Conference Session

Marketing Engineering to Minority Students

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qiang Le, Hampton University; Chetan Sankar, Auburn University; P.K. Raju, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

has indicated that compared to traditional instructionalmethods, student-oriented instructional methods such as multi-media case studies that encouragestudent participation and active involvement in learning are better ways to accomplish theseobjectives [1]. Many of the new skills needed to succeed in the innovation age can be achievedthrough the case study pedagogy. This pedagogy may be particularly effective for African-American students, who prefer team-based interactive environments and whose learning styles Page 13.1320.2might be different than those of traditional engineering students [2]. The Laboratory forInnovative Technology and

Conference Session

Learning Needs and Educational Success

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brenda Hart, University of Louisville; Veronica Hinton-Hudson, University of Louisville; James Lewis, University of Louisville

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), locatedwithin the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S.population has become more diverse over the past two decades as the minority population groups(African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and Asians/ PacificIslanders) have increased more rapidly than the White population. As projected for 2005,minorities made up approximately 33 percent of the U.S. population. These same minoritygroups are expected to represent nearly 39 percent of the total population by the year 2020.Furthermore, according to the latest population projections revealed by the US Census Bureauand depicted in Figure 1, these minority

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anant Kukreti, University of Cincinnati; Kenneth Simonson, University of Cincinnati; Kathleen Johnson, University of Cincinnati; Latiera Evans, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

andmanpower available through the E3 and RCWE programs, and include the following: (1) aSummer Bridge Program, which will provide seven weeks of preparation in Calculus, Physics,Chemistry, and English prior to the students' freshman year; (2) cooperative learning courses inthe first year math and science courses; (3) monthly socials which provide an opportunity tointeract with successful professionals from industry and academia; (4) supplemental classes infreshmen Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry to provide a solid foundation to build-on; (5)continuation of cooperative learning classes in sophomore in Differential Equations; (6)interacting with a select group of department Faculty Advisors and Project Coordinators duringtheir full undergraduate

Conference Session

Developing Young MINDS in Engineering: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ruba Alkhasawneh, Virginia Commonwealth University; Rosalyn Hobson, Virginia Commonwealth University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

; enhancingmathematics and science study skills; and transition smoothly to the university community. Thiswas a rigorous pre-college preparation program, which included; three classes (six credit hours),drop-in tutoring, summer research experiences, field trips, and guest speakers. A four hundredand fifty dollar stipend was awarded to each participant.I. Introduction:The lack of students in science, engineering, and technology is a major concern in manydeveloped and developing nations [1]. A recent study by May and Chubin [2] showed that theUnited States plays a leading role in the development of research in science, technology,engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, in order for the nation to remaininternationally competitive it is necessary for the US

Conference Session

Developing Young MINDS in Engineering: Part I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ardie Walser, City College of the City University of New York

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

post secondary schools have developed, either deliberately or by happenstance, someform of an organizational structure used for the advisement of their students.Centralized, Decentralized, and Shared are three major categories that can describe theorganizational structure used for the delivery of advising services (Pardee, C. F., 2004)i: 1. Centralized: where professional and faculty advisors are housed in one academic or administrative unit, a subgroup of this model is the Self-Contained Model where all advising is performed primarily by professional advisors or counselors in a central office, about 14% of all institutions use this model; 2. Decentralized: where advisement occurs in the respective departments of

Conference Session

New Research and Trends Related to Minorities in Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maria M. Larrondo Petrie, Florida Atlantic University; Ivan Esparragoza, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

1 shows a listing of engineering professional societies. The computer scienceand engineering technologies societies are included in this table because the computer scienceand engineering technology programs are often housed in the college of engineering. The tablealso includes architecture, because students may want to explore the differences between thisdiscipline and construction or civil engineering. Table 2 lists the engineering related honorsocieties. Table 3 lists other engineering-related societies, including science, mathematics,medical, and education societies. Table 4 lists engineering, technology, science and educationalsocieties that specifically target underrepresented minorities, and the list in Table 5 targetswomen in these

Conference Session

Innovative Methods to Teach Engineering to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Crown, University of Texas, Pan American; Arturo Fuentes, University of Texas, Pan American; Constantine Tarawneh, University of Texas, Pan American; Robert Freeman, University of Texas, Pan American; Hashim Mahdi, University of Texas, Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

tools on students andfaculty.Student Advising ProcessThe student academic advisement process in the ME program at UTPA is part of a departmentalcontinuous quality improvement process that also addresses specific ABET accreditationconcerns. The student advising process was reviewed in detail by the ME faculty during theacademic year 2005-2006. Advising objectives were defined to make sure that students andfaculty have clear expectations of this important process. The student advising objectives are:1) ME Faculty will monitor and advise students in areas such as proposed course workload / reasonable progress towards graduation, evaluation of grades, course prerequisites, graduation requirements, transfer/CLEP credits, university requirements

Conference Session

New Research on Retention of URM Groups in STEM

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fredericka Brown, University of Texas, Tyler; Kristian Trampus, University of Texas, Tyler; Michael Odell, University of Texas, Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

STEM education, and theirattitudes and opinions about the coursework and participation of their STEM peers.This paper describes the results of this preliminary survey assessment within and across the selectedgrade bands and the implications of these results on efforts to refine recruitment and retentionamong minorities. IntroductionEngineers Dedicated to a Better Tomorrow identified engineering as an academic field lagging inachieving racial and gender diversity in their graduating baccalaureate classes [1]. It was noted thatthere was substantial under-representation of blacks and Native Americans in engineering.According to the annual Survey of the American Freshman, National Norms, for the last

Conference Session

Developing Young MINDS in Engineering: Part I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arturo Fuentes, University of Texas, Pan American; Robert Freeman, University of Texas, Pan American; Horacio Vasquez, University of Texas, Pan American; Cristina Villalobos, University of Texas, Pan American; Stephen Crown, University of Texas, Pan American; Miguel Gonzalez, University of Texas, Pan American; Olga Ramirez, University of Texas, Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

2005 Hispanics accounted for 5.8% of the college-degreed workforce and only Page 14.730.25.2% of the STEM workforce. Altogether underrepresented minorities compose 24% of the U.S.population, yet comprise only 13% of college graduates and 10% of the total college-degreedSTEM workforce. It should be noted that every minority group, with the exception ofAsians/Pacific Islanders, earns 1/3 of all its bachelor’s degrees in STEM disciplines (NSB,2008). In all, there is an imperative need for minority groups to study science and engineering.UTPA, a 78-year old, general academic component of the University of Texas System, is acomprehensive university

Conference Session

Innovative Methods to Teach Engineering to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fred Bonner, Texas A&M University; Felecia Nave, Prairie View A&M University; Sherri Frizell, Prairie View A&M University; Carmen Villa, Texas A&M University; Helene Cook, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

documented while enrollment trends amongpopulations of color—particularly African American college-age students remainsrelatively low.1 These enrollment disparities are especially apparent in specialized areasof study such as engineering; thus, it is important to identify key factors and strategiesthat can counter these apparent deficits. One such area of focus that has shown promiseis in the area of student motivation. This presentation will explicate the data and attemptto untangle some of the critical aspects regarding motivation that contribute to thesuccess of African American students in engineering programs who are enrolled inAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) programs within HBCUs.Literature ReviewFor years, there have

Conference Session

Building Diversity in Engineering Graduate Programs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaoqing Qian, Alabama A&M University; Zhengtao Deng, Alabama A&M University; George Seweryniak, DoE Computational Science Division; Debbie McCoy, Oak Ridge National Lab

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

fascinating worldof scientific computing.BackgroundAccording to the 1990 U.S. census, the total U.S. population was 248,709,873. Of these,approximately 51% were women, 29,986,060 (or 12%) were African American, 22,354,059(or 9%) Hispanic, and 1,878,285 (or 1%) were Native American. In 1995, of the total 132million in the U.S. civilian labor forces, only 5500 African Americans who had Ph.D.degrees in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET) were employed inthe SMET field. Only 5.6% of the enrollment in graduate school SMET disciplines is African Page 14.1025.2American, Hispanic American and Native American students. In 2004 African

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qiang Le, Hampton University; Eric Sheppard, Hampton University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

section (an EGR 101 section with case studies) and the control section(another EGR 101 section without case studies) perceived their higher-order cognitive skills atthe end of the course to be lower than the levels anticipated at the beginning (see Table 1).However, whereas the drop was not statistically significant for the experimental section, the falloff was highly significant for the control section. On both the self-efficacy and team workingdimensions, students in the experimental section perceived they had improved, although themean increases were not statistically significant. In comparison, students in the control sectionperceived a significant decrease in self-efficacy and a substantial (though not statisticallysignificant) decrease in

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ryan Smith, North Carolina State University; Karen Hollebrands, North Carolina State University; Elizabeth Parry, North Carolina State University; Althea Smith, North Carolina State University; Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University; Lynn Albers, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

-year project took place in the context of a large school district in the SoutheastUnited States. There were a total of 9 different schools and over 2000 students who participatedin programs sponsored by RAMP-UP during the five-year period. The number of schoolsparticipating was increased from year 1 to year 2, remained stable during year 3 and decreased inyears 4 and 5. Data were collected each year and findings from years 1 through 4 will bereported in this study. The effectiveness of this project can be viewed in two ways. One way is to evaluatestudents’ levels of academic achievement, which is based on standardized test scores, andcompare that to their counterparts who did not participate in the program. Another way toevaluate the

Conference Session

Innovative Methods to Teach Engineering to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amir Mobasher, Alabama A&M University; Mohamed Seif, Alabama A&M University; Kenneth Fernandez, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center; Showkat Chowdhury, Alabama A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

issues of increase attendance andwill eliminate the need for the instructor to take the attendance while saving a valuable classtime. The method proposed here is to prepare an attendance sheet with the format shown inTable 1.Table 1. Sample sign up sheet used in the classesPlease sign your name in the corresponding column Name Monday (1/16) Wednesday(1/18) Friday (1/20)1 Joe Brown … …20 Jack SmithThen pass on the sheet in the class and have the students sign their name in the correspondingrow. The advantage of this format is that it is easy to trace the attendance history of a studentand hence immediately be able to contact the student and consult him/her about his

Conference Session

Innovative Methods to Teach Engineering to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beverley Pickering-Reyna, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

with Life and Career Skills Intervention and Retention Applications Matter in Educating New Minority FreshmenAbstractSTEM and urban education along with educational psychology scholarship established fourcritical research areas that needed judicious exploration to systematically increase the exercise ofeffective instructional programming for minorities: 1) Early access to and sustained engagementwith salient concepts (e.g., logical reasoning, managing complexity) that practically applyclassroom theories, 2) Curriculum that supports cognitive development in proportion to students’learning styles, 3) Peer and expert-model pedagogical agents as learning companions and socialmodels, and 4) Considering sociocultural

Conference Session

New Research and Trends Related to Minorities in Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Willie Ofosu, Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes-Barre

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

supporting the government’s effortto employ solar energy as a sustainable alternate source of energy.IntroductionThe issue of global warming and its effect on the Arctic presents a problem that is beingtaken seriously by governmental agencies such as the US Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA)1. In an article by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDF) titledGlobal Warming puts the Arctic on Thin Ice2, some of the questions asked that have yesas a response are Will Arctic ice melt have any effects beyond the polar region? and Canwe do anything to stop global warming? The first of the two questions indicates that theone event of the ice melting at the Arctic can have global impact and the second questionindicates that a global joint effort is

Conference Session

Developing Young MINDS in Engineering: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Walden, University of Oklahoma; Randa Shehab, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

on finding a community forempathy, support and guidance.1-7 For underrepresented minority students at largepredominately white institutions, the isolation from low representation can make finding an idealcommunity difficult. A recent article Museus describes college campus cultures and sub-culturesand their importance in students’ academic outcomes.8 These sub-cultures can develop along avariety of dimensions including racial or ethnic identity, gender-based organizations, commonacademic experiences within majors or departments, religious affiliations, etc. This paperexamines the interplay of personal cultural backgrounds and identities with the varied and

Conference Session

Building Diversity in Engineering Graduate Programs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ashley Johnson, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jill Auerbach, Georgia Institute of Technology; Adrianne Prysock, Georgia Institute of Technology; Leyla Conrad, Georgia Institute of Technology; Gary May, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

publication. While the seminars feature presentations byresearch engineers, the research skills workshops focus on instruction in three key areas: 1)communication, 2) investigation, and 3) documentation. In the second year of including researchworkshops, several additional components were added to the program. Components onpublishing undergraduate research and a software tutorial were added to the 2007 program yearactivities in the area of documentation and preparation for graduate school was added as a newarea. A “Research Tip of the Week” was also provided each week to compliment the keymodules.Approximately 73% of the past participants are enrolled in a graduate program of study orreceived a MS degree and 34% of the participants enrolled in a Ph.D

Conference Session

New Research and Trends Related to Minorities in Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Monroe, North Carolina A&T State University; Narayanaswamy Radhakrishnan, North Carolina A&T State University; Bala Ram, North Carolina A&T State University; Stephanie Luster-Teasley, North Carolina A&T State University; Christopher Doss, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

participants to see the studentpopulation.The housing for the participants, the reception, and banquet was arranged in theProximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC. This hotel is currently one the top five Americangreen buildings and was built to get the US Green Building Council (USGBC)Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating. This hotel waschosen to reflect the futuristic vision for research partnerships that this workshop soughtto provide. Page 14.290.2 1 PROGRAMThe final program largely resembled the program outlined in the proposal to the NationalScience

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jacqueline Fairley, Georgia Institute of Technology; Adrianne Prysock, Georgia Institute of Technology; Akibi Archer, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

schoolteacher advisor. Organization and facilitation of weekly meetings and correspondencewith the international engineering organization were handled by the STEP fellow. Page 14.1324.3 Table 1. Race and gender demographics represented per percentage of total student enrollment at the high school and in the after-school engineering club. Total Student Enrollment = 1,785 students High School After-School Engineering Club Race Black 82% 85% Hispanic 13% 5% Asian 2

Conference Session

Recruitment and Development of Minority Faculty

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ram Mohan, North Carolina A&T State University; Narayanaswamy Radhakrishnan, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

posed some interestingdilemmas. Some of our experiences and observations are presented next. 1. Most of the participant faculty members were experts in their field and majority had a terminal doctoral degree in their domain. Our general thought was that courses and Page 14.511.7 workshops in the area of “Introduction to Unix and HPC Operating Systems” may not be necessary. Based on their advanced degrees and educational training, we initially thought they may have prior UNIX operating system exposure. However, our experiences indicated that most of the participating MSI faculty members had limited computer resources, and

Conference Session

Attracting Young Minds: Part II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Shelley, United States Air Force; Mickey Bowen, United States Air Force

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

outcome of Engineering 11 is not a particular skill set, butrather the ability of students to choose a particular academic discipline for Universitystudy and a potential career. Creating this learning outcome in students requires moreknowledge, introspection, and self-assessment on the part of the student than any of the Page 14.737.4higher-level knowledge assimilation activities in Bloom’s Taxonomyviii. For this reasonan experiential approach was chosen where the students work with basic engineeringprinciples and course discussion requires student introspection. The founding principlesused to develop the class were straight forward. 1) It is about the

Conference Session

Innovative Methods to Teach Engineering to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wei Zheng, Jackson State University; Gordon Skelton, Jackson State University; HuiRu Shih, Jackson State University; Evelyn Leggette, Jackson State University; Tzusheng Pei, Jackson State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

, there is an imperative need for engineering faculty to adapt newinstructional strategies that can help students to effectively regulate their learning motivation,strategies, and efforts, particularly at their early learning stages.Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) has been research subject and educational practice in the contextof Educational Psychology. SRL involves self-monitoring and self-correction of threecomponents of learning: motivation, behavior, and cognition. It refers to active learning guidedby three important aspects of learning: (1) motivation to learn; (2) metacognition (awareness ofone’s knowledge and beliefs); and (3) strategic action (planning, evaluating, and acting). Oneimportant aspect in SRL is to regulate the learners

Conference Session

Marketing Engineering as a Career Path to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ali Mehrabian, University of Central Florida; Walter Buchanan, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

AC 2009-2316: WHY AREN’T THERE MORE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIESIN ENGINEERING?Ali Mehrabian, University of Central FloridaWalter Buchanan, Texas A&M University Page 14.1373.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Why Aren’t There More Students with Disabilities in Engineering?IntroductionStudents with physical disabilities are underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics). According to the NSF (National Science Foundation)1,“a higher percentage of students with disabilities than of those without disabilities dropout of high school. Among students who were eighth graders in 1988, 10 percent of thosewith disabilities and 6 percent

Conference Session

Marketing Engineering as a Career Path to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Delaine, Drexel University; Adam Fontecchio, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

Science Board. 2008. Science and Engineering Indicators 2008. Two Volumes. Arlington, VA:National Science Foundation (Volume 1, NSF 08-01; volume 2, NSB 08-01A).3. Cole, Darnell and Espinoza, Araceli, “Examining the Academic Success of Latino Students in ScienceTechnology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Majors”, Journal of College Student Development, Vol. 49 No.4, July/August 2008.4. Loftus, Margaret, “Untapped Potential”, ASEE Prism, October 2008.5. Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Service, European Commission, “The Cost and Benefit of Diversity:Executive Summary”, October 2003.6. Maheshwari, Sharad K. and Price, Anne L. “Understanding the Lack of Minority Representation in GraduatePrograms in Computer Science and Information Technology: A

Conference Session

New Research and Trends Related to Minorities in Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Terrell Strayhorn, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

andengineering.1 To illustrate the need for increasing diversity, consider national statistics onscience, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce participation. Although White,non-Hispanic men compromised 70% of the STEM workforce, relatively few were women andless than 6% were underrepresented minorities [(URM), i.e., African Americans, Latinos,American Indians/Alaskan Natives].2Several steps must be taken to improve the representation of URMs in STEM fields, one ofwhich is “we must clearly articulate the educational case for diversity, showing how [STEM]students and society benefit from it.”3 And while previous research provides evidence of theeducational benefits of diversity in collegiate settings4 and that racially diverse

Conference Session

Developing Young MINDS in Engineering: Part I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michelle Kobus, Hillsborough Community College; Cesar Guerrero, University of South Florida; Miguel Labrador, University of South Florida; Rafael Perez, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

learned. We found that thepersonalized advising service is crucial for the success of the program and identified specificadjustments that community college instructor and students need to make when they come to a four-year university.1. IntroductionIn recent years, alarming national statistics and trends have shown declining graduate andundergraduate enrollment, graduation rates, and participation of minority groups in Science andEngineering (S&E) fields, and in Computer Science in particular. According to NSF’s Scienceand Engineering indicators 2006, underrepresented minorities did not enroll in or completecollege at the same rate as Caucasians. In 2003, the percentage of African-Americans andHispanics who completed a bachelor’s or higher

Conference Session

Marketing Engineering as a Career Path to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robin Hensel, West Virginia University; Jason Wynne, West Virginia University; Reagan Curtis, West Virginia University; Gary Winn, West Virginia University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

the sections below, the need for increased diversity in engineering is presented, oneinstitution’s actions to meet that need is described, and the model upon which that program wasbuilt is explained.2.1 Need for increased diversity in engineering“Although researchers and policy makers disagree on the nature and extent of the engineering“shortage” in the United States, few dispute the need to attract capable students, especially girlsand certain minorities, into technical careers. Women, African Americans, Hispanics, NativeAmericans, and some Asian American groups are significantly underrepresented in engineering,based on their proportions in the population at large.”1 For example, women comprise 50.7% ofthe U.S. population (2005 est.) and

Conference Session

New Research on Retention of URM Groups in STEM

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Deborah Trytten, University of Oklahoma; Anna Wong Lowe, University of Oklahoma; Susan Walden, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

follow a different path than developing identity asa historian, each race has typical patterns of racial identity development. For Asian Americans,racial identity development can be explained in five stages16: 1. Ethnic Awareness: identification with country of family origin 2. White Identification: racial identification changes from country of origin to White, feels personally responsible for racial discrimination 3. Awakening to Social Political Consciousness: changes racial identification to minority, and resists White values and domination 4. Redirection to an Asian American Consciousness: changes racial identification to Asian American, feels a sense of belonging and pride 5. Incorporation of Asian American Identity

Conference Session

Marketing Engineering as a Career Path to URMs

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jonathan Lambright, Savannah State University; Wayne Johnson, Armstrong Atlantic State University; Cameron Coates, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

hard work as being a positive or beneficial attributes. More formally,work ethic can be described as the set of beliefs, values and principles that prescribe the mannerin which individuals interpret and act on their rights and responsibilities at any given time withinthe context of work 1. The origin of work ethic can be traced back to Max Weber’s interminglingof Calvinist religious ideology and economics in the early 1900’s. Weber’s philosophy laid thefoundation for the development of the term Protestant Work Ethic 2. Since then, having a strongwork ethic has become a widely accepted and desirable trait for students and thus futureemployees 3 and entrepreneurs to possess. Within the realm of engineering education the need for a “good