skills are deemed lacking and also to know student attitudesand perceptions to effectively devise teaching methods that will enhance skills whilesimultaneously shifting attitudes to match situational reality. The results will be drawn from asurvey of freshman having just begun their undergraduate engineering studies at a major urbanUniversity.BackgroundTo both identify the key soft skills perceived to be important and not currently being learned bythe students and to then codify classroom techniques for enhancing these skills, a multistepapproach for this investigation was started.1 A multistep approach is used because each stepdirects the next, and although these are seen as the steps now in our plan, our research may alterthese. The steps are
Paper ID #7976Assessment of Spatial Visualization Skills in Freshman SeminarDr. Samantha Islam, University of South Alabama Dr. Samantha Islam, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of South Alabama. She received her B.S. from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and her M.S.C.E. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. Her research interests include application of econometric and statistical methods to a variety of transportation engineering problems, including highway safety, traf- fic safety and transportation planning. Dr. Islam is actively involved in developing an
Paper ID #7872Incorporating a Sustainability Module into an Introduction to EngineeringCourseDr. Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia, Colorado State University, Pueblo Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering at Colorado State University, Pueblo. He received his M.Sc. in system engineering and his Ph.D. in engineering manage- ment from the National University of Colombia and Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, respectively. His research interests include scheduling, operations research, and modeling and simulation in health care and energy planning. He has participated in several funded
project.I liked designing our own impeller / wind 77.5% 80.1% 93.8%turbine blades / artificial leg.I would like to see more interactive designprojects in the first-year engineering courses 96.0% 81.4% 86.6%that combine physical testing, modeling, anddesign. Page 23.953.3The original plan was, once the projects were developed, to post them on Engineering Pathway(part of the National Science Digital Library) 4 and MERLOT 5 Both of these online
in critical courses in the engineering and applied sciences curricula. Truecollaboration between engineering and applied sciences and student affairs comes about throughidentifying the roles of faculty and student affairs professionals and providing the opportunity forjoint planning and implementation.IntroductionWestern Michigan University (WMU) is a state regional university located in Kalamazoo, MI.Founded in 1903 as a normal school for teachers, WMU is one of 139 public institutions ofhigher learning that are classified by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement forTeaching as “research universities.” WMU offers 139 undergraduate, 81 master, and 30 doctoralprograms. Total enrollment in fall 2012 consisted of 19,478 undergraduate and
Professorships, two national ASEE teaching awards, and is internationally recognized in his primary research field.Ms. Kristen Strominger, University of Cincinnati - School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and MedicalEngineering Kristen Strominger is the STEM Program Coordinator working under Anant Kukreti on the NSF Type 1 STEP Project in the School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering at the Uni- versity of Cincinnati (UC). Kristen completed her master’s degree in Higher Education, Student Affairs at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida previous to beginning her position at UC in July 2012. She plans, designs, evaluates and modifies programs supported by the NSF Type 1 STEP Grant in the
and reform.Ren´ee S DeGraaf M.A., Lansing Community College Tutoring Services Coordinator, Student Services Division, Learning Assistance DepartmentProf. Louise Paquette, Lansing Community CollegeRuth Heckman, Lansing Community CollegeDr. Neeraj Buch, Michigan State UniversityDr. Thomas F. Wolff P.E., Michigan State University Page 23.488.1 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, first year programs, advising, career planning, women
, verses 2% of theconventional course. The class also had a higher median and average on the final.Conclusions and Further WorkThe use of tangible projects is an effective tool for teaching theoretical concepts in fundamentalprogramming. Students found the hands-on projects rewarding and informative, and improvedtest scores confirmed the educational value. A similar project that used the Arduino controllers Page 23.1012.7but not the robots was implemented in another fundamental Matlab class with comparableresults. The course will be repeated in the summer of 2013, with plans to make the class aregular alternative starting in the following
Page 23.513.3simply not feasible to constantly integrate course material in a learning community as eachcourse has its own objectives, but with curriculum flexibility and careful planning, faculty havebeen able to integrate the courses with consistent periodic activities and projects throughout thesemester. Our experience indicates the more consistent the integration, particularly in the firstsemester courses, the more likely the students are to be engaged in the community. Problemstaken from Introductory Mathematics for Engineering Applications developed by Wright StateUniversity are used in both the Precalculus and Calculus courses of the learning community as ameans to link mathematics concepts to engineering applications [11]. Problem
Delphi procedure is administered online. The initial invitations to participate came from alist generated by the steering committee, e-mail invitations to listserves for ASEE divisions withinterest including the First-Year Programs Division, invitations to participants in the 2012 First-Year Engineering Experiences conference, and targeted e-mail requests sent to a variety ofuniversities with first-year engineering programs identified through ASEE and through recentliterature.Results of all three methods will be used to define the classification scheme which is planned forpresentation and discussion at a culminating workshop during the 2013 First-Year EngineeringExperience conference.Results:Analysis of syllabi:A total of 28 syllabi were found
aimed at understanding the reason to select engineering as adiscipline to pursue, their perception of their first semester experience in college, and the level ofinterest in pursuing engineering.Reflective EssaysStudents were asked to write reflective essays about their college experience. In those essays,student wrote about which engineering discipline they plan to pursue, about challenges facedduring the semester, and about how their first semester affected their interest in pursuingengineering. Student submitted reflective essays at the middle and at the end of the semester.Results Page 23.1045.3First Year Engineering Program: All
was, “my way of preparing for exams has worked wellall these years, I don’t need to change it now”.9 Prerequisite knowledge is also a factor. Overthe last few years the incoming freshmen have shown more proficiency with Excel® than in thepast, so they do not perceive the Excel® exercises to be as challenging as previously. The ENGR10 team plans to revise the Excel® content to better match the skills of current incoming students.Figure 4, taken from the 2002 study9, summarizes the responses from the same survey, with oneexception. The current course does not use MATLAB® but instead requires students to do 3Dsolid modeling using SolidWorks®, so the 2002 question about understanding of MATLAB® wasreplaced with a question about understanding of
sustainability. Prior to joining the JMU Engineering faculty in 2012, Dr. Barrella was at Georgia Tech completing her Ph.D. research as part of the Infrastructure Research Group (IRG). She also completed a teaching certificate and was actively involved with the Center for the En- hancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Georgia Tech. Her academic interests focus on two primary areas of sustainable transportation: (1) community-based design and planning and (2) strategic planning and policy development. Dr. Barrella is also interested in investigating how to best integrate these research interests into classroom and project experiences for her students
Page 23.148.3intervention program. The analysis focused on three main questions. First, how well did the AREpredict performance in the engineering calculus course? Second, did participation in the summeralgebra intervention program improve participants’ algebra skills? Third, if algebra skillimproved, did this lead to improved performance in the engineering calculus course? Afterpresentation of results, plans for the continued development of the program and improvements toour classroom research methodology are discussed.Materials and Program DescriptionsPre- and Post-Intervention Algebra Assessment Tools Faculty from the Department of Engineering Fundamentals created the ARE based onyears of experience with the errors that students
information at 4.21 (Likert scale: 1 strongly disagree, 5strongly agree), and the facilitator’s presentation at 4.72. For the Fall 2012 semester, 98% ofattendees plan to use strategies presented in the workshop, and 96.4% would recommend theworkshop to a friend.Figure 1. Percentage of students who participated in ASC workshops during first-yearengineering courses. Page 23.658.4Figure 2. Average number of workshops attended by students during first-year engineeringcourses.Impact on Grades and RetentionSince the inception of this program, the ASC has seen a large increase in the number of studentsparticipating in workshops. In Fall 2011, GE students
of Research and Professional Development at the Center for Critical Thinking and Chairof the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking. A PowerPoint presentationsummarized main points from the keynote lecture and also introduced planned activities for thetwo-week workshop.Following the presentation, the students took an on-line test to evaluate critical thinking skills4before beginning workshop activities. The on-line test took the students about an hour tocomplete. When the students returned to the classroom, a “fun” test in critical thinking wasgiven, which was followed by a general discussion on creative and critical thinking. Thestudents took the on-line test again at the end of the program. Student scores on the
semester. Students indicate the program was successful in meeting all of theobjectives, particularly familiarizing students with the University, building community, andintroducing students to the engineering design process through the service learning project.Revisions of the math, writing, and study skills components are planned for the second pilotprogram to more closely integrate them with the engineering projects.BackgroundAlthough students’ aptitude in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields used tobe linked with their persistence rates, science and engineering education has begun to change.Research suggests that many students who leave engineering majors, for example, are in goodacademic standing and performing well in the
- tion of data collection, processing and analysis systems. When George Bush, Sr. became the director, Mr. Silverstein became his advisor on Satellite Systems. For more than fifteen years Mr. Silverstein’s con- sulting firm has identified and implemented process and operating performance improvements in client companies; addressing the full spectrum of company operations including: organization development, hardware and software engineering, manufacturing, information technology, finance, procurement, logis- tics, factory planning, and new product development. Mr. Silverstein personally assists many clients by providing ”Chief Executive” services. When he is not actually performing as chief executive, he mentors
. The engineering college offers at least three undergraduate degrees in engineering,including chemical, electrical, and aviation-related disciplines. Most students in the introductoryengineering course were seeking degrees in engineering, and a small number were pursuingbusiness degrees. The two-hour course sections were delivered in a traditional classroom setting(in contrast to the lecture theater/lab split at RU). Because students are in class fewer than twohours per week, course activities that were not completed during the class session were oftencompleted outside of class.Course Context: Major Assignments & Course ActivitiesIn spite of some contextual differences described above, the courses were planned together andsyllabi were
mentees with well thought-out and level-appropriate projects appreciatedthat they liked being included in the research.The mentees with ill-defined projects mentioned that their project didn’t have a direction or agoal and criticized their mentor’s lack of a plan they could follow. Several studentsrecommended that future projects have more structure. Overall, while the mentees credited theirmentors for being understanding and having the ability to explain their research projects, thementees were of mixed opinions about their mentors’ abilities to create a well-structured projectfor them to accomplish in a short time frame. Not surprisingly, we found that the most effectiverelationships included those with a well-defined scope and mentor who
(academic ad- ministration, first year programs, 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, his teaching portfolio includes courses in geotechni- cal engineering, probabilistic methods, and a large introductory course in civil engineering. His research and consulting activities have focused on the safety and reliability of hydraulic structures, and he has participated as an expert in three different capacities regarding reviews of levee performance in Hurri- cane Katrina. He is a three-time recipient of his college’s Withrow Award for
varieddepending on their interests, skill sets, and research domain.Course Descriptions and PrerequisitesThis seminar was limited to Honors College members in their first- or second-year at MichiganState University, and most of the advertising and recruiting was handled by Honors Collegeadvisers during freshman orientation or sophomore course-planning appointments. For theinitial, project-based seminar (dubbed “Cyber Green”) the course description focused more onengineering aspects of the research problem: UGS 200H: Sustainability in Super Computing This seminar will introduce students to conducting research using High Performance Computing. In the first semester, students will learn how to use Computer Aided Design and High
that took E-Math and compare those resultswith students that took the traditional Precalculus course to the cohort as a whole. We alsodiscuss our attempts to address issues associated with students who enter our program two mathclasses behind Calculus I. Specifically, we discuss the implementation of a course developed tohave the students calculus ready in a single semester.IntroductionIn fall 2007, the Freshman Engineering Program (FEP) was started at the UofA with the intent ofincreasing student retention and success. Students complete a common first year before selectingone of nine degree plans offered by the College of Engineering (CoE). The common core takenby freshman engineering students includes Calculus I in the first semester and
in October, more seats are released or additional tours are scheduled. After thesecond week, it is assumed all students are registered and no add additional capacity is added.The actual tour planning and content is determined by the departments. Tours last between 45minutes and 1 hour in length, and occur in the evenings. Each department is allowed to choosethe day and time to make the tour available. The number of sessions offered by each departmentis determined by the projected enrollment and historical data on the choice of major. Thedepartments will use faculty, staff and students to conduct a combination of lecture and hands-onactivities to showcase the opportunities students will have if they decide to pursue that major.For the last
Education, 55(1), 40-76.9. Knight, W. (2003). Learning communities and first-year programs: Lessons for planners. Planning for Higher Education, 31(4), 5-12.10. Meath-Lang, B. (1997). Dramatic interactions: Theater work and the formation of learning communities. American Annals of the Deaf, 142, 99-101.11. Johnson, J. (2001) Learning communities and special efforts in retention of university students: What works, what doesn’t, and is the return worth the investment? Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice, 2(3), 219-238.12. Johnson, W. G. (2006) Strategies for enhancing student learning in the residence halls. New Directions for Student Service, 75, 69-82.13. Schroeder, C. C., Minor, F. D., & Tarkow, T. A. (1999
that with respect to industrial and systems, one institution may be disproportionatelyinfluencing the results.ConclusionComplementary to single institution studies8-11, this multi-institutional study finds that a requiredintroduction to engineering course can be beneficial to undecided students in making an informeddecision and help retain all students in engineering. Additionally, a required introduction toengineering course has significant effects on the way that undesignated students sort into majors.Future work will incorporate interview data to better understand this phenomenon from thestudent perspective. We also plan to look at outcomes for students who opted to take anintroduction to engineering course when they were not required to do
classroom in a large enrolment introductory physics course: a case study," 2012.7. G. C. Gannod, J. E. Burge, and M. T. Helmick, "Using the inverted classroom to teach software engineering," in Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Software engineering, 2008, pp. 777-786.8. C. Papadopoulos, A. Santiago-Román, and G. Portela, "Work in Progress–Developing and Implementing an Inverted Classroom for Engineering Statics," in Proceedings–40th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, 2010.9. R. J. Gustafson, J. A. Merrill, A. W. Fentiman, R. J. Freuler, and J. T. Demel, "Developing and Implementing a Facilities Plan for a Freshman Engineering Course Sequence," in Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering
about where they come from, what their plans and Help answer their questions helping them achieve them” (factors that help) students “As far as MEAs, there is a huge dis-connect from a classroom” (factors that Help regarding MEAs hinder) Page 23.588.5IV. ResultsIn this section, the first results reported are the frequencies of times that G/UTAs discuss theirvarious responsibilities along with their general perceptions of their positions. The three maintopics that both GTAs and UTAs discussed are training, grading, and helping students
Skill Building Academic Advising √ graduate from middle Research Planning/ Summer Academic Enrichment √ school with algebra 1 Initiation successfully completed. Tutoring
. Research in Higher Education, 46(2), 153-184. 14. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2007). Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Sage Publications, Incorporated. 15. Cotten, S. R., & Wilson, B. (2006). Student-Faculty Interactions: Dynamics and Determinants. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 51(4), 487-519. 16. Astin