Conference Session

New Research on Retention of URM Groups in STEM

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Terrell Strayhorn, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering

careers.3 The expressed purpose of URPs is criticallyimportant given that minorities tend to have lower self-efficacy, lower confidence in their mathand science skills, and less access to scientific courses and highly technical learning experiencescompared to their majority peers.4 And while previous research has focused on the intendedpurpose and general nature of URPs, as well as sex differences in URP participants’ perceptionsof the program,5 no studies were readily uncovered that measured the influence of URPparticipation on specific learning outcomes such as research self-efficacy. This is the gapaddressed by the present study.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to measure the influence of background traits and research-relatedexperiences

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

attention is focused on institutional characteristics and peer perceptions. This isthe missing piece that will be examined.Another limiting factor for women and minority students to achieving degrees in STEM fields istheir individual perception of their ability to succeed in a given situation, known as self efficacy,influences their thoughts, feelings, motivation, and behavior [7]. Four factors contribute to thedevelopment of self efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, andphysiological states. Vicarious experiences include peer comparisons, social comparisons withothers, and the impact of models. The vicarious experience of women and minority students canprove to have a strong effect on their individual self

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

studies were a very positive experience in their learning ofengineering principles. They found the case studies to be informative, interesting, and enjoyable.One student said, “If you can find more case studies like this online, it would be worthwhile togive them to us.” Another applauded the fact that the case studies merged engineering principleswith information from other majors, such as business, architecture, and law. Their commentsranged from “overall it was a good experience” to “this is one of my most enjoyable classes.”Based upon the pre and post surveys that address the perceptual measures (gain in higher-ordercognitive skills, improvement in self-efficacy and improvement in team working skills), we findthat both the experimental