decisions. Our results also show that despite a perceived lack of autonomy, some GTAscontinue to act autonomously when faced with decision-making in the classroom. These resultscan help inform faculty as they seek to support GTAs in the GTAs‟ teaching responsibilities.IntroductionFor many years, graduate students have served as laboratory assistants and graders forundergraduate engineering courses. Due to recent efforts to increase hands-on activities inengineering education, many institutions are now also employing graduate teaching assistants(GTAs) as course instructors and lecturers 1-3. While researchers have studied GTAs in thehumanities and physical sciences, little is known about GTA experiences in engineering. Thepurpose of this study is to
program will support many of the current and planned Research Clustersincluding: (1) Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology (new nanoengineered materials andmanufacturing processes); (2) Energy and Environment; (3) Biotechnology and Biosciences(new materials & applications of nanoscience in biology, agriculture and medicine); and (4)Computational Science and Engineering (computational aspects of nanotechnology) that are keytechnology areas for the current and future scientific, engineering and technology needs of thenation and the world. The rapidly spawning array of nanoengineered materials and techniques and theirapplications in research laboratories globally hold great promise for new nanoscale engineeringsystems and technologies
the survey (andgraduate students are assuming teaching Aerospace and Ocean 1 disagreeing with item 9).responsibilities. The purpose of this research is to Civil and Environmental 5
content and poster design, but also the oral presentation. Cash prizes aresometimes awarded to winners of these events2,3,4.A sampling of six poster competitions held at campuses across the nation is shown in Table 1.These events ranged from small with 16 presenters to very large at over 250. The purpose ofthese events, based upon information given at event websites, generally was to provide astructured forum in which students could present their research with the opportunity to win cashprizes. These events all followed similar formats as mentioned previously. Page 25.289.4Table 1. Sampling of poster competitions at various universities.Date
followed by implementation of the program prior to the Fall2011 semester. Lastly, we assessed the effectiveness of the program through a post-survey,designed to capture the reaction of the participants shortly after orientation, and a focus group,designed to provide more reflective feedback after the students completed most of their firstsemester in the program. Eight students attended the orientation. This paper will discuss the (1)analysis, (2) design, (3) development, (4) implementation, and (5) evaluation of an orientationprogram designed by graduate students specifically for new graduate students entering anengineering education doctoral program. There is minimal research on the transition from atraditional engineering program to engineering
, 7, but there has been littleconsideration for student-athletes enrolled in STEM programs. The research that does exist islimited to American Division-I schools and the military8, 9. What is lacking within currentresearch findings is a general understand of how STEM student-athletes are able to succeed intwo challenging, yet distinctly different, pursuits while other students struggle to get by in just Page 25.1336.2one. A great deal of research has gone into time management issues for STEM and non-STEMstudents10, 11, and student-athletes12, 13. This work considers the research questions:1. “How do STEM student-athletes manage their time and
research questions sought to assess the degree of variability between TAgrading within each course. A one-way ANOVA performed for each class and each semesterassessed whether TA was a significant predictor of student score in each of the measureddimensions (e.g., homework grade, exam grade, etc.). For section homework scores, there weresignificant differences between TAs in 4 of 6 classes. In only one class was there significantvariability between TAs in exam grades. In 3 classes, there was significant variability betweenTAs for final grades. Please see Table 1 for full results. Our third research question examined whether TA experience had a significant impact onstudent grades. We analyzed both classes separately, but did not separate by
creates a personal accountability and responsibly for how students act and how theyconduct themselves. Iron Range Engineering (IRE) is an engineering program through Mankato StateUniversity located in Virginia Minnesota. IRE is a 100% project based learning program. IREtook its first generation of students for enrollment in the spring of 2010. This is a two-year upperlevel engineering program where students transfer from a two-year community college and enterIRE as juniors.1 IRE students take part in a different style of learning than traditional students.This new style of learning is known as immersive learning (iLRN). iLRN is a model in whichstudents are surrounded by engineering in all aspects of their education. The students
industry related toengineering education or as faculty members, it is the responsibility of these individuals to helpdefine the future direction of the field.It is reassuring to see that as the field has grown, so to have the number of students participatingin engineering education research, reform, and practice. A clear indicator of increased studentinterest has been the steadily growing student membership of the American Society forEngineering Education (ASEE). According to the June 2010 report to the ASEE Board ofDirectors, student membership in ASEE has risen by 32.6% in five years, surpassing the numberof life members (Table 1).1 According to Dwight Wardell, ASEE Membership Department Head,the student membership continues to surpass life
(Yes/No)_______________________________________________________________________Evaluation by graduate students Formal course evaluations for the first three semesters of the independent, fallproposal and the first two of the collaborative spring proposal appear in Table 3(nextpage), a tabulation of our standard university course evaluations. These two writingcourses fair well compared to our other department graduate courses (including reactors,transport, thermodynamics, and applied mathematics) and to the 1-5 absolute standard ofour evaluation scale. Given the apparent initial hostility of new graduate students towardtechnical writing, these end-of-semester evaluations represent a significant achievement.Importance of feedback
course instructors, become members of the community of practice that is academia. This studywas guided by the following research questions: 1) What socialization experiences do doctoralengineering TAs report going through as a result of working as course instructors? 2) Whatrecommendations to improve the TA experience emerge from this study?Data were collected in the form of interviews (individual and focus group, with participants fromtwo schools of engineering at a Midwestern university). These data sources were analyzed andtriangulated to find recurring themes. Results indicated several categories of socializationexperiences, as characterized by the three TAs. Implications from the study suggest the need fora progressive TA model, in which
findings is also presented.IntroductionABET approved Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC, 2000) in 1996 1. Shifting from an emphasis oninputs of engineering programs (i.e., curricula) to the outputs of these programs (i.e., theknowledge, skills, and attributes that students should take away from their educationalexperiences), EC 2000 has been far-reaching in both academia and industry2., Although efforts toexplore the attributes and skills expected of engineering graduates have begun, it is unfortunatethat they have been focused primarily at the undergraduate level. These types of studies are notusual in doctoral education but are needed for Ph.D. programs to respond to the changingenvironments of industry and academia. Additionally most engineering
you work in the field of biology. The three principal coursegoals 1) to learn different macromolecules in cells, 2) to develop an understanding of theprinciples of cell structure and functions mainly focusing on fundamental genetic mechanisms,and 3) to learn the experimental tools used to understand cellular function such as moleculargenetic techniques, biochemical analysis, and microscopy.” Students were encouraged to furtherexplore the use of the ERC research-focus material (magnesium) in biological applicationsthrough an extra-credit assignment. The engineering students from NCAT (Figure 1) also had theopportunity to attend a biomedical engineering research conference (BMES 2009) for the firsttime during their introductory course to cell
Programs In a review of the development and characteristics of future faculty preparationprograms2, it is pointed out that they can provide a smooth transition between graduate schooland faculty positions. These programs evolved from TA training programs that proliferatedbetween 1960 and 1990. Establishment of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program in 1993formed a base for a sustained national initiative to transform doctoral education. The PFFprogram has three core features3 of 1) addressing the full scope of faculty roles andresponsibilities, 2) students have multiple mentors and receive reflective feedback and 3) bothare addressed in the context of a cluster of institutions typically involving a doctoral degree-granting institution
keep in mind that large and small lectures often have manysimilarities. Examples of potential commonalities that we have experienced include: 1. The course content and high-level learning objectives remain the same regardless of size. 2. Students in both sized classes are at the same place in their program (e.g., small or large, a first-year course often has first-year students). 3. Regardless of class size, an individual student’s initial interest in the course topic is usually the same. 4. There is only one instructor (you!) in both large and small classes. 5. Not everyone wants to be there (especially if it is a required class).While there are similarities between classes of varying size, there are also key
curriculum development project. This reflection was guided by three overarchingquestions: 1) how were theoretical course concepts applied in the development of a newgraduate-level online engineering course, 2) what were the challenges in developing this course,and 3) what lessons were learned that will aid in the development of future courses? Thesequestions were answered by examining the contributions made by different bodies of literature,and how these were synthesized during the development project. This paper is intended toprovide graduate students new to curriculum development with insights on the process andchallenges of developing their first course. II. Contributions of CAP Course and LiteratureThe CAP course was
, In-Class Learning Environment as a Teaching AssistantIntroductionActive learning techniques, when properly implemented, have been shown to improve learningcompared to traditional lecture. A review of active learning by Prince found broad support foractive, collaborative, cooperative, and problem-based learning.1 Specifically, a meta-analysisrevealed that small-group work, one form of active learning, promotes enhanced academicachievement, more favorable attitudes toward learning, and increased persistence in STEMfields.2 Despite the strong evidence, many college engineering courses uphold the status-quo,lecture-only format because changing the structure of a course takes considerable time, planning,and foresight
and transgender (LGBT) individuals in U.S.workplaces often face disadvantages in pay, promotion, and workplace experiences.1-7 It is stilllegal in many states to fire LGBT persons due to sexual identity or gender expression.8 Recentscholarship on the experiences of LGBT students and professionals suggests that thesedisadvantages may be particularly pernicious within science and engineering-related fields, giventhe patterns of heteronormativity and heterosexism documented therein.9-12 LGBT faculty inscience, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related departments face harassment anddiscrimination, marginalization, and chilly departmental and classroom climates.10 In a study oftwo NASA centers, furthermore, LGBT professionals encountered
Engineering Education, 2016Curiosities Regarding Exam Review Sessions at LSU’s College of EngineeringIntroduction As enrollment increases at Louisiana State University (LSU), it becomes morechallenging for students to be actively engaged with their professors and in their own learningprocesses. The larger class sizes and reduction in state funding contribute to a poorer learningenvironment (1, 2). This struggle is compounded in sophomore level courses, where many studentsconsider dropping out of their respective engineering programs (3). In 2014, the authors publisheda paper discussing how these barriers can be somewhat alleviated by offering peer led activelearning sessions through Supplemental Instruction (SI) (4). The authors found that
students and new faculty considering new research avenueswith limited resources, in an effort to maximize the usefulness of previously dedicated resources.IntroductionIn the worlds of statistics and quantitative research, the term ‘data mining’ is used to refer totechniques that help researchers investigate new findings from existing data sets[1, 2]. DataMining usually involves analyzing extremely large databases, but the methods involved areapplied to smaller sets of data as well. In all applications, the purpose of data mining is todevelop new knowledge from existing information.In qualitative research, we often use the term secondary analysis for the repurposing of existingdata for new investigations[3-5]. Broadly, this includes any subsequent
STEM college students learn through the use of active learning. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 The Unsubstantiated Cutoff: Deeper Analysis of Supplemental Instruction Sessions in Engineering CoursesAbstract Active learning sessions such as those in the Supplemental Instruction model are oftenreported as successful when incorporated into high DFW (Drop, Fail, Withdraw), highenrollment courses (1). Research conducted by The U.S. Department of Education, Redish,Longfellow, and many others have reported significant benefits to students enrolled in coursesthat incorporate active learning strategies (1, 2, 3). The initial analysis of the impact ofSupplemental
confidence in their ability to lead discussions, as well as other positiveprofessional and personal growth.1 BackgroundIncreases in student enrollment, decreases in state higher education funding, and larger classsizes all contribute to a less conducive learning environment for students (1, 2); all are a reality atLouisiana State University (LSU). Added to these difficulties, students are further challenged intheir sophomore year of college as they struggle to convert study skills that in high schooldepended on bulk memorization to new more intense requirements of application-basedprocesses. Students who did well freshman year sometimes do not pass major key courses insophomore year (3). Sophomore year is also the time where the majority of transfer
. Page 26.667.4Phase 1 – PreparationPhase 1 of the project consisted of the initial preparation and planning for the grading training.This included finding representative technical writing samples, setting the baseline grades with agroup of faculty and senior TAs, and creating sample “marked up” graded examples.Phase 2 – Calibration Sessions and FeedbackPhase 2 of the project consisted of the initial training and calibration. This grading trainingoccurred as part of the annual required TA training sessions. In addition to requiring theattendance of the GTAs and UTAs responsible for grading writing assignments, the faculty ofthe program were also encouraged to attend and participate. This was aimed at providingconsistent exposure to the process
designing and programming the course control electronics. Thisdevelopment and creation is extremely time-intensive. College students already balance manydifferent life aspects, and yet, every year, a core group of TAs embrace this time-intensivechallenge and excel. To further explore this TA experience, this study addresses the followingresearch questions: Why do TAs participate in the development and creation of the robot designproject? What skills, if any, do they develop through their participation?Impetus for this WorkMany first-year engineering programs have a common curriculum that all students are requiredto take.1 These courses tend to be large in size, having multiple sections of the same class. Forexample, at Ohio State, the first-year
compared separatelyacross all spatial assessments. A Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient matrix was developedto visualize correlations between assessments and gender. Male participants showed significant(mostly) moderate correlations between all tests at the p < .001 level. Moreover, femaleparticipants suggested different strengths of correlation and significance across all assessments.Introduction Investigation into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)professional knowledge has gained momentum since funding became available throughgovernment agencies and private sources. Spatial skill level is a known predictor of STEMachievement.1 Currently, K-12 instruction emphasizes both verbal and mathematical skills, butdoes
number ofviews of each video, how much percentage each visitor watched, the total amount of time eachvisitor spent on each video, the total amount of time, visitors, and views for each slide, and theaverage percentage of completion of each video. Figure 1 displays an example of the statisticaldata provided from the Office Mix website. Another noteworthy tool was the ability to look atthese statistics in any time frame specified by the user; Office mix allowed the user to look at thedata from week to week as well as over then entire semester. Figure 1: An example of an uploaded video’s analytic data recorded and provided from Microsoft mix at https://mix.office.com/Results and Discussion At the end
Materials" (Rais-Rohani, Walters, & Vizzini, 2010, p. 1). Learning Staticsrequires a considerable attention as the course concepts serve as "the building blocks for futurecourses in engineering, mechanics of solids and design in particular. There is a commondisappointment among many educators in the students' abilities to apply the concepts todesign/analyze real systems in the subsequent courses" (Condoor, Jayaram, & Boyer, 2008, p. 1).This paper describes re-design of the Engineering Mechanics I (Statics) course based on theoutcome based learning and also student-centered learning theories by integrating the Content,Assessment and Pedagogy together in a single model abbreviated as CAP, and utilizing theBackward Design Process. In contrast
1 illustrates the investigation embeddedwithin the conceptual framework. Developing a community of practice can be an effectivemeans for helping new teachers learn to teach. “Communities of practice are groups of peoplewho share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen theirknowledge and expertise in the area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (p. 5).2 The biomedicalengineering fellows were interested in learning about and educating students with reform-basedinstructional practices. It is anticipated that fellows work together with faculty and mentorteachers as a community to develop a shared knowledge about the practice of teaching science inpreparation for future careers as tenured faculty members at the
Version 1.In order to communicate our sustainability plan, we developed an order system was created usingPayPal and Podio, a project management tool, with simple algorithms created to measureoverhead (maintenance of the printers and the filament) and net profit from student payment.Students would be urged to make a request for a print through the order form on Podio, usingtheir own models or those created by the makerspace staff or online artists. The staff memberquickly makes the necessary adjustments for size and print detail, providing the student with aquote that can be confirmed and paid or declined.With the outline for the space and the space’s business plan completed, we created a detailedbudget and with the help of our mentors we secured