Conference Session

Biology in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Schreuders, Utah State University; Brian Rutherford, Utah State University; Katrina Cox, Utah State University; Susan Mannon, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

equity in other professions?Seymour (1997) found that the best foundation for survival and success is to have chosen one’smajor because of an intrinsic interest in the discipline. She also found that those with the stron-gest interest in their major owed their sense of direction to particular teachers, family members,role models, or mentors. Women were found to differ very sharply from men in this area of per-uqpcn"kpÞwgpeg0"Yqogp"ygtg"oqtg"nkmgn{"vq"jcxg"kpkvkcnn{"ejqugp"cpf"uykvejgf"vjgkt"oclqtu"vq"Uekgpeg."Ocvjgocvkeu."cpf"Gpikpggtkpi"*U0O0G0+"fkuekrnkpgu"dgecwug"qh"vjg"kpÞwgpeg"qh"uqogqpg"vjcv"ycu"ukipkÝecpv"vq"vjgo"240"Kp"rctvkewnct."vjg"kpÞwgpeg"qh"hcokn{"ogodgtu"ku"eqpukfgtgf"c"oc-jor factor in the career decision making process 1, 21, 25

Conference Session

Biology in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark McConkie, Utah State University; Timothy Taylor, Utah State University; David Britt, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

actually happens), the written curriculum (what isdescribed, if in no other place than the course catalog), and the tested curriculum (what isevaluated)12.Profits (Curriculum Level)• Courses can be designed to be balanced and well-scoped. In biological engineering, common principles apply to a variety of applications in different specialization areas (i.e. bioprocessing, biomedical, bioenvironmental). Ensuring that core courses offer a balanced set of examples, problems, labs, etc. representing the full breadth of applications is important to match diverse student interest and career paths. As an example in our bioinstrumentation course, we teach data acquisition appropriate for EKG measurements as well as soil moisture content. The

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adel Shirmohammadi, University of Maryland-College Park; Arthur Johnson, University of Maryland-College Park

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

to later career life. For the instructor,grouping students reduces the amounts of assignments to be graded. For both, groups promotecooperative learning and enhance speed and thoroughness of communications from the instructorto students. Changes in assignments or schedules are more confidently communicated as long asgroup members assist by telling other group members. Perhaps most importantly, the quality ofprepared submissions is improved if group members represent a diverse range of skills andexperiences from which to draw.Chadha and Nicholls (2006) emphasize the need for teaching transferable skills to students.They highlight several definitions for “transferable skills” as follows: 1. “skills that are developed within one