Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Olds

student. The writingincluded in a portfolio may be selected by the student or assigned by the teacher; it may cover anentire college career or a single semester; it may include samples from only one class or from anentire curriculum; it may include peer or student commentary or evaluation, or it may simplyinclude the student’s work. Any of these approaches may be successful if the instructor has aclear purpose for asking students to maintain portfolios and if this purpose is clearly articulatedto students. In the best cases, portfolios help students reflect on their growth as writers, helpstudents to interact with peers in the discussion of writing, and help faculty and students todiscuss ways in which students may become better writers. In

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Marilyn Dyrud

Session 2647 Attitudinal Aspects of Assessing Student Writing Marilyn A. Dyrud Oregon Institute of Technology AbstractFor many instructors, regardless of academic field, evaluating student writing is a thankless task,one that requires a seemingly endless amount of time. Consequently, attitudes regardingassessment may be less than positive. This paper explores faculty attitudinal aspects of gradingstudent writing by examining the results of a survey administered to engineering technologyfaculty at Oregon Institute of Technology

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Elizabeth A. Eschenbach

project, each student has a 15 minute conference with the class instructor.During the conference, the student presents a team evaluation on a computer disk, discussing thestrengths and weaknesses of the team and all team members (including him or herself). Then thestudent and the instructor discuss ways to improve team productivity. The instructor gives thestudent hints on how to write a more descriptive evaluation.At the end of the semester, each team member turns in a self evaluation and peer evaluation ofall team members on a disk. The evaluations from all team members are combined and then splitinto summary evaluations, one for each team member. A summary evaluation is returned to eachteam member during the final period of the class. The

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

James A. Newell

Session 2513 The Use of Peer-Review in the Undergraduate Laboratory James A. Newell Department of Chemical Engineering University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202-7101IntroductionThe value of peer review in developing both critical thinking and student writing skills is well-documented (1-4). The first drafts tend to be improved because the students’ realize that their peerswill be reading their writing (5). Additionally, the student is provided with a formalized to revisethe original report in response to the review. The reviewer benefits by being forced

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Julie E. Sharp

in reading assignments. Inaddition, writing more often can improve students' writing skills. These benefits for the studentcan occur without assessment or even feedback. However, when certain feedback techniquesare used, the possibilities for writing improvement increase. Feedback techniques can includethe following: class discussion small group discussion peer evaluation instructor comments in an individual conference self evaluation brief, instructor-written comments (e.g., with journals) Page 2.454.1 Let's consider five options for adding learning-intensive ungraded writing

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark A. Shields; Bryan Pfaffenberger

Session 2561 Teaching Engineering Career Literacy and Teamwork Communication Skills in the First-Year Writing Course Bryan Pfaffenberger, Mark Shields Technology, Culture, and Communication/University of VirginiaOne of the challenges that has long faced engineering education is to adaptcommunications instruction to the needs of engineering students. English compositioncourses, while appropriate for liberal arts students, do not focus on the communicationskills prized by the organizations that hire engineering students. Such skills include thecapacity for clear technical exposition (including process analysis and

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ted G. Eschenbach; Robert Madigan; Patricia Linton; Catherine Frank

;5For example, the MLA and the American Psychological Association (APA) styles are distinct, andthose styles are echoed throughout the literature of their respective disciplines. Students or facultywho have not mastered the appropriate style may find that their work is judged more harshly by theirteachers or peers. Strongly technical disciplines such as chemistry and mechanical engineering placerelatively less emphasis on writing and their style guides are less widely distributed. Nevertheless,violations of a journal’s or a proceedings’ style clearly affect a paper’s substantive credibility.Moreover, the potentially disparate technical styles are brought together in engineering management(EM), which does emphasize writing and which brings

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Lynn G. Mack; James C. Wood

,and partnerships with industry. The project began a series of faculty development activities tocreate on each campus an interdisciplinary faculty team to develop and implement a new andreformed curriculum. The first step in the process was the selection at each campus of exemplaryfaculty from the disciplines of mathematics, science, communications and technology.The first year concentrated on encouraging and empowering faculty to work together and withtheir peers across traditional departmental and institutional boundaries. The activities challengedthe faculty to rethink their teaching methodologies and to design new, interdisciplinary activelearning approaches for the classroom.This process began with a retreat and then proceeded with three

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Valerie L. Young; Peter L. Silsbee; Joseph W. Newkirk; Bradford L. Snowden; Anu Maria; Jerry W. Samples

. The result: discussed in the individual self-assessment of the participants. Mentor’s overview: Being thrown into a room with total strangers and asked toteach classes from your specialty in a contrived classroom environment is a difficult task.There are the questions of ego, realism, peer review, video self-assessment, and theobjectivity of the mentor that cause some concern. The response of this group wasexceptional and the amount of learning that took place was phenomenal. Peer review wascourteous, yet on target. Self-assessment was more critical, yet instructive. Theparticipants worked well together, learned how to assess themselves and others in amanner conducive to learning. They also found that teaching technique has a profound

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Charles H. Dowding; Joseph J. Biernacki

many forms which interdisciplinary researchmay take including peer groups working in similar areas of study, peer groups working indifferent areas of study and peer groups working on thematic problems with a commongoal. Students engage in a course of study that introduces them to a wide spectrum ofresearch topics relevant to the central theme of civil engineering materials. They alsoattend a seminar activity designed to coach them in skills ancillary to research includingliterature search, report writing, oral presentation and laboratory safety. Teams of threestudents are advised by three individual faculty mentors and three graduate coaches.Teams meet weekly to formally review and cross-fertilize their research projects withinput from their

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ed Gohmann

backgrounds the course is geared to accepting the student skills asthey are and by careful interaction with the student, to bring them up to university level learningskills by the end of the semester without sacrificing the technical content of the course.Lab exercises are done to complement the lectures and to give the students first hand experiencein setting up equipment, recording data and writing reports.The content level of the course follows that of generally used text on materials technology.(appendix 3)OBJECTIVESThe objectives of the course are:1) Give students a firm background in metals, plastics and ceramics: properties, structure, types, heat treating, testing, applications and a basis for further study

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert F. Kubichek; Eskild T. Arntzen; Donald S. Warder

copying downwhatever information is given by the professor. When writing lectures, however, a great deal ofthought and planning is required to balance the amount of detail presented and the need to coverthe material. Also, in some cases the text book only superficially covered material I consideredimportant. In those cases more material had to be included the lecture than might otherwise havebeen necessary. I also found that preparing lecture notes was a skill that improved as thesemester progressed.The most challenging task I encountered was that of writing good tests. Although I have takennumerous tests as a student, I had no concept of what made a test hard, easy, long or short ormore important, how to measure what I had wanted students to

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Mark A. Shields; John P. O'Connell

TCC 101, projects included several individual writing assignments to improve style, grammar,punctuation, conciseness, word choice, topic sentences, critical analysis, and argumentation.Some of these were peer-reviewed and subsequently revised. One key early paper was to weighthe ethical aspects of the Dow Corning silicone breast implants controversy in light of scientific-technical knowledge. Students also received instruction in organizing and delivering oneindividual and two team oral presentations. Most class time was used for cooperative learningworkshops in which students discussed an issue, solved a problem, and/or gathered informationin groups of three or more and then shared their group's results with the rest of the class

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Mirel; Atul Prakash; Leslie A. Olsen; Elliot Soloway

to timeconstraints of a school term, and to bring the course more in step with industry approaches by thefollowing:• educating students on techniques for defining a vision of the product (what is it doing and for whom),• placing greater emphasis on the client’s and user’s perspective, the interface design, and interface’s effects upon the rest of the code, and• conducting iterative usability testing, starting early in the project cycle.From inception to completion of the software, these important issues are addressed by teachingstudents to write well-reviewed specifications and user documentation, by beginning this early inthe term, and by using these documents to inform the design.Problem With Software Design CoursesIn the computer

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Fahmida N. Chowdhury

topic of neural networks application in his or her own field of interest 2. Doing the necessary research 3. Writing and testing the code for running simulation experiments 4. Interpreting the results 5. Writing the report, complete with results, discussion, and citations 6. Presenting the paper to an audience of peers, professors, and some under- graduate students They listened to each other’s papers, asked questions, and evaluated each other on various aspects of the presentation. The above listed items are the immediately apparent positive outcomes. In ad-dition, there are long-term benefits of such interdisciplinary exposure. For example,one undergraduate student

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald R. Woods; Dianne Dorland

Session 1213 STUDENTS PLUS! HANDLING LARGE CLASSES EXTENDED ABSTRACT Dianne Dorland, Donald R. Woods University of Minnesota Duluth/McMaster UniversityWhat might you do when you encounter a class that is much larger than you are used too? Whatdo you do to cope? How do you promote discussion when you have too many students? How doyou manage writing projects? You might search for suggestions of how to handle the mechanicsof the larger class: how to monitor what is happening in the classroom (red cards, ombudspeople,one minute message), how to mark the larger

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Barbara Blake Bath

because of a well-known or well-liked client. Summer jobsdevelop out of some projects. Teams which enjoy working together can have a synergetic effecton the output.Schedule: On the first day, students meet in the morning to hear the ground rules, survey thevarious projects, to form teams and choose the project on which they want to work. In theafternoon, students meet with their client and begin work on their projects. They write apreliminary description of the problem to be solved. On the second morning, all students meetagain to present their preliminary requirements to the entire class. The class offers suggestionsand comments. Each team meets with the instructor to review the scope of their problem. Thenthe work begins. In general, teams work

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ravi Pendse; Everett L. Johnson

, we will report on different methods used to teach Digital Design to a typical freshmanstudent. The design team concept, which is emphasized throughout the semester, will bepresented in this paper. Different innovative ideas used in this class include, use of design teams,peer design team conferences, cost evaluation, and industry interfacing. All of these ideas will bepresented in this paper. Comments from students suggest that they find this course to be fun andchallenging. What makes this course fun and challenging? How is the design team conceptworking? Some possible answers to these questions are also presented.IntroductionAn informal poll of Engineering educators indicates that it is a great idea to teach designtechniques as early as

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard L. LeBoeuf; Gregory Spaulding

. Page 2.138.7Figure A.2. Refrigeration cycle layout with sensor locations identified. Page 2.138.8 Appendix B. Self and peer review form KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY-SALINA MET 462 & 464 SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT I & II Self and peer review formNAME:STUDENT BEING EVALUATED:Complete the following information to critique your own or another individual’s performance.Be as truthful as possible and write out any specific strengths and/or weaknesses in the spaceprovided. You may leave some categories blank if you feel you do not have sufficientinformation.For each of the

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas F. Hess; Shulin Chen; Robert F. Rynk; Larry G. King; Ann L. Kenimer

processing waste treatment x Dairy waste management and treatment x Swine waste management and treatment Page 2.304.6 x Poultry waste management and treatment x Aquaculture waste treatment x On-site waste treatment for small communitiesCOURSE EVALUATIONEvaluation of the course is planned at several stages during its development and from a numberof sources. These sources include peer review, industry review, student review and results of aproposed workshop on the course. In March 1997 (at the time of writing this paper), a detailedoutline of the course content was sent for peer review to various

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey G. Sczechowski

, uncooperativecollaborators, mangers, overly enthusiastic peer reviewers, etc.).One lab period is spent in the library showing students where to find “things”, ranging fromvendors to scientific publications. During this session, the students scour the Thomas Registerand scientific supply catalogs to find vendors of quirky accessories that may assist me in acurrent research project. For example, “Find a large, long-wave UV transparent liquid crystalshutter for me.” This type of instruction for first-time researchers is vital. Most experiencedacademics take this information management skill for granted. We do it without thinking, or havea Ph.D. student do it for us (to guarantee we won’t have to think).Guest speakers address other aspects of conducting applied

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

John A. Reed; Abdollah A. Afjeh

. With all of the media hype, it is easy to lose sight as towhat Java is, and why it is so interesting. For many people, Java is simply a way to add “flash” tootherwise static WWW pages. However, what is truly exciting about Java is that, for the first time,it is possible to write highly interactive, graphical applications which are platform-independentand can be transported across the WWW. These features, combined with the availability andpervasiveness of the Internet and WWW, make Java an attractive tool for developing anddistributing educational software.BackgroundTo understand the potential benefits of Java for educational software development, it is necessaryto understand some of Java’s main features. First of all, Java is a general purpose

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

V.J. Deleveaux; C.O. Ruud

terminal insertion apparatus for a Gigafilter production line; design and developmentof a computer network system to link PC’s together; and determination of methods to improvethe productivity of steer loader production lines. Teams are typically comprised of two to fourstudents. The course is offered in one semester for 3 credit hours. Grading is based on teamaccomplishment, peer performance evaluations, written reports (proposal, progress, and finalreports), and industry sponsor evaluation of team performance.This paper describes the necessary components in the design and management of this successfulcapstone course. Attention will be given to the approach to teaching the course, as well as howthe course is conducted. Of specific interest are

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

David J. Lilja

thisability be taught? One approach that is particularly effective is to ask students to review papers assigned fromthe literature. These papers must be carefully selected both to teach up-to-date information aboutthe topic of the course, as well as to provide examples of both good and not-so-good work. Foreach paper, or for a small group of papers that may all discuss a related point, students are askedto write a short (l-2 page) summary that addresses each of the following points [ 11: 1. What is the problem being studied? 2. Is this an important problem? Why or why not? 3. What are the main results? 4. What method is used to produce the results? 5. What are the assumptions in the paper? How

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ray N. Nitzsche

immediately instructed and pressured to develop a research programrather than being immediately instructed in ways to improve and establish their teaching skills. 3. Most universities have an office called something like "The Office of ResearchServices" whose purpose is to aid faculty in writing proposals leading to grants and in managingthese research contracts. But, how many universities have an office called something like "TheOffice of Teaching Services" to aid faculty in seeking and implementing ways of improving theirteaching? If they do have each type of office, what is the relative level of funding andimportance? 4. I have two young colleagues who, after a couple of years of concentrating on theirteaching, resulting in good

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Raymond B. Landis

objectives from Reference 4): Time on taskStudents devote an appropriate amount of time and effort to their studies. Time ManagementStudents keep up in their classes by scheduling their study time so as to operate under the principle that they master the material presented in each class meeting before the next class meeting. Interaction with peersStudents make effective use of their peers by frequent sharing of information and by regularly engaging in group study and collaborative learning. Interaction with facultyStudents interact regularly with their professors both in the classroom and outside of it, positively and with benefit

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Vivek Badami; Mike Allen; Johnny Graham; Howard Phillips; David Schmidt; Curtis Ensley; Art Edwards; Silvia G. Middleton; Kimberly A. Buch; J. William Shelnutt; Patricia Tolley

Patterson11 HBDI Interpretation Middleton12 Handling Conflict and Peer Evaluation Graham13 Conceptual design using Pugh method; invention disclosure Phillips/Leamy14 History of engineering and computer science Snyder15 Discussion of 7 Habits assignment; time management. Shelnutt16 Curriculum purpose and structure Snyder17 Project Update Graham18 Introduction to Civil Engineering Graham19 Jobs, salaries, and graduate study

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Ann D. Christy; Marybeth Lima

Page 2.437.1biological engineering are presented, and recommendations for improvement are discussed.IntroductionOverview. While student portfolios have long been used to document student learning andmastery in subjects such as art, writing, and architecture, their use in engineering education hasbeen a relatively recent phenomenon. A literature search yielded nothing pertaining to studentportfolios in biological engineering instruction, and little concerning portfolios in otherengineering disciplines1. We used several references (detailed below) to aid the development ofstudent portfolios as an instrument for learning and assessment for AE 625 and BE 1252.Because these two courses are still being taught at this time, partial results are

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

Deborah Hochstein

faculty to maintain a level of scholarlyactivity. The nature of involvement is expected to vary significantly among faculty dependingupon their commitments and interests, but he has stressed the importance of peer reviewedvehicles of expression to disseminate knowledge and cultivate creativity. “As we expand thedimension of faculty roles that we should recognize, it is essential that we learn to respect eachother for the various roles assumed, whether we contribute through classic scholarship orscholarship applied to learning and to the community around us.”11 The University of Memphishas adopted this expanded view of scholarly activity. This vision has permeated through thecolleges and departments

Collection

1997 Annual Conference

Authors

P.J. Fisher; N.J. Quick; S.J. Steiner

. It is a project-based activity where thestudents are organised into teams, spanning all three years of the students’ undergraduatestudies. The project acts as an integrating theme through a course module entitled “TotalDesign”, and requires the students to acquire a number of transferable skills. Theseinclude information gathering, report writing, presentation skills, time management,project planning, teamwork, and managing meetings. This paper describes the year onyear structure of the PAMS project, and the acquisition of the mentioned transferableskills, with particular reference to team working, and the subsequent implications for thestudents as they enter industry on graduation.I. IntroductionThe School of Manufacturing and Mechanical