Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ruth E. H. Wertz, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Student

Smith, K., Sheppard, S., Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. 2005. Pedagogies ofenvironment engagement: classroom-based practices. Journal of Engineering Education,support learning? 94(1), 87-101.CAP Course ThemesThe backward design approach to course development outlined by Wiggins and McTighe1provided the structure of the CAP course. The backward design approach is described asbeginning the course design process with the end in mind. For example, Wiggins & MicTigherecommend that course development follow three stages:  Stage 1: Identify desired outcomes and curricular priorities (content)  Stage 2: Identify acceptable evidence of student learning (assessment)  Stage 3: Plan and develop instructional

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh, Virginia Tech; Rachel Louis Kajfez, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Student

,thereby decreasing or even removing their attention to your lecture. This is especiallyproblematic in large lectures since students are able to “hide”. This type of student behavior wasconsistently observed during multiple courses with multiple instructors. One way to combat thisissue is to save announcements for the end of lecture, but this requires strong time managementskills and lesson planning. Another way to combat this issue is to make general announcementsand then immediately follow the announcements with an active learning activity to reengage thestudents.To illustrate the problem and solution, we present the case of an instructor who asked students tosubmit a survey during the middle of class. Figure 1 is a graph of the percentage of

Conference Session

Graduate Student Experience

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Benjamin Ahn, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Monica Farmer Cox, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Brenda M. Capobianco, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies, Student

. Page 23.563.62. Introduced information systematically and concisely (but with enough details) at the level of knowledge for undergraduates to comprehend with the goal of showing students what had been done and what needed to be done.3. Explained and discussed background knowledge multiple times to help students understand the complex issues and disciplinary fundamentals necessary to solve problems.4. Played devil’s advocate, that is, pretended to be against student’s ideas or plans in order to make the student discuss it in more details.5. Created and gave appropriate levels of assignments (or tasks) to be solely completed by undergraduates to help them understand certain theory behind the research. Some tasks included operating

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James J. Pembridge, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ., Daytona Beach; Stephanie Cutler, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Student

creation of an interdisciplinary committee. For a review of the work oninterdisciplinary graduate supervision, see [9].Where a number of studies have investigated the role of the graduate advisor for interdisciplinarystudents [9-11], few investigate the role of the graduate student’s committee. A graduate student’scommittee generally comprises of 4-5 members who “work with them on developing a programplan, preparing and taking comprehensive exams, planning and executing a study, andcompleting the dissertation” [12]. For a graduate student earning an interdisciplinary degree, therole of the committee may vary from a traditional committee. Committee members may be usedto supplement expertise from disciplines that the advisor is not familiar with to

Conference Session

Graduate Student Experience

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Irene B Mena, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Sven Schmitz, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies, Student

thesemester, the course followed a regular course format. Students would meet with the faculty in aclassroom setting to learn about different concepts. Students were then divided into groups andassigned research projects. They worked on these research projects until the end of the semester,when they presented their results. Each group was led by a mentor. The mentors’ mainresponsibility was to oversee the research project. One mentor described his role as follows: “Basically, I guess it would be mostly organizational and trying to set out a plan of action of how we were going to accomplish our goals for the semester. And immediately, we tried to split up the group as far as what needed to get done and just assigning tasks to

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katy Luchini-Colbry, Michigan State University; Tobias Ortega-Knight, University of the Virgin Islands; Charles Huang Chen, Michigan State University; Danny Lynch, University of the Virgin Islands; Kathleen Anne Fitzsimons, Michigan State University; Crystal D Alton; Juan L. Mena Lapaix, Michigan State University; Joshua Drost, Michigan State University; Garrett Kohler

Tagged Divisions

Student

conversations: prompted conversations,and spontaneous conversations. The prompted conversations were initiated by the programcoordinator, who articulated a brief question or statement asking students to reflect on key aspectsof their undergraduate research experiences, including:  students’ expectations and goals for participating in the program  students’ goals for their research projects  ways to handle research obstacles  lessons students learned through research  students’ future goals and plans related to research, graduate study and careers Page 23.580.4Other than posting these initial conversational prompts/questions

Conference Session

Graduate Student Experience

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Janet Y Tsai, University of Colorado at Boulder; Daria A Kotys-Schwartz, University of Colorado Boulder; Beverly Louie, University of Colorado, Boulder; Virginia Lea Ferguson, Mechanical Engineering; University of Colorado; Boulder, CO; Alyssa Nicole Berg, University of Colorado Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies, Student

research. In a subsequent reflective question response, she describesthe working environment she creates with Annie: I’d like to keep the experience positive and manageable but sometimes I feel like I have trouble determining the right balance…when we have a short meeting things don’t go quite as planned I get concerned that the student is having a discouraging research experience…I try to welcome and explain all my student’s questions.Mia’s consideration for Annie is clear in the importance she places on keeping her experiencebalanced and not too boring or too complex. The focus is on Annie’s interest in the research, noton the research itself. Mia continues: She [Annie] has been doing good work and I feel like