Conference Session

IE Accreditation and Program Issues

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Eleanor Nault; Michael Leonard

the previously approved versions ofCriteria 2000 specify two guidelines. First, the program educational objectives must be“consistent with the mission of the institution and these criteria [Criteria 2000].” Second, theoutcomes “important to the mission of the institution and the objectives of the program includingthose listed above [the ABET 11 program outcomes specified in Criterion 3] are being measured3 .” Thus, information derived from systematic measurements made to confirm that programgraduates achieved specified outcomes, which by Criteria 3 requirements reflect programeducational objectives, certainly would provide at least some evidence as to whether the programachieved its program educational objectives.However, the new definitions

Conference Session

A Potpoturri of Innovations in Physics

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Lance Calvert; Michael Shannon

point in the semester when we study thin film interference, the cadets have alreadystudied waves, both mechanical and electromagnetic, to include propagation properties,reflections at hard or soft boundaries, and interference between two coherent waves. They havealso been introduced to the optics of polarization, reflection and refraction, and understand theconcept of index of refraction. Finally, in the lessons directly preceding the thin film classes, thecadets study interference between waves due to a path length difference in a Young’s double-slitexperiment, as well as a path length difference induced by media of different indices ofrefraction. With the information they already know about waves and interference, it is not amajor leap to

Conference Session

Teamwork and Assessment

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Dana Knox; Robert Barat

aspect of biology in their names. These changes reflect Page 9.1346.1a fundamental shift in where most chemical engineering graduates find jobs in the modern world. “Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2004, American Society for Engineering Education”In years past, most jobs were to be found in the petroleum, petrochemical and commoditychemical fields. Now, the jobs are shifting to areas such as the pharmaceuticals, specialtychemical and food industries. Newer fields include biomedical engineering, genetic engineeringand biotechnology in

Conference Session

Women in Engineering: Faculty/Curriculum

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Heidi Diefes-Dux; Brenda Capobianco; Judith Zawojewski; Margret Hjalmarson; P.K. Imbrie; Deborah Follman

the laser beam) relative to its home position?c. How will you calculate the positions of the transmitter?With regards to the second room, the students were asked:a. How will you consistently and quantitatively define the angles of the transmitted laser beam, reflected laser beam, and the beam as received at the object?b. For a given laser beam, how are these angles related to each other (e.g., complementary, supplementary, congruent).c. How will you calculate the positions of the transmitter for cases where you reflect the beam off the mirror? Page 9.919.5 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education

Conference Session

Expert Advice on Instructional Methods

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Felder

formulated by Felder and Silverman [1988] involves four dichotomous dimensions.Students may be‚ sensing learners (concrete, practical, oriented toward facts and procedures) or intuitive learners (conceptual, innovative, oriented toward theories and meanings).‚ visual learners (prefer visual representations of presented material—pictures, diagrams, flow charts, etc.) or verbal learners (prefer written and spoken explanations).‚ active learners (tend to learn by trying things out, working with others) or reflective learners (tend to learn by thinking things through, working alone).‚ sequential learners (linear, orderly, tend to learn in small incremental steps) or global learners (holistic, systems thinkers, tend to learn in large

Conference Session

Understanding Students: Cognition

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Krause

) course, became aware of the changes in their understandingof DET. Weekly reflection papers, weekly written pre and post tests and lesson plans were usedas data sources. A rubric linking the course outcomes with six major categories (engineering as adesign process, gender and diversity, societal relevance of engineering, technical self-efficacy,tinkering self-efficacy and transfer to classroom teaching) was developed to code text. Severalpasses through the data led to the refinements for the six categories that allowed the coding ofalmost all of the text. We specifically looked for shifts in understanding over a 15-week periodand an awareness that these shifts were taking place (e.g. “It’s not that I had a bad attitude abouttechnology to begin

Conference Session

Global Issues in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Renato Pacheco; Lucia Helena Martins-Pacheco

, American Society for Engineering Educationapproach is to develop in students a critical thinking. For that, we regard as essential to usemeans to make relational reasoning putting together several ideas seeking for finding out themutual influences.The STS approach is relatively recent in Brazil. In spite of the emphasis given to Mathematics,Physics, and Technical knowledge, during several years, engineering curriculum in Brazil hastried to include subjects such as Biology, History, Law Studies, Economy, among others, toprovide a more encompassing view for students. Nevertheless, there was not an effective concernto connect/integrate the subjects and to make critical reflections. So, the students did notunderstand the reason of such subjects in the

Conference Session

Forum for Nontraditional Engineering Programs

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Dave Wangrow; Doug Tougaw

SESSION 1732 Professional Partners as Adjunct Instructors in Emerging Technology Courses Douglas Tougaw and David Wangrow Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Valparaiso University / Global Telecom Solution Sector, Motorola 1. Introduction Like every other electrical and computer engineering program across the country, Valparaiso University’s ECE department is faced with two great challenges. The first is to continually seek input from key stakeholders to determine the skills and knowledge expected of our graduates and to update our curriculum and courses to reflect these changing expectations

Conference Session

Curricular Change Issues

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Gaston N'Guerekata; Solomon Alao; Shurron Farmer; Craig Scott; Pamela Leigh-Mack

into a practical classroom applicationto improve teaching and learning in any content area 1. It ensures that instruction takes intoaccount all five of the critical components of learning which include 1) Positive Attitudes andPerceptions about Learning; 2) Thinking Involved in Acquiring and Integrating Knowledge; 3)Thinking Involved in Extending and Refining Knowledge; 4) Thinking Involved in UsingKnowledge Meaningfully; and 5) Productive Habits of the Mind. Implicit in the Dimensions ofLearning model are six basic assumptions: Instruction must reflect the best of what we knowabout how learning occurs. •Learning involves a complex system of interactive processes that includes five types of thinking—the five

Conference Session

Trends in Construction Engineering II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Rajesh Malani; Enno Koehn

average background inthese areas from their educational experience. Nevertheless, graduating seniors at LamarUniversity have indicated relatively strong support for these attributes.Table 4 illustrates that there may be large differences in composite scores. For example,graduating seniors at Lamar University indicate that they strongly recognize the need for anability to engage in lifelong learning as well as an ability to communicate effectively. In contrastpractitioners do not believe they received the same background in these areas when they were inschool. However, the perceptions of practitioners most likely reflect, in part, the actual jobexperiences of the practicing engineers responding to the questionnaire. In this regard, a numberof

Conference Session

Global Issues in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

George Catalano

species per say but it does call for a carefulconsideration prior to intervention. Perhaps, after reflection, society may wish to preservegray wolves or Bengal tigers through government action while not permitting continueddredging of the Atchafalya River Basin near New Orleans, Louisiana. Biodiversityconsists of an appreciation for the roles of the various plants and animals, a commitmentto the protection of species, particularly endangered species and a commitment toconservation in concert with the dynamic nature of ecosystems. Natural balanceencompasses an appreciation of the integrity of natural systems, an emphasis onsustainable resource use as well as on the importance of ecological security. A complete schematic representation of the

Conference Session

New Faculty Issues and Concerns

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Suzanne Kresta; Alan Nelson

tocomplete this assessment for themselves. Professors in the New Faculty Forums showed astrong preference for visual presentation of information (graphs, figures, maps, diagrams); andfor global organization of ideas (extending from the general principle to the specificapplications). No strong trends emerge in the other two dimensions: active/reflective learningand sensing/intuitive data awareness. Figure 1 illustrates that our undergraduate students have aconsistent preference of learning styles, but it is not well matched to either traditional lecturingwithout visual aids, or to professors’ natural ways of organizing information. Our students havea strong preference for visual presentation of information, and are quite different from

Conference Session

Service Learning in Engineering

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

John Chandler; dean fontenot

Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2004 American Society for Engineering EducationTTU Industrial Engineering Communications for Engineers course, students participatein writing reflections about community service on a volunteer basis; however, all thestudents participate in the service learning project. Currently, Texas Tech does not have acampus-wide procedure in place to recognize students’ participation in service learning.Students who volunteer to write the reflection papers in IE Communications forEngineers course receive a letter, for their job portfolio, from the teacher detailing theirinvolvement with community service. Although Texas Tech is still investigating

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Alene Harris; Chad Washington; Patrick Norris

. Page 9.1409.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering EducationBackgroundPrior research suggests that professors will use formative feedback to make positive changes inclassroom teaching1, and that self-reflection is an important tool for improving teaching2,3. Suchimprovements might include adopting different classroom management techniques4,5 or otherchanges in teaching behavior6. Since quality of student learning can be evaluated by observingwhat occurs within classrooms7, an observational system that identifies specific elements of theclassroom experience as correlated with student learning can be used

Conference Session

Capstone Course in Industrial Technology

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

C. Ray Diez; Luke Huang; David Yearwood

this course. Moore 3 listed 13 advantages of having capstone courses, whichcan be divided into three categories: 1) enriching the senior-year study; 2) perfecting theimplementation of the program mission; and 3) being employed as an assessment tool.Whereas the first two directly put impacts on the program through integration of allprevious course work, the latter reflects a role that other course cannot offer—assessmentof the total program. This role has been practically studied and performed in certainspecific undergraduate programs and was proved to be quite successful.4 A pilot test of a mini project was conducted prior to full implementation of thecapstone course. The information learned from this activity was then integrated, on

Conference Session

Accreditation and Related Issues in BAE

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Ann Christy

inventions as well as his paintings. Many engineering students think thatany time spent on non-technical subjects is not beneficial to their future careers. Over two years,the author assigned essays specifically inviting students to reflect on these attitudes. Fewer thanhalf expressed an appreciation for the value of their general education courses, especially in artsand humanities. This goal of this project was to explore Renaissance learning within a biologicaland agricultural engineering (BAE) program. The primary methods included weekly essayassignments and an annual departmental poetry contest. As a component of regularly assignedhomework, weekly essays were assigned to BAE seniors to give students the opportunity toreflect on various

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

John Spinelli

are required to use the peer review form ontheir own first draft, and then to modify their paper accordingly. Since the course is nottaught by an instructor with any formal training in writing instruction, the most importantskill that students take away from the course is the ability to critique their own writing.5. Improving Oral Communications Most students have had only limited experience with giving oral presentations.The strategy used to improve their presentations parallels that used on their writing:required self-reflection. Each student gives an initial presentation early in the term. Thispresentation is peer-reviewed by each member of the class, using a form provided, and isreviewed and graded by the instructor. Most

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Case Studies

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry Richards

defend theiranalysis. Although in some fields cases are analyzed individually, team solutions are mostcommon in engineering and business.What are cases?A case is a narrative account of a situation, problem, or decision usually derived from actualexperience. 5 Cases often reflect real world concerns, situations, and issues managers andengineers encounter in practice; they are often open-ended, with no clear-cut solution. Whichanswer is ``best'' depends on the relative importance one assigns to various criteria. In businessschools, cases frequently describe critical decision points in the history of a company. Inengineering, cases may provide an account of a problem, technical issue, ethical dilemma, ordesign challenge.Cases provide a context for

Conference Session

ABET Criterion 4 and Liberal Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Gary Gabriele

Page 9.1013.2 “Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education”formulate and analyze problems of varying complexity and to work individually or in teams toproduce innovative design solutions that reflect this genius for integration.The Basics of PDIThe PDI program was begun with the incoming class of the Fall 98. The institutional andadministrative infrastructure for the PDI program is a dual-degree program jointly offered by theSchool of Engineering and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Students satisfy therequirements for the Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and science

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Paper Session

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Glenn Ellis; Susannah Howe; Donna Riley

real-world contexts, and supportive of critical thinking and reflective action.Ethics are woven across five required courses in the Smith curriculum: a design-basedintroductory course, a first year course in mass and energy balances, continuum mechanics,thermodynamics, and the capstone design clinic. The first-year courses motivate a well-roundedengineering education and social responsibility, encourage reflective thought and valuesarticulation, and introduce frameworks for ethical problem solving and case analysis. Coreengineering courses build on this experience, employing additional cases that integrate relevantengineering content. In the capstone design course, students apply what they have learnedpreventively to identify potential

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Roberta Harvey

to how students receive and processinformation: sensory vs. intuitive, visual vs. verbal, active vs. reflective, and sequential vs.global.1This approach was, from the beginning, extremely influential within engineering education.Numerous other methods and instruments have arisen, and research into the impact of learningstyles on student learning and the implications for teaching has burgeoned. (For an excellentoverview and comprehensive links to resources, see the University of Michigan College ofEngineering webpage on learning.2 See also Felder’s review of four commonly cited learningstyles theories.3 An overview of several approaches and an annotated list of online instrumentscan be found on the University of Guelph Learning Styles page.4

Conference Session

Entrepreneurism in BME

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

David Smith; John Troy; Penny Hirsch

American Society for Engineering Educationfunded alliance of educators, engineers, and industry partners developing curricula andtechnologies for tomorrow’s bioengineers. VaNTH is a cooperative effort among VanderbiltUniversity, Northwestern University, the University of Texas, and the Harvard University/MITdivision of Health Sciences and Technology (i.e., VaNTH.). Faculty teams of biomedicalengineers, learning scientists, and learning technologists work together and with industryrepresentatives to create challenge-based learning modules, or segments of courses, that can beplugged into new or existing BE or BME curricula. All modules reflect the theory and researchon effective teaching and learning compiled in How People Learn (HPL) (Bransford

Conference Session

Ethics & HSS in Engineering

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Ethan Brue

sciences. The end result is uncertain.Stephan concludes that the end result will be “a wider variety of non-technical education inundergraduate engineering schools that will range from very good to possibly very bad”3.However, as the face of HSS education in engineer changes, one thing is for sure, the teaching ofthese courses must have an integral character to them. It is not adequate to demonstrate to ABETthat the engineering students take a history course. A department must demonstrate that thiscourse helps students recognize the “impact of engineering solutions in a global and societalcontext”. In terms of teaching history integrally across the curriculum, accreditation criteria maybe forcing the issue.The Imperative of Historical Reflection

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Elisa Linsky; Gunter Georgi

Society for Engineeringcomponent is designed to increase students’ self-awareness at the same time serve as a tool forinstructors to assess students’ understanding of course materials. In addition, the program isdesigned to be as unobtrusive as possible. Students in EG 1004 are already saddled with a greatdeal of work, so the last thing we want to do is add to their burden. In these assignments we seekto create brief periods of self-reflection to aid students in apprehending writing lessons, notadditional writing practice. Where possible, these projects (in particular the “one-minute”papers) are conducted in electronic forums accessible to all students so that they can learn fromeach other’s insights.The first semester, we ran the assessment

Conference Session

Innovations in the ChE Laboratory

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Henry Lamb; David Ollis

range of experiments also provide the following desirable features: (1) The topics are non-traditional, and modern: fuel cells are in fashion, but notusually found in reaction engineering texts; silicon wafer oxidation describes reaction of a solid(vs gas, or liquid) for microelectronics fabrication; polymer coating of small metal objectsoccurs in a fluidized bed, photocatalysis involves light-activated semiconductors for watertreatment, and compact disc writing involves use of laser to carryout physical transformations(change reflectance) and thereby information coding (record bits, bytes) . Rapid prototypinginvolves use of lasers or ink jets, both modern, yet rarely covered topics in standard texts.Collectively, incorporation of

Conference Session

Women in Engineering: Faculty/Curriculum

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Kim Covington; Jeff Froyd

andmore welcoming, it is not sufficient to bombard faculty with messages such as “Be inviting!” or“Be welcoming!” Further, it is impossible to prescribe to faculty members how they shouldstructure their learning and work environments to promote greater equity and provide thenecessary intellectual challenges and support. Instead, the project has focused on getting facultymembers to think differently by providing access to the research and practice that is occurringaround the country on issues related to gender diversity. The project has identified fourdisciplines, branches of knowledge and practice that are related to gender equity and requiresustained reflection and conversation in order to bring about change. Working with each of thedisciplines

Conference Session

BME Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Jendrucko; Jack Wasserman

Learning Styles Based on prior Meyer-Briggs testing of freshman students, the students that planned to take biomedical engineering were more diverse than the students in other programs. As part of this research effort, the students in the Introduction to Biomedical Engineering were required to take an assessment of learning styles. As expected, the styles were diverse, however it was clear that the majority were active and visual learners. This information matched the expectations for the Joint Motion Module (JMM). Joint Motion Module The JMM was constructed to allow students to choose the pathway for learning that would reflect whether they were global or sequential

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching/Learning Strategies

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Karen Wosczyna-Birch

teachers andstudents would be amazed at what we do. We’re also constantly working with collegesto create programs that work for us. “ Summerville, A. Becton Dickinson Sustaining the externship experience Critical to the success of an externship is to move the experience forward into theclassroom, so that educators can share what they have learned with students. Thecurriculum reports inspired from the teacher leaders’ externships reflect the impact theprogram has had. The following are examples of proposed projects: An IT professor is creating a brand new data base administration class inspired byher work in the IT department of a large insurance company. A technology teacher is having his students

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul McCright; Joanne Larsen

Copyright ©2004, American Society for Engineering Education”Learning Styles of Engineering StudentsAfter examining the learning styles of engineering students, Richard Felder and Linda Silvermanhave developed the Index of Learning Style Inventory based on the learning style models ofMyers-Briggs Type Indicator, Kolb Learning Style Model, Herrmann Brain DominanceInstrument, and the Felder-Silverman Learning Style Model.2The Index of Learning Styles is a simple self-scoring instrument that measures an individual’spreferences on four dimensions: sensing/intuiting, visual/verbal, active/reflexive andsequential/global. The sensing/intuiting scale reflects the types of information the learnerprefers. The visual/verbal scale

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education

Collection

2004 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephanie Nelson

examined to be typical of engineering student writing.Cal State L.A. is an urban university with one of the most diverse student populations in thenation. This diversity is reflected in the engineering department. Specifically, non-native Englishspeakers comprise more than three-quarters of the engineering student population.The reports were evaluated for organization, completeness, clarity, grammar and punctuation,and understanding of documentation conventions for the disciplines. While assignments as wellas my findings vary per discipline, there are enough commonalities in terms of the weaknessesthat the findings as well as related recommendations are discussed first for all three engineeringdisciplines. More specific teaching approaches are