AC 2011-1518: HELPING FRESHMEN DEVELOP A PERSONAL IDEN-TITY AS AN ENGINEERStephen Rippon, Arizona State University As Assistant Dean for Student Services in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Steve Rippon over- sees the Schools’ K-12 outreach and summer programs, undergraduate recruitment, undergraduate re- tention and engagement initiatives, and the Engineering Career Center. Prior to joining the Schools of Engineering in 2007, Steve was the Executive Director of Student Success and Engagement Programs for ASU’s University College. Among his responsibilities during his 11 years as Executive Director, Steve directed the ASU Summer Bridge Program, the Campus Match Freshman Interest Groups, the University
perceptions of the factors impacting a student’s selection of a profession including (indecreasing order): career advancement opportunities, compensation, image, informal advising,knowledge of the profession, academic advising, social relevance, and finally work conditions7.The top 3 factors mentioned by Dean’s related to the compensatory factors necessary for certainlifestyle which has been noted as a gender difference. Other studies have indicated thatmonetary incentives are more important for male students than female students while genuineinterest in the field is critical, especially for women4,12.The Center for Advancement in Engineering Education (CAEE) found that students who do notpersist in engineering were more likely motivated by family to
career, notably with the Foundation Coalition, where he focused on restructuring the sophomore year engineering curriculum.Julie J. Parish, Texas A&M University Julie J. Parish is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her current research investigates strategies for exploiting the structure of the governing differential equa- tions of constrained and hybrid dynamical systems for state estimation. She is the recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, NDSEG Graduate Research Fellowship, and AIAA Orville and Wilbur Wright Graduate Student Award. Page
: Strategies for Developing Leadership in Everyone.Margaret B. Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE) Margaret Bailey is Professor of Mechanical Engineering within the Kate Gleason College of Engineer- ing at RIT and is the Founding Executive Director for the nationally recognized women in engineering program called WE@RIT. She recently accepted the role as Faculty Associate to the Provost for Female Faculty and serves as the co-chair on the President’s Commission on Women. She began her academic career as an Assistant Professor at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, being the first woman civil- ian faculty member in her department. Margaret maintains a research program in the area of advanced thermodynamic
implicit stereotype of science as male (weak stereotyping among the women but strong among the men), even though they are both equally aware of the cultural stereotype. A key ongoing focus of his research is on the causal role that such varying implicit associations may play in shap- ing identities and contributing to perseverance in scientific studies and careers. Fred’s publication topics have included comparisons of web- and laboratory-based implicit cognition experiments, the relationship between implicit and explicit attitude measures, ethnic and gender differences in science graduation at selective colleges, and standardized testing in college admission.William H Guilford, University of Virginia Will Guilford is
, and 6) strong articulation agreements with regionalfour-year institutions. These elements focus on student success in transitioning from high schoolto college, student success in engineering education at Itasca and the four-year transferinstitution, and ultimately success in the engineering career. Funding for the six key elements ofthe program is a 50/50 combination of institutional money and grant and foundation support. Itasca Engineering Successful Program Prepare for Engineer and
or science, and the last essay required a counter argument on social and technicalissues suitable for publishing in a college newspaper.The AnalysisThe methods for determining how well the objectives were met consisted of the evaluations ofstudent’s course work described above and the administration of pre-class and post-classsurveys. In the pre-class survey, students were required to explain their career goals and theamount of social media they used. In the post-class survey given at the end of the semester, (SeeTable 1) students were asked if their current career and academic goals had changed, if any ofthe articles read in class influenced their views towards their career and science, and if the studyof social media changed any of their
numerous benefits received from enrollment in a LC. Most notably,they report the following 5: 1. Making connections with other students, peer mentors, faculty, and advisors, 2. Academic advising (e.g., knowledgeable, available when needed assistance), 3. Experiencing environment that promotes and respects diversity, 4. Becoming familiar with campus and academic support resources, 5. Deciding on a major or future career, 6. Adjusting to college. The Summer Bridge (SB) program is a specific type of LC intended to bridge the gapbetween high school and college. The intensive 2 week SB program, developed as an additionalsupport for incoming, first year students, provides a high-impact, high-touch experience tostudents in a major
AC 2011-534: USE OF A PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE SIMULATION INA FIRST YEAR INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING COURSENaomi C. Chesler, University of Wisconsin, Madison Naomi C. Chesler is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering with an affiliate appointment in Educational Psychology. Her research interests include vascular biomechanics, hemodynamics and cardiac function as well as the factors that motivate students to pursue and persist in engineering careers, with a focus on women and under-represented minorities.Cynthia M D’Angelo, University of Wisconsin - Madison Cynthia D’Angelo, Ph.D. has a background in physics and science education. She has always been inter- ested in improving science instruction and most
within a curriculum. Adelman (op cit) reports that among men and women who indicatedengineering/architecture as their intended field, 54.3% of men and 21.3% of women earnedbachelor’s degrees in their intended field. He also shows that engineering attracts a relativelyhigh percentage of students who have a constant vision of their career goals and a low percentageof students who have a constantly changing vision.Kroc, et al4 considered graduation rates across university curricula using data for 130,000students from 44 universities. They considered graduation rates as a function of major, notingtrends in transfers between majors, considering in-migrants, or those who transfer intoengineering from another field and out-migrants, engineering
the major and the profession.Although they were more likely to believe that engineers are more concerned with improving thewelfare of society than other professions, they were less likely to believe that the future benefitsof studying engineering were worth the effort. They also had a less favorable view ofengineering professionalism, and they were less likely to be interested in engineering as a career.These results suggest that some freshman students started to re-consider the value of engineeringdegree during the first semester as they realized the demanding engineering curriculum and highlevel commitment required of them. However, by the end of the semester, 88% of the studentsstill liked engineering as a career. The follow-up qualitative
the first one or two years ofcollege[2], making the first year college experience for students a critical one in the choice oftheir careers. Several models have been used to describe the attrition of STEM studentsincluding a leaky pipeline model, a path model, and statistical models based on pre-collegecharacteristics for incoming freshmen as indicators of their future retention in engineeringprograms[3].However, it should be noted that one of the important research studies suggests thatproportion of students switching (40%) because of “inadequate preparation in high school mathand science” is almost equal to the proportion of “non-switchers” (38%) reporting inadequatepreparation in those subjects[2]. This suggests that although inadequate
in both the public (as an educator) and pri- vate sectors before returning to postgraduate study and embarking on an academic career. As with many South Africans, growing up under Apartheid has had a profound impact on my worldview and life choices. This has included influencing the choice of a career in education, both as a practitioner and scholar. I cur- rently convene a postgraduate programme in Engineering Management and teach undergraduate courses in Engineering Management. I draw on multiple theoretical constructs for the design of learning contexts, including complexity and systems theory. My research is primarily focussed on student experience of learning events and student learning more broadly both in
technical awards, such as the NSF CAREER. Dr. Hobson has a B.S. from Texas Woman’s University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Educational Psychology (Dissertation: Teacher Perceptions of Change in Leadership Roles and Activities as a Result of Participation in a Science Education Leadership Program). Her dissertation study was supported by the National Science Foundation project Center for Applications of Information Technology in the Teaching and Learning of Science (ITS Center). Dr. Hobson also has extensive experience in evaluation. Prior to joining TEES, Dr. Hobson taught mathematics and special education in three Texas public school districts between 1976 and 2000.Bugrahan Yalvac, Texas A
visualizationtool which could have supplemented traditional course material throughout their undergraduatecareers. The Ohio State University has created a “cornerstone” design course, available tofreshmen, in which basic micro-fluid dynamics concepts are presented, using CFD software as avisualization and verification tool (5). This allows freshmen to identify and develop an interest influid dynamics at the start of their undergraduate career, perhaps shaping their progressionthroughout the curriculum. Overall, this course is still somewhat a work-in-progress, but also aunique proof of concept for teaching computational modeling early in an undergraduatecurriculum. Results were seen in the high quality of the work produced by students, as well asthe
tend to leave engineering for majors thatare more likely to deal with the social good4. With this negative impact on the nationalengineering workforce where “only 40 to 60 percent of entering engineering students persist toan engineering degree, and women and minorities are at the low end of that range”5(p.40), it iscrucial that we find ways of stemming the engineering attrition. One area that bears explorationis that engineering fields that are thought to have helping- or caring-oriented attributes (e.g.,biomedical and environmental engineering) seem to draw students who may not have consideredan engineering degree or career. Environmental engineering in particular shows many helpingattributes and has the highest percentage of female students
; developing anEngineering House which includes tutoring services for freshmen in the residence halls;enhancing academic and career advising; early intervention by faculty and residence hall staff forstruggling students; and the formation of faculty learning communities for the exchange of bestpractices. Coordination of activities with other university programs such as the Louis StokesAlliance for Minority Participation and freshman/parent orientation to promote student successwas also improved. An institutional data-collection system was created to track student progressto support assessment and evaluation activities for this project. The tracking system provides aunique code for every student in the learning community cohorts; and compiles reports
engineering afternominally 5 years of study.Undergraduate Research ConsortiumParticipation in research is a proven way to enhance the quality of undergraduate education andencourage students to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics(STEM) fields7, 8. Nationally, the numbers of undergraduate students participating in research hasbeen relatively small and most efforts selectively engage upper level undergraduates9. Withgrowing concerns about the declining number of students earning STEM degrees and the lack ofdiversity of the STEM workforce3, there is increased emphasis on expanding researchopportunities for undergraduate students, in particular those from underrepresented groups (i.e.ethnic minorities and women)10
, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) retention efforts at Boise State. She functions on campus as both the project coordinator for a $1 million grant from the Na- tional Science Foundation and the Idaho Science Talent Expansion Program (STEP), and as the first ever campus coordinator for STEM retention. Garzolini has a long term professional interest in increasing the participation and success of students in STEM fields. Throughout her career, she has provided extensive professional leadership and service to the Society of Women Engineers at the national level, and in 2007 was national society president. Garzolini has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Wayne State University and an MBA from UC
faculty in 2003. Her current research interests are twofold: as well as her research in biological materials (cur- rently focused on bioderived plastics synthesized by bees), she also researches the engineering student experience, including persistence and migration, differences by gender, and the role of self-efficacy in project-based learning. In 2010, she received an NSF CAREER Award in support of her research on engineering education.Caitrin Lynch, Olin College of Engineering Caitrin Lynch is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Her research concerns gender, work, aging, and globalization, with a focus the United States and Sri Lanka. She is the author of the book
AC 2011-1903: ASSESSING FIRST-YEAR PROGRAMS: OUTCOMES, METH-ODS, AND FINDINGSMarie C Paretti, Virginia Tech Marie C. Paretti is an associate professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she co-directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communications Center. Her research focuses on communication in en- gineering design, interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, and design education. She was awarded a CAREER grant from NSF to study expert teaching practices in capstone design courses na- tionwide, and is co-PI on several NSF grants to explore gender in engineering, design education, and interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering design.Kelly J Cross, Virginia Tech University
Donaldson, S.I., E.A. Ensher, and E.J. Grant-Vallone. 2000. Longitudinal examination of mentoring relationshipson organizational commitment and citizenship behavior. Journal of Career Development 26(4): 233-249.5 Pisimisi, S. and M. Loannides. 2005. Developing mentoring relationships to support the careers of women inelectrical engineering and computer technologies. An analysis on mentors' competencies. European Journal ofEngineering Education, 30(4): 477-486.6 Moxley, D., A. Najor-Durack, and C. Dunbrigue. 2001. Keeping students in higher education: Successful practices& strategies for retention. London: Kogan Page Limited.7 Macintosh, K.A., B.S. Rushton, and A. Cook, eds. 2006. Students supporting students: Student mentoring.University of
disciplines. As in today’s world most engineering projects arecompleted by teams, it is imperative that the students understand what teamwork is at an earlystage. Most of the freshmen students at TAMUQ have had limited exposure to teamwork in theirhigh school careers, hence they need to be provided with the opportunity to develop these skillsand be given appropriate feedback tools. In our global age, we need to interact with individualsfrom different cultures and disciplines, therefore teamwork skills are considered of utmostimportance. These include strong leadership, effective communication, proper decision-makingand conflict management. These skills might not come naturally to certain individuals and needto be cultivated.In the ENGR111 course, the
before coming to University of Wisconsin-Platteville. His research interests are in the areas of thermo-mechanical design and engineering education. Page 22.533.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Effect of Math Competency on Success in Engineering Science CoursesAbstractA few decades ago, only students with a strong math and science background would seriouslyconsider pursuing a career in engineering. Today, with the exception of highly selective colleges– it is common among many engineering programs around the nation to admit
neering and technology education. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011Thomas F. Wolff, Michigan State University Dr. Thomas F. Wolff is Associate Dean of Engineering for Undergraduate Studies at Michigan State University. In this capacity, he is responsible for all activities related to student services (academic ad- ministration, advising, career planning, women and diversity programs, etc.) and curricular issues. He is principal investigator on several NSF grants related to retention of engineering students. As a faculty member in civil engineering, he co-teaches a large introductory course in civil engineering. His research and consulting activities have focused on the safety
University of Northern Colorado, a M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Wyoming, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho. She is a licensed Professional Engineer.Capt. Susan Donner Bibeau, U.S. Coast Guard Captain Bibeau is a 1980 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy, one of the first women to graduate from the U.S. military academies. Her 30 year career with the Coast Guard includes two commands, six years of sea duty, and a nine year assignment as Director of Admissions at the Coast Guard Academy. She will join the staff of Three Rivers Community College in April 2011 as the Director of Student Development. Captain Bibeau holds masters degrees in Systems Management
Texas A&M University System. In this capacity she works with institutions of higher education across the state of Texas to strategically develop education and technical research proposals that will bring federal research dollars into Texas. Her office has garnered over $66 million in federal funding since 2003 for educational research, in addition to working with faculty who received individual technical awards, such as the NSF CAREER. Dr. Hobson has a B.S. from Texas Woman’s University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Educational Psychology (Dissertation: Teacher Perceptions of Change in Leadership Roles and Activities as a Result of Participation in a Science Education Leadership Program
education. She was awarded a CAREER grant from NSF to study expert teaching practices in capstone design courses na- tionwide, and is co-PI on several NSF grants to explore gender in engineering, design education, and interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering design.Jacob Preston Moore, Virginia Tech Jacob Moore is a PhD candidate in the Engineering Education PhD program at Virginia Tech. His re- search interests include developing better digital textbooks for engineering and using Rapid Prototyping in education.Deirdre Annaliese Nicole Hunter, Virginia Tech Deirdre Hunter is a doctoral student in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.She has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse
review was conducted to determine what other engineering programsacross the nation are currently doing to increase their retention and graduation rates. Mostarticles focused on freshman retention and the many efforts that have been undertaken toimprove first-year retention numbers. Unfortunately, in many cases it is still too early todetermine conclusively whether or not these have been successful. Therefore, this study focuseson efforts where substantial (two or more years of) increased retention have been documented.Successful efforts include: First-year interest groups where students are clustered in common class sections. Peer mentoring and/or supplemental instruction. A first-semester, project-based, career-enlightening
Page 22.255.7engineering students: Engineering Student Success Center and MESA (Mathematics,Engineering, and Science Achievement) Engineering Program.The Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering Student Success Center (ESSC) includes aninfrastructure that provides academic, career, co-curricular, and advising programs forengineering students. It is an inclusive environment that fosters collaboration and responsibilityamong students, staff, and faculty. The mission of the ESSC is to empower engineering studentsfrom application to graduation, to support their academic and personal growth, and to engagethem as lifetime members of the college learning community.The ESSC’s main goal is to support engineering students and the college learning