Conference Session

Dimensions of Engineering Literacy and Engineering in General Education

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yuetong Lin, Indiana State University; A. Mehran Shahhosseini, Indiana State University; M. Affan Badar, University of Sharjah & Indiana State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

. It not only requiresdemonstration of solid domain knowledge, but also the application of knowledge in addressingreal-world problems. According to Chartrand et al. 3 , 69% of industry executives admit theyassess critical thinking skills in the selection process. Similarly, a report commissioned by theAssociation of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) finds that more than 75% ofemployers want more focus on five key career preparation areas: critical thinking, complexproblem-solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings 4 .Meanwhile, these studies indicate that 49% of employers rate their employees’ critical thinkingskills as only average or below average, and only 28% of employers rated four

Conference Session

Aspects of Engineering Literacy and Community and Industry Engagement

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Garner, West Virginia University; Karen E Rambo-Hernandez, West Virginia University ; Afrin Naz, West Virginia University Inst. of Tech.; Mingyu Lu, West Virginia University Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

and Propagation Society of IEEE Fort Worth Chapter from 2006 to 2011. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Improving High School Math Teachers’ Confidence and Skills in Assessment of Engineering Project-Based LearningNational Science Foundation reports continue to indicate low participation in science,technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and STEM careers, especiallyamong minorities and women (National Science Board, 2016; Thomasian, 2011). A change incurrent classroom practices is needed if schools are going to attract more students to STEMfields. More hands-on, real-life problem solving can help generate excitement among studentsand has the potential to

Conference Session

Aspects of Engineering Literacy and Community and Industry Engagement

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lina Trigg, William Mason High School; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

participate in thestudy. The interviews of five participants are used in this preliminary analysis (Table 1).Table 1. Participant key demographics. Interviewee Degree Career/Position (Pseudonym) Daniel Technology Design Engineer Jack Aerospace Engineering Research and Development Lola Chemical Engineering Product Researcher Matt Mechanical Engineering Senior Materials Engineer Ronald Chemical Engineering Senior material Product DeveloperInterviewsThe participants were interviewed about the tools and techniques they use to solve

Conference Session

The Philosophy of Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Goodman, University of Colorado, Denver; Jean Hertzberg, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

most contributed to their ability and willingness to workas engineers.ConclusionInstitution-level metrics of engineering student persistence and graduation rates do not answerthe ultimate question: have we added to the numbers of engineers in the workforce? Census datasuggest a disconnect between graduation rates and numbers of those entering the workplace. Thetwo issues embedded in that question are whether graduates of engineering programs haveadequately learned the knowledge and skills needed for engineering careers, and whether ourgraduates want to use their newly gained knowledge and skills.Issues of students’ learning and motivation may best be detected at the course level, rather thanat the institutional one. Asking questions that look

Conference Session

Engineering Literacy: Champions of Engineering in General Education

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Flath, Macalester College; Diane P Michelfelder, Macalester College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

students at Macalester College as one contributionto countering this blind spot. In developing this course, our primary interest was to give studentsat an early stage in their academic experience an introduction to engineering, whether they cameto college with the idea of possibly pursuing a career in engineering or whether they wanted toget a deeper understanding of the influence of engineering on the world in which they live. Forthat reason our orientation in this course was different from the orientation found in Bucciarelli’sand Drew’s proposal for integrating the liberal arts with engineering (2015). As we were notprimarily interested in preparing future engineers, our course was less technically(mathematically) focused. Our course was also

Conference Session

The Philosophy of Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

R. Alan Cheville, Bucknell University; John Heywood, Trinity College-Dublin

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

, reporting on three studies that found similar skills were needed by employers. Morerecently Carnevale (Carnevale et al., 2011) explored knowledge, skills, abilities, values, andinterests associated with STEM careers finding that as technology drives more of theeconomy the skills associated with technological literacy are in demand in all sectors(Foroohar, 2017).The most comprehensive attempt to define technological literacy in the policy realm in theUS was Technically Speaking released by the National Academy of Engineering in 2002.The report was written for a broad audience and proposed a similarly broad definition oftechnological literacy that focused on knowledge, ways of thinking and acting, andcapabilities which were seen as orthogonal

Conference Session

Engineering Literacy: Champions of Engineering in General Education

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert M. Briber, University of Maryland, College Park; Romel D Gomez P.E., University of Maryland, College Park

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

awards are the ECE George Corcoran Award for engineering education, the NSF CAREER award, the Clark School of Engineering Kent Faculty Teaching Award, the CSE Keystone Professorship, the CSE Faculty Service Award, and the Distinguished Alumni in Science and Technology of the University of the Philippines. He has served as an Editor, an Editorial Board Member of the IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, the chair of the Technical Committee, and the General Chair of the Intermag Conference in 2006. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Teaching Engineering in the General Education Program at the University of MarylandAbstractThe University of Maryland

Conference Session

The Philosophy of Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College-Dublin

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

. ASEE/IEEE Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference, S3B, 7to 12.[27] Dewey, J (1948). Reconstruction in Philosophy. Boston. Beacon Press.[28] Dewey, J (1916). Democracy and Education. New York. Macmillan.[29] loc.cit ref 10 p174[30] Postman and C. Weingartner, C (1969) Teaching as a Subversive Activity. New York.Delacorte Press.[31] loc.cit ref 10.[32] ibid p186[33] ibid p161[34] Vesilind, P. Arne (2005) (ed). Peace Engineering. When Personal Values andEngineering Careers Converge. Woodsville, NH. Lakeshire Press.[35] Riley, D (2008). Engineering and Social Justice. Morgan and Claypool.www.morganclaypool.com[36] Bucciarelli, L. L (2003). Engineering Philosophy .Delft. Delft University Press.[37] Harari, Y. N (2016).Homo Deus: A Brief

Conference Session

Aspects of Engineering Literacy and Community and Industry Engagement

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mike Thomas Pitcher, University of Texas, El Paso; Pedro Arturo Espinoza, University of Texas, El Paso; Oscar Antonio Perez, University of Texas at El Paso; Hugo Gomez, University of Texas, El Paso; Randy Hazael Anaya, University of Texas, El Paso; Hector Erick Lugo Nevarez, University of Texas at El Paso; Peter Golding P.E., University of Texas at El Paso; Erik Lopez; Deena Mustin, UTEP Academic Technologies ; Robin Munoz, Academic Technologies; Jackeline Munoz; Sarah Huizar, UTEP Academic Technologies Learning Environments; Crystal Fernandez-Pena, Carnegie Mellon University; Celena Arreola; Tetyana Zhyvotovska, University of Texas at El Paso

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

learning outcomes more. A project once focused on just soldering circuit boards hasresulted in students now creating entirely new network protocols, schematics, and electricalcomponents to meet the design challenges they face. More importantly they feel this project isgeared towards solving a challenge which they deem is important to their learning outcomes. While not directly assessed in the first seven years of this project we are looking to see if thisability to expand their skill sets and take on new and growing challenges yields over time moreself-confidence. This is both focused on their professional and academic careers and whether thisself-confidence leads to better performance in coursework overall. These types of studies havebeen done

Conference Session

The Philosophy of Engineering and Technological Literacy

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

work. After getting an undergraduate degree from Claremont College in government and aPh.D. in political science at the University of Chicago, according to an article in the Los AngelesTimes (1996), Frankenfeld spent seven years applying for college teaching positions. When hedid not succeed in finding a college teaching position, he took a position with a Washingtonresearch firm where he was hired to “study the future of the automobile in Americantransportation.” He apparently gave up on an academic career. Before he took the position withthe research firm, he wrote two major articles: “Technological Citizenship: A NormativeFramework for Risk Studies” (Science, Technology, and Human Values, 1992) and “SimpleGifts: Complex Environmental

Conference Session

Dimensions of Engineering Literacy and Engineering in General Education

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak Jr, Hope College; Mani Mina, Iowa State University; Kate A Disney, Mission College

Tagged Divisions

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

modern technological systems by people who have not received specific training about thesesystems as part of a job or career. Learning outcomes have been widely studied for thoseobtaining accredited engineering degrees under the current ABET accreditation criteria. Thisproject reported here addresses primarily undergraduate students in US colleges and universities.The goal is to create an assessment method suitable for use by faculty teaching general educationcourses on engineering and technological topics.Determination of the engineering literacy of the general population encounters several specificchallenges. Engineering consists of multiple subdisciplines such as civil, chemical, electrical,and mechanical engineering, each with a particular