Conference Session

Knowing Our Students, Faculty, and Profession

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Anderson, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Sandra Courter, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Thomas McGlamery, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Traci Nathans-Kelly, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Christine Nicometo, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

increasing demand for engineering talent”2. Not only is enrollment insufficient,retention of engineering students needs to improve as an estimated one third of college studentswho start in engineering drop out 3. Enrollment and retention could be improved by better aligning educational practices withworkplace realities. Current studies indicate that “there is a clear need for more effectiveintegration between education and working life”4. Before that can be done, it is essential to havea firm picture of the work that engineers do today. Unfortunately, that picture is limited. “Thereare few reliable reports of research on engineering practice”5

Conference Session

ERM Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nadia Kellam, University of Georgia; Joachim Walther, The University of Georgia; Ashley Babcock, University of Georgia

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

BackgroundSince the publication of the Green Report in 19961 there has been a strong push withinengineering education practice and research to better prepare engineering graduates for the socio-technical world in which engineers are embedded. Surprisingly, this drive to better alignengineering education with the socio-technical world began many decades earlier with theCarnegie Foundation's 1918 publication of A Study of Engineering Education2. In spite of theeffort in recent years to operationalize the student learning of the necessary competencies (e. g.through ABET outcomes3) there is a disconnect between what students learn in engineering, Page