader, client, or faculty c. Recognize and respond to conflict productively d. Influence others without authority e. Write collaboratively f. Use a project management technique such as design freeze planning, scheduling tools, customer needs assessment and conversion to product specs, team charters, change order management, etc. 7. In what ways, if any, did the course not support your design teams or projects that you wish it had? 8. Is there anything else that I should have asked or that you would like to share
tools and services, includingmentorship, professional readiness training, research opportunities, scholarships, and peer-mentor activities. These efforts have led to impressive outcomes, including a significant increasein retention and persistence rates, increased graduation rates having quad-fold those observed inthe general student population, and an impressive record of engagements in industry, research,and leadership experiences. This paper discusses the program structure and outcomes from fiveperspectives that include background experiences, the structure of provided services, the resultsof their execution, the elements of knowledge derived from its application, and the challengesexperienced throughout its implementation.I
unprecedentedly abrupt and challengingtransition from face-to-face to online instruction. And one of the hard-learned lessons was thatsolely changing the mode of class meetings from face-to-face to virtual did not work effectivelyfor engineering education. As shown in recent studies on student perceptions of online learningduring the pandemic, students experienced declines in peer-to-peer and student-instructorinteractions in fully online courses [1]. Students also reported difficulties in maintainingmotivation and getting support, which has negatively impacted their online learning [2].During this unusual time, the flipped classroom particularly has drawn attention as an effectiveway to address the challenges associated with fully remote teaching. In a
approach.We have hired a digital marketing agency that specializes in website design and social media,and content marketing to begin work on some of these recommendations.Team Science TrainingAs interdisciplinary science continues to expand, scientists are increasingly working in largerand more diverse teams [3]. This particular team participated in the Teaming Readiness Survey,which evaluates a team's performance across key competencies. The survey feedback indicatedthat the team values the diversity of knowledge and experience among its members, with allmembers reporting that they learn from each other. Additionally, team members expressedfeeling respected by their peers and energized by their conversations and teamwork, as well as bythe project's
, writing, andcommunication skills that are vital to successful careers in science and engineering [29].Student participation in REU programs was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and raisedconcerns related to REU learning outcomes. Several REU programs over the past few years wereheld remotely or virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research on the impacts of virtual orremote REU programs is limited. One study by Nyarko and colleagues highlighted how, despitechallenges encountered during a virtual REU, students demonstrated gains in knowledge,confidence, and communication skills [30]. Even as many REUs return to in-person experiences,research into the impacts of virtual or remote REUSs can be useful as developers and hosts ofREUs and other
institution is relatively small, these young scholars arealmost invisible when compared to students, staff, and faculty at an institution [2]. There is alsono one size fits all solution for postdocs to improve in all the ways needed to becomecompetitive candidates in the highly competitive market for the tenure-track jobs less than 20%of them will eventually obtain [3]. Nowell et al.’s [3] systematic review of professional development (PD) of postdocsthoroughly examined what was and was not working for post doctoral PD. One of the areas theyidentified as an important skill postdocs wanted to learn or further develop were “grant,manuscript, and proposal writing” and improving their presentation skills. Teaching skills sawthe greatest
board for WEPAN from 2012-2014. She earned her M.S. in Youth Development from the University of Nebraska and her B.S. in Family Studies at Kansas State University.Esther Gonzalez Esther Gonz´alez, MPA, MBA, ABD is a PhD Candidate at University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy with subject matter expertise in organization behavior and diversity management. Her research is multidisciplinary and applies methods and fields in public policy and management. She is a published author in several peer reviewed journals with media mentions in Forbes. Previously, she served as Director on the Research and Innovation team at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). She is a multifaceted
exclusionary learning environments and curricula, lack of facultymentorship and role models, and lack of a supportive peer group (see [4]-[6] research findings onthese topics). For these reasons, there is a steep decline in the number of Black and Hispanicstudents graduating with a STEM degree from Baccalaureate institutions [7]. Classroom culture is shown to have a significant impact on the success of Black andHispanic students in higher education and in STEM in particular. Specifically, when Black andHispanic students feel like they have learning and supportive spaces to develop their STEMidentities, they are more likely than their peers who do not have access to such spaces toacademic persist in the STEM field [8]. However, Black and
. Each community cohort consists of an experienced Program Specialist facilitator andthree to four new Program Assistants. In total, 18 new staff members have participated for a fullyear in the program. Each cohort meets weekly for three hours in the Makerspace, and new staffrotate to a new tool domain every six weeks. During the sessions, the participants would practicenew skills through structured projects, design activities, and opportunities for peer teaching. Atthe time of writing this publication, new staff had completed two successful six-week rotationsof the CoP program and a third rotation is in process. CoP facilitators monitored the programthrough multiple assessment methods, including participant self-assessment through pre- andpost
senior-levelstudents [1,6]. Students were recruited as rising juniors in three cohorts consisting of eight, eight,and ten students from 2017-2019. These students comprised the core of a Student LearningCommunity (SLC). The SLC met to every two-weeks with activities designed to promotesuccessful academic habits and professional development as well as foster a sense-of-belongingand provide opportunity for both peer and faculty mentorship. Learning communities, especiallyfor first-year students, have proven to be effective at improving retention [7,8].A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) was also formed, and the group participated in acomprehensive program designed to increase interactions between faculty and students, supportstudent retention
students performinvolve such topics as standing waves on strings, determination of the speed of sound,electrostatics, electric circuit design, motor building, and a variety of activities related to lightand color.In lieu of a final exam, students experience all aspects of writing a professional conferencepaper. This includes submission of an abstract, a first draft for instructor review, a second draftfor peer review, and a final camera-ready paper. On the last day of class, students present theirpapers at an in-class conference. Developed by one of the authors, this course has become ananchor for students pursuing an applied physics minor. Because the course has no prerequisitesother than a Q1 math prerequisite, for most of the students, this