Conference Session

Student Attitudes and Perceptions

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Holly Matusovich, Virginia Tech; Ruth Streveler, Purdue University; Ronald Miller, Colorado School of Mines; Barbara Olds, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

planned major). What’s next for you? (Or, if not planning on becoming an engineer, explore why they’ve made this decision.)3. What do you imagine yourself doing on a day-to-day basis? (Or, if not planning on becoming an engineer: What do you imagine engineers do on a day-to-day basis?)4. What would you say it takes to be a good (insert student’s career choice)? How are you at (insert characteristics student mentions)? Are there things about yourself that you think you need to work on to become a successful (xxx)?Entire interviews, not just responses to the questions listed here were analyzed. In case study-based research, triangulation of data sources is an important aspect of qualityresearch 36-39. In addition to semi-structured

Conference Session

Student Attitudes and Perceptions

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Debbie Chachra, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Deborah Kilgore, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

above do not exhaust the possibilities for why the gap might exist, although theydo suggest possible routes for considering how to address these differences. And the evidencedoes suggest that this gap results in our women engineers being shortchanged. Data suggest thatself-confidence in a particular academic area affects whether a person will attempt or persist in a Page 14.614.12task, and may be a key to career decisions.31 While the overall confidence of women in these areas may be high, they may be disadvantaged compared to their male peers when it comes topursuing opportunities such as graduate school and engineering positions. Having

Conference Session

Modeling Student Data

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gillian Nicholls, University of Pittsburgh; Harvey Wolfe, University of Pittsburgh; Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh; Larry Shuman, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

junior high school through college is of vital importanceto the field of engineering education. Producing a sufficient number of engineering graduatesdepends directly upon the number and quality of students that enter college and selectengineering as a major. Students that are lost to engineering by dropping out of high school;choosing not to pursue a college degree; dropping out of college; or switching out of engineeringrepresent “leaks” from the engineering education pipeline. Some of these students would nothave ultimately earned an engineering degree due to greater interest in other fields of study, butothers might have persisted to graduation with greater preparation, encouragement, andengagement. This study examines the factors that

Conference Session

ERM Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

TK Beam, James Madison University; Olga Pierrakos, James Madison University; Jamie Constantz, James Madison University; Aditya Johri, Virginia Tech; Robin Anderson, James Madison University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

leftundetermined. Alternatively, it seems as though many of the male engineers rely on theirabilities more than females. Lastly, none of the students interviewed appeared to allow theirminority social identities (female/ethnic group) to interfere with their decision to major inengineering, at least consciously.ConclusionWe have come upon an under researched area of engineering that has important implicationstowards recruitment and retention. In attempting to analyze the “engineering identity” wediscovered that the foundation of that identity relies heavily on K-12 exposure via activities,personal connections, or otherwise. With increased amounts of exposure, comes a strongerbase on which to build a professional engineering identity, persistence through

Conference Session

Special Session: Findings from the Academic Pathways Study of Engineering Undergraduates 2003-2008--Overview and Panel Discussion

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cynthia Atman, University of Washington; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Lorraine Fleming, Howard University; Ronald Miller, Colorado School of Mines; Karl Smith, Purdue University; Reed Stevens, University of Washington; Ruth Streveler, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

in engineering. (Donaldson and Sheppard, 2007; Ohland et al., 2008) Page 14.631.4 22. Graduates Often Don’t Seek Employment in Engineering Today's college graduates think more about their "first job" than about a lifetime career choice. 60% of undergraduates anticipate having multiple jobs in different fields during their working life and students who complete a major in engineering are not necessarily committed to careers in engineering. Undergraduates' thoughts about career options can be swayed by a single experience such as an internship, interactions with faculty, or

Conference Session

New Learning Paradigms II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

3preparedness. As such, the primary research question guiding this paper is: How can wemeasure the global preparedness of graduate and undergraduate engineering students? In designing my instrument I used the same subscales of the teacher instrument andaltered individual survey items within the subscales to reflect specific engineering foci asrecommended by the National Academy of Engineering. This paper presents the pilot researchresults from implementation of the global preparedness index that I designed for engineeringstudents. The following seven subscales were utilized in creation of this global preparednessindex. Ethic of Responsibility: Deep personal and care concern for people in all parts of the world; sees moral

Conference Session

New Learning Paradigms II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura Hahn, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Alan Hansen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

results of this project arehelpful for understanding student learning and for program development, our experiences alsopoint to areas for further work. These include:• Further refinement of student reflection paper prompts that elicit the kinds of observations that are relevant for analyzing how and what engineers learn in this context.• Further exploration of the roles of social capital and cross-cultural communication in projects abroad.• Investigations of cooperating faculty members’ experiences in developing and mentoring students in this context.References























































1Astin, A., Banta, T., Cross, P., El-Khawas, E., Ewell, P., Hutchings, Pl, Marchese, T., MeClenney, K.,Mentkowski, M., Moran

Conference Session

New Learning Paradigms II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Trenor, Clemson University; Shirley Yu, University of Houston; Denise Grant, Clemson University; Hibah Salem, Univesity of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

students. The NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET)program supports collaboration between colleges and universities and K-12 teachers orcommunity college faculty by providing funding for their participation in engineering research.The RET proposal solicitation2 asserts that, “Encouraging active participation of teachers in NSFprojects is an excellent way to reach broadly into the teacher talent pool of the U.S. so that theycan teach engineering concepts to K-12 students to encourage and stimulate them to pursueengineering careers.” RET awards are made through two mechanisms: RET site grants, whichprovide a research experience to a cohort of in-service or pre-service teachers, and RET