Conference Session

Restructuring/Rethinking STEM

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nicola Sochacka, University of Georgia; Kelly Woodall Guyotte, University of Georgia; Joachim Walther, University of Georgia; Nadia N. Kellam, University of Georgia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Paper ID #6555Faculty Reflections on a STEAM-Inspired Interdisciplinary Studio CourseDr. Nicola Sochacka, University of Georgia Dr. Nicola Sochacka received her doctorate in Engineering Epistemologies from the University of Queens- land (Brisbane, Australia). She currently holds a research and teaching position at the University of Geor- gia where she transfers her expertise in qualitative research methodologies to a variety of research contexts at the intersection of social and technological issues. This includes engineering education projects con- cerned with transdisciplinary education, student reflection, and

Conference Session

A Challenge to Engineering Educators

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harold R Underwood, Messiah College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

lasting over several semesters,toward completion in a student’s senior year.The reflective component of the portfolio shows how well students have integrated liberalarts disciplines in their personal formation as an engineer, especially where addressingprofessional skills such as teamwork, communication, ethical judgment, and identifyingsocietal context. Well-defined portfolio-documented aspects of project work alsoprovide evidence suitable for educational assessment. The set of portfolio requirementspresented here, which overall serves as a grand rubric in itself, facilitates individualstudent grading on diverse project applications over several semesters. A more specificrubric developed for each portfolio category addresses one aspect of the

Conference Session

Integrating Engineering & Liberal Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill D. Bailey, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and Mold Making program, leadingto an Associate of Applied Science degree.Identifying linkage to outcomes such as these is fairly common at the program and course level.In this study, the relevant skills are integrated at the assignment level as well. In courses whereassignments did not support these skills, assignments were added or modified as appropriate.For example: communication, critical thinking, and teamwork were integrated into laboratory(machining) sections through the use of individual and team based projects. These projectsrequired written plans, written evaluations at the conclusion, a reflective paper to cementlearning, and a presentation to the class and others.This paper will provide a detailed description of how this

Conference Session

Institutional Perspectives and Boundary Work

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna M Riley, Smith College; Victoria Henry, Smith College; Lucia C Leighton, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

researcher-practitioner divide is essential to progress. Page 23.1367.22 Approach2.1 Overall Study DesignOur overall study design was a multiple methods approach consisting of (1) a mostly closed-ended survey of thermodynamics instructors at ABET-accredited engineering programs in theUS; (2) open-ended surveys/reflections of practitioner collaborator-consultants, recruited fromamong survey participants to implement engineering education innovations in theirthermodynamics courses; (3) open-ended surveys/reflections of student participants in courseswhere engineering education innovations were implemented; and (4) qualitative analysis ofstudent work in

Conference Session

A Challenge to Engineering Educators

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa DuPree McNair, Virginia Tech; Wende Garrison, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Paper ID #7218Raze the Silos: Using Digital Portfolios to Increase Integrative ThinkingDr. Lisa DuPree McNair, Virginia Tech Dr. Lisa DuPree McNair is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she also serves as Assistant Department Head of Graduate Education and co-Director of the VT Engineering Communication Center (VTECC). She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and B.A. in English from the University of Georgia. Her research interests include interdis- ciplinary collaboration, design education, communication studies, identity theory and reflective

Conference Session

Communication and Engineering Careers: Motivating Our Students

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John C. Anderson, Northwestern University; David W. Gatchell, Northwestern University; Barbara Shwom, Northwestern University; Stacy Benjamin, Segal Design Institute; John Andrew Lake, Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

-making process?The team used this list of questions to help them consider the issues they needed to communicateabout their design options, with the intent of revising the paragraph to reflect their thinking.Using the answers to the questions above, the team evaluated the trade-offs of their two designoptions, and came to the conclusion that one option was clearly better suited to the project thanthe other. The revised text is both clearer and a better statement of the team’s design direction. The pressure tank will connect to the Shedd’s water supply to ensure the water parameters are adjustable to the animals living inside. Since the Shedd always has at least one tank optimized for any species of seahorse, no

Conference Session

Rethinking Engineering Writing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David M. Beams P.E., University of Texas, Tyler; Luke Niiler, University of Alabama; Beth Todd, University of Alabama; Marcus Brown, University of Alabama; Garry W. Warren, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

: The writer demonstrates a command of professional language.Tables and Figures: The writer uses tables and figures appropriately.Organization: The writer's draft is properly organized.Detail: The writer uses an adequate level of detail.These criteria represent a version of the rubric used at UT-Tyler as part of the EngineeringWriting Initiative. Similar criteria have been used by engineering programs at the Universityof Arizona, the University of South Florida, and the University of Washington. 10, 11, 12Preliminary results: evaluation of laboratory reportsAt this writing, data analysis for the fall semester of 2012 is incomplete; data for UA havenot yet been compiled; the following results reflect the

Conference Session

Restructuring/Rethinking STEM

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joe Tranquillo, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

the path for student success. As in any PBL courses, Ineeded to play a role closer to that of a coach – using praise when groups were trying butfrustrated, but also honest feedback when groups were coasting or making excuses.I hope that the picture I have painted is of a course that was unique and rich with learningopportunities, and that criss-crossed from the technical to the non-technical many times.But one more aspect was critical – reflection. Every two weeks, the I conducted a shortreflection meeting with the students. The goal was to extract lessons learned. Some wereindividual, private and more formal, while others were informal public discussions. Incourse evaluations, students shared that it was during these reflection periods that

Conference Session

Restructuring/Rethinking STEM

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Robinson, University of South Carolina; Sarah C. Baxter, University of South Carolina

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

23.1271.6identified.4. ScaleThe visual concepts emphasized here are universal elements, variety, visual interest, scale.Project 4: Establish two rectangular compositions employing multiple shapes and multiplevalues. One should be primarily objective, the other primarily non-objective. Select the best one,refine and print your image at a scale at least twice as tall and twice as wide as the normalprinted page (15 X 20”). Crop, composite, and mount your finished product leaving a 1”boarder all the way around the image (17 X 22”).Engineering Connections: Trigonometric (angular) relationships, symmetry, balance,equilibrium, and boundary conditions. How are intrinsic properties such as density, temperatureor stiffness reflected? by shape, composition or value

Conference Session

Integrating Engineering & Liberal Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pradeep Kashinath Waychal, College of Engineering Pune; Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, College of Engineering, Pune

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

learning may show the same behavior as retention.We have proposed some modifications to the learning pyramid as shown in figure 2. Various methods likequestioning, reflecting, and experimenting have been incorporated in the Wood’s pyramid. However, no attemptis made to give specific numbers for the effectiveness or retention of learning. The pyramid has the leasteffective method at the bottom which is just passively attending lectures and speeches. That is followed byactively attending lectures - ―actively‖ implying thinking on what is being said and asking questions based onthat. This is superseded by intensely reflecting or experimenting and writing notes. At the next level comessmartly linking the concepts learnt to other related concepts

Conference Session

Rethinking Engineering Writing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elisa Warford, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

. Instead, Newsweek summarized the findings bluntly: “Sex differencesin achievement in and attitude toward mathematics result from superior male mathematicalability.”4 The discrepancy between the two articles raises interesting ethical questions aboutstrength of claim, which I will return to later.The second thing that happens in the shift from forensic to epideictic rhetoric, according toFahnestock, is that that popular science writing tends to “leap to results,” or jump from reportingthe data to speculating on the broad possible implications of the data—again, arguably withoutsufficient qualification. This finding is further reflected in a more recent study on medical newsreporting that demonstrates the “tendency for press releases and the

Conference Session

Rethinking Engineering Writing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven R Walk, Old Dominion University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

impetus for the writing initiative described in this paper came from the OldDominion University's (ODU) Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). As described on the universityweb site, the intention of the QEP is to improve upper-division undergraduate students'disciplinary writing, i.e., that writing that demonstrates a reasoning process supported byresearch and reflection on a problem, topic, or issue.14 Two faculty development andengagement initiatives were initiated: Writing as a critical skill that goes beyond demonstratingproficiency with the mechanics and structure of writing per se, and writing as a means tocommunicate what has been learned.Skill in writing is demonstrated by six student learning outcomes of the ODU QEP: 1. Clearly state a

Conference Session

Communication, Professional Development, and the Engineering Ambassador Network

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia M. Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Page 23.848.2is open to all students, with or without previous leadership experience. The two-day Academy isan intensive workshop designed by Rose-Hulman faculty and staff to build each participant’sconfidence in their ability to lead, consciousness of various leadership approaches, andconnection to leadership resources and mentors. The curriculum cultivates skills throughlectures, guest speakers, team interactions, team building activities, and assessment through self-reflection. Topics include character development, leadership theories, and personal leadershipdevelopment, with an emphasis throughout on leadership communication.The need for engineers to take leadership roles is clear. These leadership roles are diverse,everything from getting

Conference Session

Rethinking Engineering Writing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brad Jerald Henderson, University of California, Davis

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

class’ new engineering report assignment and method. Thestudents were assigned to write a one- to two-page reflective statement responding to the promptbelow. The students were directed to target as primary audience the Dean of the College ofEngineering, with peers and the instructor being a “transparent” secondary audience. Prompt: "How and why (or why not) did your experience working on the Lego car assembly line Report Project provide you with educational benefit(s) toward developing your engineering communication skills?” Page 23.15.15To remove instructor bias from the review of student feedback, the instructor solicited

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society (LEES) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig J. Gunn, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

before and internally; where to placecommas; the use of the semi-colon; punctuation with lists; and where does the punctuation go infigures and tables. A few grammar rules presented in the context of technical documentation to anengineering course at the beginning of each semester or quarter will, in most cases, eliminate manyof these mistakes.A third concern among readers of student text is the flat dull quality that comes from much of thetext that is produced by students. This quality reflects a lack of flow in the wording, a conditionsimilar to reading a list that indicates no apparent connection among the various parts of the list.This lack of connection makes a reader quickly begin to wander, sometimes becoming lost inpersonal thoughts far

Conference Session

Difference, Disability, and (De)Politicization: The Invisible Axes of Diversity

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy E. Slaton, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

. All of these rubrics are in a stateof flux and I use Engineering Studies here for convenience.underrepresented groups into existing institutions and practices necessarily constitutes anemancipatory gesture. If engineering as a profession reflects social and cultural privilege (as thefield is currently populated in university, corporate and state settings), ES asks, how can theexpertise that constitutes engineering, and the field’s resulting projects, not also embody socialoppressions? A crucial point with which to begin this conversation involves old culturalpresumptions that physical disability is necessarily associated with intellectual impairment;visible and audible bodily differences are still readily assumed in U.S. culture to be

Conference Session

Integrating Engineering & Liberal Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heath Tims, Louisiana Tech University; Krystal S Corbett, Cyber Innovation Center; Galen E. Turner III, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

help them to obtain a good Page 23.362.7basis for the computer science topics. Following the computerscience component, the political science lesson takes a philosophical approach to the course andchallenges the students to reflect on what the word cyberspace really means. The instructorprompts the students to create a list of cyber related words. Students are then tasked to pick oneof the words, research it using credible sources, and then present their results using MS Word.To complete the assignment, on Thursday, students are introduced to MS Word where they learnbasic MS Word tools as well as the different formatting capabilities of the

Conference Session

Institutional Perspectives and Boundary Work

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ron D Dempsey, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

computerengineering technology, have remained stable in their enrollment. This trend is not reflected inenrollments of engineering technology degrees across the United States. Since 2005,engineering technology programs have shown increasing enrollment.7 Figure 1: Fall Enrollment in Engineering Technology and Engineering Programs at SPSU from 2008 – 2012 ET Programs 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Apparel/Textile Eng Tech 32 38 42 45 41 Civil Engineering Technology 395 376 262 195 150 Computer Eng. Tech. 166 144 143 133 168 Electrical

Conference Session

Communication and Engineering Careers: Motivating Our Students

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie E. Sharp, Vanderbilt University; Christopher J Rowe, Vanderbilt University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Page 23.705.2zero to three credit hours either required or optional depending on the university. Courserequirements range from optional (no bearing on degree requirements) to elective (mostlypass/fail) to mandatory in order to have access to the job posting database at the college oruniversity. Class sizes range from a seminar-sized group of around eight up to a lecture hallstyle group of about 100 per section, seemingly dependent on the staffing of the career centeritself or available faculty members qualified to teach the class. Formats vary just as much fromsmall weekly assignments to nearly daily assignments and end-of-term reflection papers. Someof the most often stated requirements are that students must create a resume and attend some

Conference Session

A Challenge to Engineering Educators

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Isolde Adriana Parker, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah; Seetha Veeraghanta, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

citation theycollected, students learned to filter out irrelevant, out-of-date, unauthoritative, inaccurate, and biased Page 23.478.11information. What is significant for us as instructors of this course is that the quality of citations fromthe Open Web moved away from generic, encyclopedia-style sources (e.g. Wikipedia) to sourcesoriginating from professional entities (e.g. EPA) and scholarly publishers (PLOS.org.) This move onthe students’ part is attributable to the students’ awareness and appreciation of the evaluation criteria.The improvement in locating and using appropriate information sources also reflected on theirimprovement in

Conference Session

A Challenge to Engineering Educators

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Canek Moises Luna Phillips, Purdue University; Kacey Beddoes, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engineering communication. We then present ourfindings on the ways in which the deficit model has recently been enacted in engineeringcommunication contexts. Next, we present a framework of key concepts integral to publiccommunication so that engineers can reflect upon how these dimensions affect the wayscommunication with the public is carried out. The paper concludes with a discussion ofsignificance, intersecting issues, and future work.Overview of the Deficit ModelThe deficit model, a term originally coined by science studies scholar Brian Wynne,1 refers toapproaches to science and engineering (S&E) communication and outreach that are based on thebelief that publics are critical or skeptical of, and not interested in, S&E because they do

Conference Session

Restructuring/Rethinking STEM

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Geselowitz, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Lyle Feisel P.E., Binghamton University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

reflect what is known from other surveys, where it has beenobserved for some time that Blackboard—the early entrant and dominator of the field—has hadits market share reduced to about 50%4; thus we feel confident that our sample represents theworld of on-line course management.Having established the current state of societal impact coursework and of distance learning, thesurvey went on to ask about future preferences. A number of trends were clear in the responses.Of the respondents who offered an opinion, 31.4% would be interested or very interested inprocuring an on-line, stand-alone course on the history of engineering and technology, while62% would be interested in procuring new online material or modules that could be incorporatedinto

Conference Session

Integrating Engineering & Liberal Education

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dominic M. Halsmer PE, Oral Roberts University; Peter Wesley Odom, Oral Roberts University; Jessica Fitzgerald, Oral Roberts University; Taylor Gipson Tryon, Oral Roberts University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

into their teaching.3Reverse engineering is simply taking an object apart and analyzing its “inner workings,” in orderto understand the secrets behind its operation. However, some researchers use a broader term,Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA), for these activities.4A study comparing the results of such activities to the more traditional laboratory approachconcludes that DAA activities have the potential to increase student motivation and promotetransfer.5 Transfer refers to the ability to apply or adapt knowledge when seeking a novelsolution to a problem. New courses are being developed that make use of reverse engineeringprojects to help students observe actual designs during “incremental concrete experiences,”allowing them to reflect on

Conference Session

Communication and Engineering Careers: Motivating Our Students

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tristan T. Utschig, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jeffrey S. Bryan; Judith Shaul Norback, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

using two stages to refine our scoring system. In eachstage, individuals first provide comments on the individual skills in the scoring system. Then wesummarize the feedback from all the individuals and ask the individuals to reflect upon thesummary to see if their opinions have changed. At the end of the feedback for each of the twostages, we synthesize the overall responses and use the results to modify the scoring system. Wehave completed the first stage and are now in the second stage shown below.Delphi Method Stage 1 (this study) 1. Part one: conduct small focus groups and surveys to collect information and comments from our stakeholders 2. Part two: distribute summary to each of the stakeholders for reactions 3. Use part one

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society (LEES) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Haas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Lynn S. McElholm, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Sonya M Renfro, University of Connecticut; Elizabeth S. Herkenham, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ; Melissa Marshall, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

group ofAmbassadors. In reflecting on the collaboration among the four universities, Al Brockettacknowledges the strategic benefits from establishing what he good-humoredly describes as a“forced marriage;” however, what grew out of this powerful union is a true sense of community,a partnership, and a genuine desire to collaborate. Each school quickly realized the benefit ofhaving three other institutions with programs at various levels of development. The partnershipwas essential to building successful programs because it allowed the four partner universities to: Page 23.496.2  Exchange best practices, from day-to-day operations to long-term