Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Richard House, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Anneliese Watt, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

communication more frequently into their technicalcourses but that they are motivated to do so primarily from motivations having to do withhelping their students model professional practice.Project Rationale: EC 2000 and Professional SkillsAdopted in 1996, ABET, Inc. Engineering Criteria 2000 promised to transform engineeringeducation in two fundamental ways. First, EC 2000 expanded the definition of engineeringcompetencies to place much greater emphasis on “professional skills, such as solvingunstructured problems, communicating effectively, and working in teams.”1 Second, the newcriteria “shifted the basis for accreditation from inputs, such as what is taught, to outputs—whatis learned.” 1 These two changes were expected to be transformative

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

session was conducted during the afternoon and lasted roughly 5 hours.For the second Academy class, begun in the fall of the 2008-09 academic year, the sessions meton three Saturdays—in October, in January, and in March. These sessions lasted from 9:00 AMto 4:00 PM.The goals of the Academy are as follows:Leadership Academy is a hands-on experience designed to build each participant's: ≠ Confidence in their ability to lead; ≠ Consciousness of various leadership approaches; ≠ Connection with leadership resources & mentors; and ≠ Civic awareness.CurriculumThe curriculum of the Leadership Academy is as follows: Page 14.458.4Session 1

Conference Session

Tree-huggers, Diggers, and Queers--Oh my!

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

to both the constraints to and the opportunities for innovation in each ofthe systems under consideration, which arguably cannot be accomplished effectively entirelywithin any of the existing disciplinary domains but must be addressed between or among them.In the terminology of sustainable design scholar Ezio Manzini, sustainability requires both a“strategy of efficiency,” or doing things better, and a “strategy of sufficiency,” or simply doingless, at least in terms of production and consumption of material goods. According to Manzini’sapproach, “ecological quality will emerge from compound strategies and compoundinterventions in different areas.” 1 In each of these ways, the concept of sustainability serves toreinforce efforts to promote

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

a new technique, and it has beenin use for a long time, especially in K-12 and special education environments2. Scaffolding is aproblem-based learning technique, which is often used to teach students to solve ill-structuredproblems in a cooperative learning manner8.According to McKenzie11, instructional scaffolding involves eight characteristics:1. Provides clear directions to students on what they should do and reduces their confusion.2. Clarifies the purpose of what students are asked do and why it is important.3. Provides structure and keeps students on task so that they do not wander off from the task.4. Clarifies expectations by providing quality examples of work as references.5. Directs students to available resources which they can

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Beams, University of Texas, Tyler; Luke Niiler, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

assessment 1; a plan for the incremental implementationof writing skills instruction in Engineering courses 2; an outcomes assessment 3; the use ofwritten workplace materials in Engineering courses 4,5 ; a review of shared assumptions aboutwriting skills among Engineering faculty 6; a multiple-trait scoring guide 7; and the first threeiterations of this longitudinal study 8,9,10. To date, there is no other longitudinal study ofEngineering students’ writing skills on record. Our four years of work therefore begins toaddress this gap in knowledge, and it is hoped that this project will be understood as (a) adescription and analysis of trends observed within a single cohort of subjects; and (b) aninvitation for other researchers to begin contributing

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beth Richards, University of Hartford; Mohammad Saleh Keshawarz; Hisham Alnajjar, Computer and Electrical

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Helen Donis-Keller, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Global Century (2007), acknowledges theneeds for all college students to prepare for twenty-first-century challenges by gaining fouressential learning outcomes: 1) knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world,focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring 2) intellectual andpractical skills, including inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oralcommunication, 3) personal and social responsibility, including foundations and skills forlifelong learning, ethical reasoning and action, intercultural knowledge and competence and 4)integrative learning, including synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general andspecialized studies. For Engineering students in particular

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sally Blomstrom, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Hak Tam, University of California, Santa Barbara

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

students at our institution are required to take a course in speech. Someof the student learning outcomes for the course relate to the learning outcomes identified incategory 3 of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditationrequirements (2001) [1]. Specifically, ABET expects that “Engineering programs mustdemonstrate that their students attain the following outcomes: Category 3(d) an ability tofunction on multi-disciplinary teams and… (g) an ability to communicate effectively”. In thisstudy, we examine the gains in communication and team skills in different sections of a requiredspeech course. The students enrolled in these sections are primarily freshmen. Most of them areengineering and aviation majors. The course is

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Sharp, Vanderbilt University; Marilyn Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

writing. Peer review can be a helpful tool to improve students’writing. Through peer review, students can understand how to improve their writing and benefitfrom seeing how other writers have handled the same project.Background and RationaleThe technical communication course (ES 210w) for engineering majors at Vanderbilt Universityprovides instruction in both written and oral communication. The course has two main goals forstudents: 1. Communicate effectively in both written and oral reports 2. Communicate effectively in job search communication tasksAlthough students conduct peer reviews of both written and oral assignments, this paper focuseson peer review of written assignments. Peer review of first drafts is an important part of

Conference Session

Engineering for Social Justice

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York-Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Queens University-Kingston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

of Education for Peace, Democracy and SustainableDevelopment and suggests modifications to the ABET criteria; proposes an engineeringcode of ethics based upon the notion of community in a morally deep world; anddescribes an engineering design algorithm consistent with the new code.Key words: Integral model, morally deep world, ethics, designIntroductionThe phrase, “a revolution of the heart,” is taken from the Catholic Workers movement,founded in the 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, a movement grounded in therecognition of the dignity of every human being and dedicated to promoting social justiceand peace.1 The present work seeks to bring the concepts of social justice and peace intoreform discussions ongoing in both engineering and

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arthur Snider, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Conference Session

Engineering for Social Justice

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven VanderLeest, Calvin College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

as a hurdle to get past, and revert to using narrow technical approachesto solving problems and producing technology. Transferring knowledge in one domain (liberalarts) to another (engineering) is difficult.1 One approach that helps students integrate theircontextual, liberal arts education with their technical learning is the use of design norms. Thispaper explores two norms, or guidelines, for technology design: justice and humility. We beginby looking briefly at the design process and defining the design norm in Section 3. Thefollowing section explores the parallel idea of use norms. Section 5 reviews a number of ways todefine justice and concludes with the application of justice as a technology design norm.Similarly, Section 6 applies

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Riley, Smith College; Lionel Claris, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

content and learning process, between their engineering educationand their future professional lives. The connections students make between their education andtheir personal lives is most often untapped. Using liberative pedagogies (processes that empowerstudents in their learning through active engagement and self-reflection), the engineeringthermodynamics course at Smith College has been revised to promote the relationship betweenthermodynamics and student experience.1 Student engagement with the classroom innovationsaids the learning process and provides an opportunity for students to take responsibility for theirlearning. Thus, an excerpt from Foucault’s Power/Knowledge2 discussing the “regime of truth”was introduced to stimulate questions

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Fry, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Thinking” in the Context of EducationIntroductionIn 2005, Roger Martin (now the Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School ofManagement) was quoted as saying, “In this turbulent, get-real economy, the advantage goes tothose who can out imagine and out create their competitors”.1 “Imagine” and “Create” are veryartistic words for a School of management Dean. In the increasingly competitive globalenvironment, both business and engineering have become more interested in gaining a broaderunderstanding of the principles of creativity in their search for more meaningful innovation. Oneof the more recent terms to describe this interest in Innovation is the term “design thinking”.Creativity and design thinking are thought of as “right-brain

Conference Session

Questions of Identity

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Jordan, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

different universities (Mississippi State University and Baylor University). Theirresults will be published in another paper at the 2006 A.S.E.E. annual meeting15. Two tablesfrom that paper are relevant here. The first one describes the amount of cheating that is Page 11.142.4occurring at these universities. Table 1 Have you ever cheated in college? Never Once Few Frequently Often as (%) (%) Times (%) needed

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donald Carpenter, Lawrence Technological University; Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

necessary.In the 1600s, the British controlled the east coast of America while the French laid claim to avast portion of North America, which encompassed the Great Lakes and virtually every bit ofland west and north of the Appalachian Mountains. Contained in the region were great quantitiesof thick-furred mammals including beaver. Beaver pelts were highly valued to support aEuropean fashion trend of fur-felt hats. Therefore, America’s interior was also highly valued. Page 11.768.3Fur traders and trappers forged much of the original network of trails and waterways to open theregion (see Figure 1). They established a network of roads, waterways, and

Conference Session

Recent Developments in Engineering Ethics

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marilyn Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

different rules.Enron, for example, touted a 64-page code of ethics, which the company required all employees–including management–to read and then sign an oath attesting to their commitment to highethical standards. Enron took its ethics code very seriously, at least on paper, as noted in a 2000memo penned by CEO Ken Lay: “I ask that you read them [“commonsense rules of conduct”]carefully and completely and that, as you do, you reflect on your past actions to make certain thatyou have complied with the policies. It is absolutely essential that you fully comply with thesepolicies in the future.”1 Similarly, Tyco’s board of directors established as a goal “highstandards of honesty, integrity, and ethics throughout the organization.”2 Yet corporate

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics and Contemporary Issues

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Davis, Illinois Institute of Technology; Heinz Luegenbiehl, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

partsunder as much as twenty feet of water.3 Indeed, such an event had long been predicted.4That much is undisputed.Cause: “take 1” For almost a month after Katrina smashed through New Orleans, the predominantview seems to have been that the cause of the disaster was water flowing over thefloodwalls; the walls had failed because the cascading water had undermined them fromthe street side. There was good reason for this view. At many places, especially alongLake Pontchartrain, observers had actually seen water coming over the levees; and therewas, in any case, plenty of evidence of just the sort of erosion “overtopping” wouldproduce. On this view, Katrina had only the simplest of lessons to teach. The flood-controlsystem had been built to

Conference Session

Questions of Identity

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

faculty develop “technological literacy” coursesabsent any common, simple definition ? The premise of this paper is that the voluntarycreation and teaching of such a course represents, broadly speaking, a kind of academicquest, wherein the protagonist sets out on a large voyage to explore the history andmodernity of his/her discipline, and more deeply, his or her own place in the engineeringcosmos, by the learning which comes through the development of such a multi-dimensional course. This hypothesis is illustrated using the author’s experiences, andexamples drawn from the 2004 NAE-NSF workshop.Introduction At a recent engineering workshop for Technology Literacy, sponsored by NSFand held at the NAE 1, the faculty presenters consisted of a

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; James Heisler, Hope College; Thomas Ludwig, Hope College; Roger Nemeth, Hope College; James Piers, Hope College; Neal Sobania, Pacific Lutheran University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

degrees in any given field 2,5,6.For Japanese students, entrance to universities is determined by performance on entranceachievement examinations taken at the end of high school. The examinations are difficultand challenging even for the best students. Outside observers have noted that Japanesehigh school is “not a minimal competency curriculum”1 and “pre-university education inJapan is demanding, and gets results.” 6There is inordinate competition for admittance into those few universities considered tobe the most desirable and prestigious. This stems from the hiring practices of the largestcorporations and the government in Japan which hire only graduates of certain schools7.Undergraduate grades are not considered to be an important factor in

Conference Session

Approaches to Learning Outcomes Assessment in Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lorraine Fleming, Howard University; Kami Carey, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

to severalobservations about student engineers who were reflective and integrative. We assert thatthese observations when present in an engineer enhance the social consciousness of thework that is done. The assertions are: 1. The integrative engineer is aware that the ability to incorporate previous knowledge is a crucial component in engineering design. 2. The integrative engineer understands and practices the incorporation of human interest factors when designing projects. 3. The integrative engineer is self-evaluative throughout the project design. 4. The integrative engineer can readily adapt language to varied audiences. The assertions are accompanied by examples

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carole Goodson, University of Houston; Susan Miertschin, University of Houston; Barbara Stewart, University of Houston; Luces Faulkenberry, University of Houston; Curtis Johnson, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

devices thatgo into creating and operating technological artifacts as well as the artifacts themselves.”1 Thereport documents that people today eagerly participate in new technologies through their role asconsumer; however, they often have less of the hands-on experience which led prior generationsto a certain level of intuition about how the technology worked. Today we have many individualswho can use various technologies in fairly sophisticated ways, but they do not know enough totinker, alter or repair. They also do not know enough about the technologies to think criticallyabout them in the context of their impact on society and culture. The report calls for educators toembrace this problem and take action to develop greater levels of

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II: Practical Perspectives on Teaching and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathleen Jernquist, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; David Godfrey, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Todd Taylor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

to interpretation. By sharp contrast, readers in engineering fields expectstraightforward information concisely and unemotionally expressed in passive verbs and clearsentences. While concepts such as audience and purpose guide writers’ choices about form, styleand diction within a discipline, the terms for responding to writing and its processes remain thesame.1 For example, while writers learn in their expository writing classes to vary diction, theyneed to learn in engineering writing to repeat technical terms, as technical terms have few or nosynonyms. In electrical engineering “power” and “authority” are not the same thing, no matterwhat the thesaurus says. Adjusting to opposing disciplinary expectations is especiallytroublesome for

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bradley Rogers, Arizona State University; Dale Palmgren, Arizona State University; Dennis Giever, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Mary Lynn Garcia, Sandia National Laboratories

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

methodology, for the specific case of physical security, is illustrated in figure 1 below: Page 12.1259.3 Figure 1. The Sandia Methodology for Physical Security3Figure 1 outlines a systems engineering approach to physical security. The determination ofobjective phase serves to define the problem. The design phase develops a proposed solution tothe problem based on the objectives. Finally, the system evaluation phase seeks to determine ifthe proposed solution meets the original objectives. In all phases, an overall systems viewpointis critical – the system will be developed to respond to an input (an attack) and work to produce

Conference Session

Approaches to Learning Outcomes Assessment in Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kyle Oliver, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Traci Nathans-Kelly; Sandra Courter, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Laura Grossenbacher, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

department’s technicalcommunication faculty, the course combined assigned readings, an in-class and an onlinediscussion, and an end-of-semester writing assignment to help students achieve the followinglearning outcomes: • Outcome 1: Articulate connections among engineering, ethics, community, history, social change, and politics by actively listening and participating in a small discussion setting • Outcome 2: Recognize and work with the role of uncertainty in engineering and its relationship to social and ethical dimensions • Outcome 3: Analyze and assess the social and ethical impact of technology on society by critically thinking about the readings and discussion topics • Outcome 4: Communicate effectively by

Conference Session

Venturing Out: Service Learning, Study Abroad, and Criterion H

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joe Tranquillo, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

shreddings to the next person. That person then passes to the next,and so on down the line. The activity is timed and an emphasis is placed on speed. Asmotivation, the activity is repeated at least two more times to try to “break the classrecord”. Inevitably, much paper is lost by the time the shreddings reach the end of theline, and the last person often has only a few scraps of paper.Post-processingIn the post-processing, students are asked to make connections between charge andscraps of paper, and current and the passing of paper. Students are also helped to makeanalogies between 1) the size of their hands and the capacitance of a membrane and 2)the dropping of paper onto the floor and a leaky membrane resistance. When studentsmake these

Conference Session

Blurring the Boundary between Content Knowledge and Professional Knowledge

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Verna Fitzsimmons, Kent State University - Kent; Stephane Booth, Kent State University - Kent

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

might be to integrate the learning objectives of generaleducation and professional education and not see them or treat them as separate entities.We began this discussion by comparing the student learning objectives of thebaccalaureate degree in technology and the learning objectives of university’s LiberalEducation Requirements (LERs). (Table 1) Through this comparison it became evidentthat several objectives from both lists overlap. Because there is such an overlap, theimmediate question was one of redundancy and differentiation. Based on conversationswith members of our Liberal Education faculty as well as out Technology faculty, itbecame apparent that the learning outcomes form each of their perspective more alignedthan different. However

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joanne Lax, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

instruct these students in the use of appropriately worded emailcorrespondence as many of them seek internships and full-time employment in North Americaafter graduation.References1. M Abdullah. (2003, Dec.). The impact of electronic communication on writing. ED477614. [Online]. Available: http://www.eric.ed.gov.2. D. Carpenter. (2006, Dec.). “Business schools increase efforts toward written communication,” in Lafayette Journal and Courier, D3.3. N. Baron, “Why email looks like speech,” presented at Language, the Media, and International Communication, Oxford, U.K., March 29-April 1, 2001.4. Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, “Criteria for accrediting engineering programs.” [Online] Available: http://www.abet.org5. J

Conference Session

A Century of Development, Promotion, and Reform: ASEE and Engineering Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carol Johnson, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

transmission of knowledge has moved beyond both the associations and the universities to a wide array of resources that require information literacy to penetrate.The Evolution of the Professional Associations in the 19th Century The American Society of Civil Engineers and Architects was established in 1853 but wasnot active until 1868, when they changed their name to The American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE).1 They began to publish their Transactions in 1868 and their Proceedings in 1873. TheAmerican Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) was founded in 1871 and grew rapidly. Itregularly published the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers as well asusing a weekly, the Engineering and Mining Journal as its official

Conference Session

Thinking around the Bachelor of Arts in Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sharon Jones, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

flexibility ofsuch a degree means that the programs are quite different in terms of curricula, students, andopportunities. Although the degree is far from mainstream, it is worthwhile to explore thequestion of whether this degree addresses some of the concerns about the need for a newapproach to undergraduate engineering education, or if it is a specialty program only suited tocertain contexts. In this session, several invitees discuss the Bachelor of Arts in EngineeringProgram at their colleges/universities. The discussion is organized around four main topics: 1)what is the objective of such a degree and how does it fit within engineering education, 2) whatare the advantages of the degree for stakeholders (students, faculty, industry), 3) what are