Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Frederick Berry; Patricia Carlson

Session 2793 Using Calibrated Peer Review™ to Mediate Writing and to Assess Instructional Outcomes Patricia A. Carlson, Frederick C. Berry, and David Voltmer Department of Humanities and Social Sciences / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, Indiana 47803Writing in Engineering EducationThe written word is crucial to engineering for at least two compelling reasons. First, the texts ofengineering – publications that report findings or describe

Conference Session

Teaching Styles and Peer Review

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Charles McIntyre

semester. Provide meaningful feedback to your peer related to his or her syllabus. Provide meaningful feedback to your peer related to classroom observations of his or her teaching strategies. Provide meaningful feedback to your peer related to the evidence of student learning that your peer collects from his or her students.Step 2.): Attend group meetings with your PRT leader. Page 8.103.3 “Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”Step 3.): Write three reflective

Conference Session

Global Issues in Engineering Education

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Figliola; Beth Daniell; Art Young; David Moline

lab reports to focused writing of a section: abstract, results withdiscussion, or a conclusion. Focusing on only one section at a time allowed for substantialinstructor-student feedback and student practice without substantial workload on either party.Also, in the second semester, we made more use of peer review. Our logic here was that students Page 8.818.5“Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright© 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”continue to learn to write more effectively by reading the work, good or bad, of others. Andstudents take attentive

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

R Wane Schneiter

Session 0000 Writing and Undergraduate Engineers - A Continuing Problem R. Wane Schneiter Virginia Military InstituteIntroductionEssentially any published paper that addresses either the engineering curriculum or deficienciesin the skills of practicing engineers includes conclusions regarding the need to improvecapabilities in written and oral communication.2,9,11,12,13,17 In the Report of the Committee onEvaluation of Engineering Education published in 1955, the Committee considered “insistenceupon the development of a high level of performance in the oral, written

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Peretti; James Spivey; Paula Berardinelli; Naomi Kleid; Deanna Dannels; Chris Anson; Lisa Bullard; Dave Kmiec

consultant a work-in-progress for discussion in aworkshop setting.The consultation sessions emphasize the importance of developing and implementing a systematic writingand editing process. Often the consultant facilitates the integration of the collaborative writing, presenting,and editing skills that students were exposed to in the module by helping them apply these skills tocreating the reports and presentations required by the laboratory portion of the course.For the final consultation of the semester, several teams of students meet during the common module timeand rehearse their presentations in a critical speaking environment where they can participate in theevaluation process and respond to real questions and answers from their peers. This

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Edward Gehringer

. At the end of the period, the reviewer gives the author a grade. Each author getsreviews from several reviewers, whose grades are averaged. At the end of the review period,there is a final round when students grade each other’s reviews. Their grade is determined by thequality of both their submitted work and their reviewing.This paper reports on our use of peer review in two computer architecture courses, amicroarchitecture course and a parallel-architecture course. Students in these courses engaged ina variety of peer-reviewed tasks: Writing survey papers on an aspect of computer architecture,making up homework problems over the material covered in class, creating machine-scorablequestions on topics covered during the semester, animating

Conference Session

Models for Integrating Writing II

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Rebecca Pinkus

R. Pinkus 2003-1978“Writing Across the Engineering Curriculum: Challenges, Experiences, and Insightsfrom the University of Toronto’s Engineering Communications Centre”Rebecca A. Pinkus, MTPW, MALanguage Across the CurriculumFaculty of Applied Science and EngineeringUniversity of TorontoINTRODUCTIONWriting Centers have been in place throughout university systems since the early 1970s[1], as have Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) efforts; both aim to use writing as aform of learning. That is, as students learn to write about their discipline, they also learn tothink more critically about the content they are learning. When these concepts are placedinto the

Conference Session

Improving Communication Skills in ME

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Theresa McGarry; Edward Young; Elisabeth Alford

Session 1098Teaching and Grading in Conferences: Improving Students’ Understanding of Expectations and Evaluations Edward Young, Elisabeth M. Alford, Theresa McGarry University of South CarolinaAbstract: This paper describes the results of a novel approach in a senior mechanical engineeringlab course, which combined team reporting, self-assessment of writing, conference grading, andconsultative techniques that help learners improve both their communicative competence and theirperformance. We argue that the approach increases communications assignments and makes themmore effective

Conference Session

Graduate Student Experiences

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Nancy Thompson; Eric Vilar; Beth Davidson; John Brader; Michael Matthews; Elisabeth Alford; Sirena Hargrove-Leak

8.776.11 offered the client our knowledge, which was shared among employees worldwide. This “Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education” company’s operating premise is distributed cognition, the ability to learn from peers and near- peers, and to pass this knowledge to the client as well as use it to meet the client’s needs. This procedure is similar to what students must learn when writing or researching a task for their professors. The premise of the company is that the employee is never alone, whether solving a problem or creating a new design. This premise can be translated into distributed

Conference Session

Trends in Mechanical Engineering

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Tracy Volz; David McStravick

would be spent meetingCain Project provides a group of faculty in small groups to discuss the students’ papersmembers that specialize in communications and peer review would be dropped.training to be available for the evaluation of In fall 2002, the revised approach was used in athese initial reports. This approach allowed senior laboratory course, which containedidentification of students with report writing essentially the same students as in the previousdeficiencies before the formal laboratory reports spring fluids lab course. The topic chosen forwere submitted and offered an opportunity to this paper related to error analysis. Thegive feedback and

Conference Session

Introduction to Engineering: The Present State

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Sandra Courter; Jay Martin

student response (in class, viadiscussion, and survey), numerous changes have been made to this format. Now, studentsattend one large group meeting per week where active learning is used in all the activities.Faculty share an example that demonstrates the desired educational concept, and then askstudents to apply the concept with their peers to something of specific interest to them.The second lecture each week is now a small group meeting where the content isdetermined “just-in-time,” as the result of a formal method for determining what thestudents are most interested in learning to best complete their project. Other changes include • Incorporation of writing into all aspects of the course • Recognition that the design process is

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Julie Sharp, Vanderbilt University

peers also evaluate the presentations inclass. Using a checklist to rate presentation skills and write comments, students evaluate thespeakers and give them the checklists. It is gratifying to see speakers pore over these and evenmore gratifying when peer evaluators make the same comments as the instructor.Teamwork Training with the Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Working in teams in theengineering classroom and laboratory is a topic explored in engineering education papers,especially in the last ten years.27 One activity I have used for years is teamwork training with theKolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI). Teaching students how learning styles affect teaminteraction and even leadership styles can help students improve their team's performance

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Design

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Peretti; Paula Berardinelli; Naomi Kleid; Deanna Dannels; Chris Anson; Lisa Bullard; Dave Kmiec

members who were unable to attend that module(members from other disciplines who had class at that time) were asked to relay information totheir team members during the team’s normal meeting times. Teaming instruction focused on fourcontent areas: creating team ground rules, the stages of team development (forming, storming,norming, performing), establishing team roles, and writing team minutes. Throughout the course,multidisciplinary teams had to complete three team assignments: team minutes and logs, peerreview sheets, and reflection assignments. Team minutes and logs detailed what happened atteam meetings in terms of the design progress. Peer review sheets were assignments wherestudents had to evaluate other team members so that the advisor

Conference Session

Topics in Civil ET

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Andrew Rose

development are examples that students may not easilysee, but may be significant issues for projects they will encounter during their careers. Developingan appreciation of such issues should be an important aspect of their engineering technologyeducation.Students InvolvedThe students involved were juniors in a B.S. degree program in Civil Engineering Technology(CET). The course was Soil Engineering, a four-credit course that includes a laboratory. Thecourse is designated as “writing enhanced” by the University indicating that 25% of the coursegrade is based on writing assignments. In addition, feedback and opportunities for revision areprovided by a student peer-review process. 8 There were 25 students in the class.Initial Assessment SurveyPrior to

Conference Session

Assessment in BME Education

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Marian G. McCord; Susan Blanchard

forcollection and analysis are frequently semester-long, team-based projects that address manyoutcomes and allow students to demonstrate proficiency in several areas. One such assignment isthe team-based written term project in BAE 382 (formerly BAE 465): Biomedical EngineeringApplications. The projects represent chapters in an electronic textbook that has been contributedto by students since the fall of 1994. 2,3 Projects developed over the last five years can be viewedat http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/research/blanchard/www/465/textbook/projects.html. Each chapter isbased on one of the body's systems or senses or a specialized area of biomedical engineering.Students writing about specialized areas in biomedical engineering were asked to describe: (1)The

Conference Session

Laptop/Handheld Computing in Education

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Charles McIntyre

). Page 8.104.2 Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education Table 1. Palm Functions vs. Student Use Function Student Use Date Book (use to plan & schedule events) 11 Address Book (store contact information) 12 Note Pad (write notes and brief documents) 8 “To Do” List (track tasks by date, category, & priority) 9 Graffiti Writing (Palm hand

Conference Session

Physics in the K-16 Classroom

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Budny Dan; Teresa Larkin

a different form of writing tocommunicate with their peers. The online chats have also proven to help students elicit andconfront their misconceptions [38]. The most common use of the chats was for the discussion ofhomework questions. During the semester, chats were routinely scheduled for a day or two priorto the date that a homework assignment would be collected. The chats were typically set up ondifferent days of the week and at different times each week so as to allow more students anopportunity to participate. The chats were not required, but rather were advertised as anadditional way for students to get assistance on their homework when they needed it. Onefeature of Blackboard allowed the instructor to prohibit anonymous postings

Conference Session

Current Issues in Information Technology

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

C. Richard Helps; Stephen Renshaw; Joseph Ekstrom

most studentsrealize that they can indeed write and thus a new opportunity is opened. Many also realize thatteaching is a viable option as well since comments like “this is not as hard as I thought” show upnear the end of the development cycle. Students that develop curriculum also have a heightenedmotivation for learning as shown in comments like “As I was faced with new experiences anddesign, I quickly gained an appreciation for what the text was attempting to teach.”Student Learners:Students that are using the curriculum for learning have no idea if it was designed and developedby a faculty or peers and usually don’t care. They are in the course to learn the content usually inorder to graduate from the major. Most college level students

Conference Session

Teamwork & Assessment in the Classroom

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

James Newell

by including criteria such as“engages in lifelong learning,” “understands the impact that engineering has on society,” and“communicates effectively” in their assessment of engineering programs [3]. Besterfield-Sacre etal. observe that students’ attitudes about engineering and their abilities change throughout theireducation and influence motivation, self-confidence, perception of engineering, performance, andretention [4]. The same group also found that attitudes toward engineering directly related toretention during the freshman year [5]. Seymour and Hewitt [6] examined students who leftengineering programs and found that they were not academically different than their peers whocontinued in the program and that their retention was better

Conference Session

Motivating students to achieve

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Elizabeth Davis; David Socha; Valentin Razmov

about what has happened and what is possible in order to create a muchricher design experience and understanding; the cost of this is the higher overhead to the team.Providing a range of techniques allowed each student to assess which practices worked best forthat student’s personality and background, as well as for different situations they mightencounter. Different people may learn better through different types of reflective practices.Typical introverts8 may prefer the privacy of a journal to participating in team retrospectives,while extroverts may be more effective the opposite way. Writing and talking use different partsof the brain. Many people think better when they are physically active20.‡ This includes increasing the value all along

Conference Session

Technology, Communication, & Ethics

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Sageev Pneena; Kathy Bernard; Carol Romanowski

formulating questions.• Incorporate instruction in current and emerging technologies and interpersonal interactions (writing effective e-mail; designing and maintaining web pages; holding team meetings; conducting meetings; working in interdisciplinary teams).Many respondents suggested replacing what they (and many engineering professors) call “creativewriting” requirements such as English 101 or 201 with a technically oriented course that coversthe TC basics of writing, speaking, reading, listening, and evaluating technical subject matterintended for a variety of audiences. They also suggested we extend our instruction options toinclude “refresher modules or workshops” for practicing engineers who need to improve their TCskills.While some

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Cecelia Wigal

their peers, their management, various internal and external customers, and thegeneral public by corresponding, instructing, analyzing, researching, and presenting. Visuals anddocument design features as well as state-of-the-art hardware and software enhance anengineer’s ability to effectively communicate. Effective use of these tools requires knowledge of(1) what tools are available, (2) how to best integrate these tools, and, most importantly, (3)how the reader and listener best grasp written and orally communicated information.This paper describes a systems approach to integrating technical communication with theengineering curriculum. To introduce this approach, the basic theory behind systemsthinking—including systems methodologies and

Conference Session

Innovation in Design Education

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Jesse Pappas; Eric Pappas

experience.Successful programs, projects, and research at premier engineering schools around thecountry are equipping students with the advanced creative and cognitive abilities requiredto succeed as contemporary professionals. This paper is a review of the innovative, multi-disciplinary, educational methodology that is manifest in several types of new efforts,including: 1) Engineering design in a studio atmosphere; 2) Engineering courses forcreative problem-solving; 3) Encouraging creativity and insight through journal writing; 4)The agenda for creativity at the UK Centre for Materials Education; and 5) A focus on thepersonal creative process. Research for this review inspired The Creativity, Innovation,and Design Report, a new national publication dedicated

Conference Session

Issues for ET Administrators

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Abi Aghayere

that ETscholarship should take on an applied flavor while maintaining an appropriate objective andthorough peer review component to ensure the quality of ET scholarship and maintainrespectability and acceptance within the wider academic community.11, 14In a survey of seventy-six institutions with ET programs designed to investigate appropriatecreative endeavor, research, and scholarly activities deemed important for promotion and tenureof ET faculty, Buchanan identified the most highly rated creative endeavor activities forpromotion and tenure of ET faculty to be: (1) papers or presentations given at technical orinstructional conferences, (2) applied research activities, and (3) development of courseware orinstructional material.5During an

Conference Session

Intro to Engineering: Not Just 1st Year Engineers

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Suzanne Keilson

theirreading and writing in class discussions. In addition, scholastic conversation among peers inmore informal settings is encouraged during casual get-togethers. Students often don’t knowhow to create opportunities that allow them to get excited about discussing ideas. A selection ofvideos on appropriate engineering topics (Building Big, To Engineer is Human, Miracles ofDesign, NOVA) is already available at the Loyola-Notre Dame Library, which makes anexcellent starting point for such discussions.Engineering decision-making is practiced under conditions of uncertainty, risk, and moralambiguity. It is therefore natural for controversies to surround both engineering successes andfailures. Critical understanding of the technical and non-technical

Conference Session

Topics in Civil ET

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Amitabha Bandyopadhyay

environment. The ultimategoal of the program is to prepare each of the students for a professional construction position.Each student is monitored and assessed frequently. Individual accountability is promoted bykeeping the teams small, by rotating the roles of the team members, and by giving short quizzes atthe end of every session. To promote positive interdependence, individual quiz grades areaveraged or summed to obtain a grade for the team that eventually affects every member of theteam.Peer AssessmentPeer evaluation and assessment is a part of the United States higher education for a long time.However, using peer evaluation or students are quite uncommon. At Farmingdale constructionstudents are able to evaluate their peers in terms of their

Conference Session

Student Teams and Active Learning

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Camilla Saviz; Kurt Schulz

procedure, and conditions used to run the experiment, together with atimeline (or project schedule and management plan). Project plans are evaluated bythe instructor and discussed with each team during lab. In the Fluid Mechanics course,students also give a preliminary oral presentation approximately four weeks after theproject is assigned. Each team presents the experiment to the class, discussingobjectives, set-up, theory, and presenting progress to date. Questions, comments, andconstructive peer critiques are highly encouraged; students often help their peers tobetter define the project and provide suggestions for overcoming obstacles. In

Conference Session

ASEE Multimedia Session

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Benjamin Flores; Rosa Gomez-Martinez; Joseph Ramos; Lourdes Sanchez-Contreras

Session 2793 Developing a learner centered environment to meet the needs of a growing urban commuter student population Lourdes Sánchez-Contreras, Rosa M. Gómez, Joseph Ramos, Benjamin C. Flores, and Helmut Knaust Model Institutions for Excellence Program The University of Texas at El PasoAbstractThe Colleges of Engineering and Science at the University of Texas at El Paso havedeveloped a multi-faceted system based on peer support to address the particular needs ofscience and engineering majors. At the core of this strategy is a strong commitment todevelop

Conference Session

Tools of Teaching and Learning

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Elizabeth Davis; David Socha; Valentin Razmov

-personal conflict when a student finds it easier to put blameelsewhere than to change them self. In this case, dealing with the inner conflict would reduce theinter-personal conflict.This paper describes a model for designing a course that uses the above interpretation of conflict.Student writings and conversations during the course and their feedback four months after the Page 8.1307.2course indicate that while their conflict levels were sometimes high, many of the students valued Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2003, American Society

Conference Session

Unique Laboratory Experiments & Programs

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Hyun Kim

, solarradiation, refrigeration system, internal combustion engines, flue gas analysis, pump operation,and turbo machinery.At the time of the semester conversion, the University also adopted a policy of implementing amuch stronger version of general education requirements, whose merits and effectiveness [2] weredebated vigorously by the faculty from all segments of the University during the previous twoyears [3]. Recognizing the importance of good communication as an essential part of professionaldevelopment, the new GER required that students take two writing and one oral communicationcourses, along with other traditional GER courses such as mathematics, natural sciences,literature, humanity, and social science courses. In addition to expanded coursework