Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hank Boone, University of Nevada, Reno; Adam Kirn, University of Nevada, Reno

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

the third week of the fall semester at the end of aclass meeting of an upper level required technical communications class (ECOM) at a westernpublic land-grant institution. Surveys were administered over the span of a week and responseswere collected in class after participants finished the paper survey. The population consisted ofengineering majors who have taken at least two years of engineering courses. The class isdependent on a four year plan and has prerequisites that restrict students from taking the courseuntil their third year of engineering. A total of 202 survey responses (96% response rate) wereturned in from the participants. A 96% response rate was obtained for this survey administrationdue in part to the instructor’s mandatory

Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexis Prybutok, The University of Texas, Austin; Anita D. Patrick, University of Texas, Austin; Maura J. Borrego, University of Texas, Austin; Carolyn Conner Seepersad, University of Texas, Austin; Mary Jo Kirisits, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

global agency related to caring for others. A higher meanresponse to this factor in the lower-division students could indicate that lower-division studentshave different reasons for joining engineering than upper-division students have for persisting inengineering. The lower-division students might be more likely to be optimistic about the use ofengineering in their lives and in society, which might change over time with more exposure todifficult and often grueling degree plans. This is further evidenced by the various commentsabout curriculum difficulty made by the upper-division students in the open response question.One limitation of this data set is the high representation of freshmen and seniors in the sample.Many of the upper-division

Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Secules, University of Maryland, College Park; Andrew Elby, University of Maryland, College Park; Ayush Gupta, University of Maryland, College Park

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

often preface his response witha winking admonishment, “that’s way beyond the scope of the class!,” he nevertheless foundhimself spending significant portions of class time answering such questions thoroughly.Given the nature of the questions (as beyond the scope of the class) only a small portion of theclass understood the content of these questions and answers. Thus this question and answersession functioned as projection of ability: students noticed who had the ability to play the gamein asking this sort of question. Instead, for the programming beginners like Becca, it was aperiod of confusion and a reminder of just how far behind they were.This lecture discourse pattern also meant less class time for the planned basic content, an