students from being able to participate during their undergraduate education. In order to help alleviate these common barriers, two faculty members at Auburn University designed and implemented a 10-day Service-Learning class to Quito, Ecuador. An international Service-Learning class is defined as: "A structured academic experience in another country in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that addresses identified community needs; (b) learn from direct interaction and cross- cultural dialogue with others; and (c) reflect on the experience in such a way as to gain a deeper appreciation of the host country and, an enhanced sense of their own responsibilities as citizens, locally and
wholedoes not warrant attention in the curriculum. But given the traditional mission of so many liberalarts colleges of preparing students for active lives as informed citizens, and the desire if notpassion of so many liberal arts college students to change the world and improve the quality ofhuman life, the lack of such introductory courses is evidence of a lingering, and troublesome,blind spot in the liberal arts college environment.In this paper, we—one of us a mathematician with a background in engineering and the other aphilosopher with a background in philosophy of technology and philosophy of engineering—describe and reflect on our experiences in the Fall of 2016 team-teaching Thinking Like anEngineer, a course we developed for first year
ABET and its international trend, the practice of qualityassurance in engineering education within American colleges and universities has gonethrough different stages under the guidance of ABET. Engineering education accreditationpersonnel (ABET managers, staff, accreditors, etc.), engineering education professionals(administrators in engineering departments, engineering faculty, ABET liaison, etc.),engineering students (engineering undergraduates, engineering graduate students, engineeringdoctoral students, etc.) are important stakeholders. Researches based on the StakeholderTheory are mainly reflected in the following aspects, research on stakeholders and their rolein the accreditation process,2 research on evaluation culture in the
benefits to working together, as86% preferred working on a simulation with a partner; of these 56 students, 63% said thatdiscussions should be encouraged. However, the nature of their discussions was not analyzed todetermine the depth of conversations that occurred. The interactive mode requires studentsworking together equally, discussing the constructive portion of the activity. Students’reflections could provide information on their discussions, but very few students responded tothese questions on the survey. In the future, conversations should be monitored to ensure thatthey are constructive, possibly revising the discussion prompts as needed.The low number of written responses for the reflection question may indicate that students wererunning
, solutionsmust not only be technically feasible, but also economically, environmentally, and sociallyviable. Thus, truly impactful innovations cannot be isolated to linear track constructs such aszero net energy or carbon neutrality, but must be addressed holistically as a complex systeminvolving diverse stakeholders and with outcomes that may include such metrics.1Training the next generation of leaders and professionals to tackle such challenges in today’sglobalized economy requires a pedagogy that reflects these complex themes and fosterscreativity, engagement and entrepreneurship required for innovation. Municipalities in Denmarkand California have actively committed resources to achieve 100% renewably poweredcommunities by 2050 and have strong
MSAs and their impact on quality of life metrics, to find multiplealternative hypotheses to pursue, and find ways, both engineering and non-engineering, toimprove such metrics. This should help place engineering solutions in the broader scope ofthings and their impact.We hypothesize that, by providing scaffolding with ’executable’ narrative case studies andinteraction with students in other disciplines, we can help mainstream engineering students tostep out of their comfort zones and reflect on broader societal issues. We also hypothesize thatthis would help non-mainstream engineering students to find a new awareness and strength inbecoming engineers.Our approach is derived from two theoretical models with strong emphasis on studentinvolvement
that thesense of belonging in women students is consistently higher in departments where they arerepresented in higher numbers9. At Arizona State University, the long-term effects to a suite ofstrategies designed to increase sense of belonging were found to be an increase in retention from0.9% per year to 1.6% per year in their undergraduate engineering cohorts from 1998 to 201310.Four areas were identified at the University of Washington as being important to thedevelopment of community and belonging of ethnic minority students: co-curricular activities,peer support, faculty/department support, and residence programs. They found that supportmechanisms changed with time and responsive strategies should reflect that11. Sophomore andjunior level
apprenticeship framing presumethat expertise comes through scaffolded, reflective, and social performance leading towardcontextually adaptable mastery. These contrasting frames, supported by case studies, provide atheoretical basis for improved curricular culture change.Introduction: Pedagogical change is curricular culture changeEducational experiences are embedded in curricular cultures. By curricular cultures, we meanparticular sets of assumptions, practices, and skills regarding teaching and learning that areshared by a community, or, in more colloquial terms, “the way we do things around here” withrespect to the curriculum. An individual course typically includes a particular set of expectations,roles, activities, artifacts, and underlying
results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience” (Kolb 1984, p. 41). Kolb’s experiential learning theory describes how students absorb and use information and is commonly shown in a four stage cycle ‐ concrete experience, observation of and reflection on that experience, formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection, and testing the new concepts.1 A number of studies have shown the benefits of experiential learning and various models of integrating the concepts in the college curriculum. 2 A common way of providing experiential learning to college students are internship and co‐op experiences. In Liberal Education and America’s Promise [LEAP] report, developed by the American Association of Colleges and
still emerging, although there have been some paperspublished using this approach15, 16. Tomkins and Eatough17 discuss strategies for use of IPA infocus group settings, highlighting the need for a sensitive approach that acknowledges thedifferences of group-based interactions. Themes from both individual and group interviews arereported in this paper.Positioning and methodological rigor – A key aspect of all qualitative research is the analyst’srole as researcher and research tool, as their understanding and interpretation are central to theproject’s success. To clarify those roles and enact boundaries, IPA calls for a reflective dialoguebetween analyst and participant13. Throughout the process of analysis, the researcher ‘brackets’their
already on the market. In order to have a successful crowdfunding campaign, our product needs to differentiate itself to get people to fund our project versus buying a product already on the market. FIGURE 3. EXAMPLE OF AN ANSWERED CONSTRAINT-SOURCE MODEL QUESTION.The design attributes are grouped into sections, as indicated in Table 1. Within its section, eachattribute is listed with an eliciting, reflective question. Students are asked to respond bothquantitatively and qualitatively. On the quantitative side, the CSM provides the
, skills, and ability to solve complexproblems and to produce excellent solution(s) within the structure of the team. This concept wasfurther developed to include defining team and task, team climate, communication, and reflection(for a detailed description, please see Table 1)23-26.Design competence focused on finding and evaluating variants and recognizing and solvingcomplex design problems. These were further defined as having the ability to discover and designmultiple solutions to a given problem and to effectively evaluate those solutions to determine thebest solution, and having the ability to see the overall picture of a complex design problem, thenbreaking it into smaller, more manageable parts to solve while keeping the overall problem
on talent. The Cronbach’s alpha was also applied to the full data set.The negative questions were adjusted by subtracting each response from 7, thus ensuring equivalent scale. Theresulting fit between matched pairs of positive and negative formulation is interpreted as a measure of confidence intwo aspects of the student responses: (1) the extent to which students are reading and interpreting individualquestions; and therefore (2) the reliability of the entire data set as a reflection of student opinion.Results of Analysis of Survey Responses Multiple analyses were pursued relative to these data. These included basic assessment of the reliability ofthe data, as well as consideration of the data as separated by such groupings as
ability tomonitor progress towards self-generated goals, and the ability to reflect on performance andmake adjustments and manage time effectively, to comprise the overarching construct of self-regulation in learning [4].Students who are better at self-regulation often outperform those who have not developed theseskills [5]. Although the literature on this topic heavily focuses on students’ use of strategies orperformance, there is a growing body of research focused on students’ backgrounds andunderlying beliefs regarding learning. These individual difference variables may globallyinfluence a student’s disposition, use of strategy, and thus, performance [4, 6]. Although thereare several potential lines of inquiry available, the present study was
theory and reflective practice. Projects supported by the National Science Foundation include exploring disciplines as cultures, liberatory maker spaces, and a RED grant to increase pathways in ECE for the professional formation of engineers.S Masters, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University S. Masters is a doctoral student and Graduate Research Assistant at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Masters received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Delaware and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Masters’ research interests include equity and social justice in engineering with particular attention to the experiences of women & LGBTQ
signal of Vsource3Fig.2a Circuit to simulate Noise Signal.Circuits to simulate the noise signal, which could be tested and also added to desired signals todemonstrate effects of it on the circuit operation and on the signal distortions were modeled.Time-domain signal, signal distortions are studied. Fig.2b The pulses generated by adding different noise signal to the pulsesFig.3 The circuits used to demonstrate the pulse reflections in transmission lines. Upper circuit isused to simulate and ideal case when the source and load resistances are matched to thecharacteristic impedance of the transmission line. The lower circuit has both resistancesunmatched to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. The harmonic signalcomponents
first day of class (text in black) and follow-up process during the entire semester (text in green). Adapted from [11].The PD process (Figure 2) is called a cycle because it consists of a few elements that arerepeated11. The description of each element is taken from Ho et al (2001, p.147)12: Self-reflections: Instructors “undergo self-reflection and clarify personal conceptions.” In this study, all three reflections occurred prior to the first day of class. Exposures: Workshop facilitators “provide a direction and a model for improvement.” Exposure 1 and Exposure 2 occurred prior to the first day of class, whereas Exposure 3 occurred during the semester. Confrontations: Instructors “are brought to realize
participatingstudents graduated with a STEM degree. Interviews collected in this project are previouslypublished on the IEEE Engineering Technology and History Wiki (ETHW). Following the oralhistory interviews, the students write reflections to answer the following three research questions(RQ). RQ#1 is “What are the key factors that led to the success of the distinguished leaders?.”RQ#2 is “What are the crucial skills that enabled their success?.” RQ#3 is “What is the impacton my career path?”One objective of this paper is for the participating female students, who are majoring in STEMfields, to present their reflections on the three research questions. A second objective is for thestudents to describe the impact, if any, that carrying out interviews of
their hometown. 4. The Great Animal Escape: Portable Livestock Corral Design Project. In this lesson, students will work in teams to design and build scale models of portable livestock corrals. The scale models will be tested using robotic hamsters that represent livestock, and try to escape from the model. Following the activity, students will reflect on how their individual participation in the group reflects teachings on the Diné way of life. Finally, students will scale their model up on paper and create a bill of materials for a full-size portable livestock corral.Next StepsFollowing the curriculum pilot, the curriculum will be improved and additional curriculummodules added to continue building out
an issue not only with competency,but also with a lack of self-efficacy in math, science, and engineering which creates anxiety. According to Beck-Winchatz and Riccobono (2007), the majority of students with VI arefollowing general education curricula. However, less than 30 individuals with VI earned ascience and engineering research doctorate on average each year from 2001 to 2009 compared to25,600 people without a disability on average per year during the same time period (NSF, 2012).Lack of higher level degrees in the science and engineering fields do not reflect the fact thatstudents with VI have the same spectrum of cognitive abilities as sighted peers (Kumar,Ramasamy, & Stefanich, 2001) and with appropriate accommodations can
-on activities. For example, a lecture about the circulareconomy and the life-cycle of electronics included an opportunity for each teacher to dismantlingelectronics products, analyze the components, and think about the barriers to recyling forelectronics products.Research Experiences and Curriculum Development The research experiences at both universities comprised a primary focus of the program.On a weekly basis, teachers reflected on and shared what they had learned and documented ideasfor teaching engineering in facilitated conversations. The PU and TU cohorts shared experiencesand research results through weekly sessions enabled by WebEx. Guided reflections explicitly connected the RET experiences with educational
pedagogy [1]. John Dewey [8] who is most commonly associatedwith the theory of experiential learning described this learning approach as simply ‘learning bydoing”. This echos Confucius’s famous quote that states the following: I hear and I forgot, I seeand I remember, I do and I understand. Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and socialmovement. Critical pedagogy includes relationships between teaching and learning. Itsproponents claim that it is a continuous process of what they call "unlearning", "learning", and"relearning", "reflection", "evaluation", and the impact that these actions have on the students, inparticular students whom they believe have been historically and continue to be disenfranchisedby what they call "traditional
varioussituations such as: lack of awareness, general disinterest for their studies, struggle interpretinghomework or assignments, difficulties when expressing themselves both written and verbally,lack of reading habits, little or no discipline for studying, little retention of acquired knowledge,and low grade reflection, independence, and/or generalization. These situations, when added tothe fact that the course requires the use of mental processes that are generally complex andrequire creativity, ingenuity, and discipline, can cause a high desertion rate and a low retentionrate. This is, consequently, reflected in the low passing rate, which is currently about 35%.Second, the teaching method being implemented by many faculty has lost sight of the fact
children. Through it the accumulated wisdom of a culture is transmitted. Eggleston’s paradigm is similar to the “Scholar Academic ideology” proposed by Schiro. “Scholar academics” writes Schiro, “assume that the academic disciplines, the world of the intellect, and the world of knowledge are loosely equivalent. The central task of education is taken to be the extension of the components of this equivalence, both on the cultural level as reflected in the discovery of new truth, and on the individual level, as reflected in the enculturation of individuals into civilization’s accumulated knowledge and ways of knowing” [12]. Jerome Bruner a distinguished American psychologist wrote: “A body of
’ development, achievement, and persistence through encouraging the integration of social and academic lives within a college or university and its programs, and through quality interaction with peers, faculty members, and the campus environment5. (pp. 49–50)Learning communities help students to make friends right away so that they can then settle inand focus on academics. Johnson et al8, wrote about how using cooperative learning in learningteam environments helps to reduce anxiety, helps to increase motivation, and promotesemotional bonding. In the learning teams, the first year seminar course, and the academicstrategies course students are asked to reflect and write about their experiences. Research asshown the importance of
series of qualitative, longitudinal interviewswith students selected from normative and non-normative groups to understand how theynavigate their engineering experiences and define their educational trajectories over the firsttwo years of college. This data is being deductively analyzed based on our existing identity andintersectionality frameworks, as well as inductively coded for emerging themes on howstudents feel belongingness within engineering culture.This project seeks to move traditional demographic data beyond socially constructedperceptions of others and allows for the representation of student diversity from the perspectiveof each participant. This increasingly accurate reflection of diversity provides novel insight intothe
encourage more women andunderrepresented students to pursue engineering and to consider more fully the wide range ofengineering disciplines available.AcknowledgementsThis material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.1505006. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this materialare those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National ScienceFoundation.ReferencesBandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of self-regulation. Organizational Behavior andHuman Decision Processes, 50(2), 248-287.Wharton, A. (1992). The social construction of gender and race in organizations: A socialidentity and group mobilization perspective. In P. Tolbert & S
methodology towards assessing this project has been adapted over the course of sevenyears. The original methodology was based on the learning outcome of whether students couldcomplete the soldering of a circuit board. Upon reflection, the first year’s methodology whileadequate limited the focus and didn’t capture the full range of skills development of the students.The original methodology was focused around the deliverable itself to assess the success of theproject and learning objectives. In the second and subsequent years, additional assessments havebeen added to try to capture the full magnitude of the process. These assessments focus on specificskills obtained, level of collaboration and transfer of skills between majors, soft skills learned
Engineering program hasmaintained a female enrollment of 25-40% women over the duration of the program. TheMetallurgical Engineering program increased their female graduation rate from 17.5% to 25%during the five years of the C&A program.While the statistics show a substantial bias towards female enrollment in Industrial Engineering,it is also recognized that Industrial Engineering is often viewed more gender friendly than mostengineering majors. Nationally, 17% of engineers are women while women comprise 29.7% ofIndustrial Engineering majors. The relatively large number of Mechanical Engineering majorssupported through the C&A program reflects the large size of the students in that major. At theconclusion of the C&A program, overall
asupplement to more important learning. The course design outlined below reflects our bestattempts to use the lens of disability students to show STEM and the liberal arts as organic,essential, and generative partners.Course background and overviewAs an academic field, Disability Studies solidified in the 1990s alongside a social model ofdisability that rejected biological definitions of “normal” bodies and medical perspectives thatidentified disabilities as problems to be fixed. As a result, the study of disability fractured, oftenhighlighting conflicts between academic and professional interests4. At its foundation, the goal ofour Introduction to Disability Studies course is to bridge the chasm between theories andresearch in disability studies and