Conference Session

Perceptions of Women's Success in STEM

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Litzler, University of Washington; Catherine Claiborne, University of Washington; Suzanne G. Brainard, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

weresubsequently assigned a code to make the responses more secure and confidential.Each question that was asked was related to one or more of the main factors in the literatureregarding institutionalization. The main interview questions asked included: Page 12.751.6QUESTION 1. What successful or top three programs, processes, and/or policies developed byADVANCE have been adopted by your university or college? (value, diffusion)QUESTION 2. How are these ADVANCE initiatives being funded? (value, leadership, stability)QUESTION 3. Were there any ADVANCE programs, processes, and/or policies that you wouldhave liked to see adopted but were not? (value

Conference Session

The Impact of Curriculum on the Retention of Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Keathly, University of North Texas; Robert Akl, University of North Texas; Ryan Garlick, University of North Texas

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

reviews? • What impact did the camp activities have on the performance of the participants as they return to their secondary school, form both the student and parent perspectives? • What impact did the camp activities have on the higher education and career plans of the participants? • What were the demographic characteristics of students enrolled in each type of activity and how do they compare with demographic characteristics of students in the department as a whole?Specific Evaluation ResultsGeneral TrendsOverall these programs coincided with a rise in our new student and continuing studentpopulations as compared from Fall 2004 thru Fall 2006, as indicated in Table 1, as well as aconcurrent rise in the

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiang-Yun Du, Aalborg University; Anette Kolmos, Aalborg University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

around the world. Previous studies have identified various historical reasonsleading to this phenomenon. The mostly agreed factors in the history of different western countriesinclude: 1) women’s inappropriate gender role, which keeps the ideology of femininity distant fromtechnology and engineering [2, 6, 8, 18, 19, 22], 2) Gender stereotypes in labor division, which definesengineering as a male oriented profession [1, 3, 7, 11, 18], and 3) the traditional lecturer-based learningenvironment at engineering programs overweighs sophisticated natural science knowledge and hard coretechnological skills, which mainly favors male interest and expectations and ignore women’sexperiences and concerns [4, 9, 24, 26, 29].To different extents, these

Conference Session

Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gretchen Hein, Michigan Technological University; Amy Monte, Michigan Technological University; Kerri Sleeman, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

advisors.GUIDE meetings, seminars and requirementsAs part of the GUIDE program, all scholars attend Engineering Seminars (see Table 1) duringthe Fall Semester. Each year, the seminars have varied depending on the requests and needs ofthe students. Faculty from each engineering department and representatives from the communityand campus have talked with the students. Due to student requests, there are 2-3 seminars eachsemester where scholars become better acquainted with the other GUIDE teams. These haveranged from carving pumpkins to a personal scavenger hunt (e.g.: students find out who hasvisited all 50 states, or who has the most pets at home). Many of the seminars have evolved intopanel discussions with students and/or faculty. One of the most

Conference Session

K-12 Programs (Co-sponsored by K-12 Division)

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeanne Hubelbank, WPI Evaluation Consulting; Chrysanthe Demetry, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Shelley Errington Nicholson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Stephanie Blaisdell, Independent Consultant; Paula Quinn, Independent Consultant; Elissa Rosenthal, Marketing Research Consultant; Suzanne Sontgerath, Independent Consultant

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

control group of girls with similar pre-existing interest and self-selection attributes as the CampReach group of girls.We started with a potential study group of 178 girls; 111 (62.4%) who attended Camp Reach and67 (37.6%) who applied, but did not attend. Successful contact was made with 129 youngwomen; 88 (68.2%) who attended Camp Reach and 41 (31.8%) who did not. Thus, the overallresponse rate was 72.5%. (See Appendix Table A-1 for a breakdown by year.) The primaryreason for lack of contact was outdated telephone numbers. Only three girls declined toparticipate, two from the 2004 interview group and one from the 2006 interview group.Data CollectionData for the study came from telephone interviews conducted by an assessment specialist in2004

Conference Session

The Pipeline

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cortney Martin, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Tonya Smith-Jackson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

assembly instructions were usedin the study: the Kid K’NEX® Fish-Eyed Friends; Lincoln Logs® Frontier Junction; theLEGO® X-Pod (#4349) dragonfly design; and BIONICLE® Rahaga Bomonga (#4878). Thesetoys and instruction sets were selected because they represented a variety of designs rangingfrom the BIONICLE’s single-sheet, multi-frame, grayscale design to the LEGO’s booklet style,and the K’NEX flat assembly with redundant shape and color coding (see Table 1). For reasonsoutside the scope of this paper, two different models from the K’NEX set were included in thestudy for a total of five construction tasks. All toys were age-appropriate according to themanufacturer’s age labeling with the exception of the BIONICLE that was labeled for childrenseven

Conference Session

Potpourri

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Douglas Cleary, Rowan University; William Riddell, Rowan University; Harriet Hartman, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

socioeconomic groups.Plans for targeted recruitment efforts resulting from this study are also presented.IntroductionRowan University is a well-regarded comprehensive regional university located in New Jersey.The engineering program is highly ranked1 and has a proven record of retaining the femaleengineering students it attracts2. However, the number of female students entering theengineering program is below national averages and has been declining over the past severalyears, as shown in Figure 1. In the U.S. and Canada on average just under 20% of the students inengineering are female4. At Rowan University this percentage is below 15%. Over the pastseveral years female enrollment in engineering has dropped at both Rowan University andnationally.The

Conference Session

MentorNet

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Jo Wellenstein, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Sandra Courter, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Susannah Sandrin, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; Karen Showers, Wisconsin Technical College System; Leslie Wilkins, Maui Economic Development Board; Jennifer Chou-Green, MentorNet; Carol Muller, MentorNet; Laurie Mayberry, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ann Bloor, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Isla Yap, Maui Economic Development Board

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

strategies for otherstates to consider.ProblemGender equity is a key strategy for maintaining our Nation’s preeminent status in science andtechnical innovation. The last 30 years have seen women make great strides in education andemployment.1 Women now receive more than 50 percent of the bachelors degrees conferred andare close to reaching parity in the once male-dominated fields, such as law and medicine.Unfortunately, these gains have not been uniform in all fields. Women continue to bepersistently underrepresented in high-demand, high-wage employment fields of science,technology, engineering and math. While women make up nearly half of the American laborforces in 2003-2004 (Bureau of Labor and Statistics), they are less than 30 percent of the

Conference Session

Issues of Diversity

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fonda Swimmer, Northern Arizona University; Karen Jarratt-Ziemski, Ft. Lewis College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

programs by women steadily increased from 18.1percent in 1994 to 19.2 percent in 2002, while minority (Black, Hispanic Native American) haveexperienced more ups and downs throughout the same time frame and much lower percentagesranging from 0.6-8.0 percent.1 Since 1995, the proportion of women and minority freshmen inengineering have been declining while men and non-minority freshmen have been increasing at asignificantly faster pace. These declines could constitute declines in the proportion of degreesearned by women and underrepresented minorities in the coming years.2 Historically, about one-third of all bachelor’s degrees are awarded in science and engineering. Since 1970, the number of bachelor’s degrees in science and

Conference Session

K-12 Programs (Co-sponsored by K-12 Division)

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Virnoche, Humboldt State University; Elizabeth Eschenbach, Humboldt State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Engineering. She completed a postdoc at the Center for Advanced Decision Support in Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) at UC Boulder. Beth’s career goals include increasing the diversity of engineering students and improving education for all engineering students. Three of Beth’s current projects are: 1) an NSF planning project for the Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research, 2) an NSF Scientific Leadership Scholars project providing 4-year scholarships to 30 students in computer science, environmental recourses engineering and mathematics and 3) a water resources curriculum project using CADSWES software

Conference Session

An International Perspective

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carmen Maldonado, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Tatiana Ramirez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Idalis Vazques, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Alexandra Medina-Borja, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

enrollees. PurdueUniversity ranked number 1 with 6,049 students3. UPRM ranks number one in the degreesgranted to Hispanics. The second place in number of degrees granted to Hispanics was given tothe Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (a private institution) and the third place belonged toFlorida International University with 136 bachelor’s degrees awarded4.In 2006 nearly 39% of the BS degrees in engineering at the UPRM were granted to women. Thishigh percentage varies a lot across engineering disciplines at the UPRM. Chemical Engineeringis the area of engineering specialization that granted most degrees to women (nearly 65% ofthem) and mechanical engineering the area with fewer (approximately 18% of their graduateswere female). The Industrial

Conference Session

Perceptions of Women's Success in STEM

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maria Brunette, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; paula rayman, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; meg bond, University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Lu Yuan, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

iterations.Selecting the Panel of ExpertsCriteria for being selected as a member of the Delphi Panel of Experts included: tobelong to one of the two generations of scholars working in the Women in STEM field;to have participated in related research initiatives as principal investigator, co-investigator, or senior personnel; to have published in major related journals; and tobelong to diverse racial/ethnic groups.Our outreach efforts provided a total of 12 experts that agreed to participate in the study.It should be noted that the majority of Delphi studies have used between 15 and 20respondents6. The gender distribution of the panel was 1 male and 11 female. Half theparticipants belonged to the first and the other half to the second generation. With

Conference Session

The Impact of Engineering Disciplines

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Marra, University of Missouri; Barbara Bogue, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, lectures and student-centered instructionalstrategies.InstrumentsData were collected using four instruments – two for students and two for faculty. We brieflydescribe all four instruments (see Table 1) however our results at this time only consider datafrom the student instruments. All instruments were in an online format. Page 13.501.4Instrument DescriptionStudent background • Provides student demographic data and data on non-course specific experiences in their engineering department. • Collected once per

Conference Session

Perspectives for Women Faculty

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Birmingham, Grove City College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Conference Session

Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Bentow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers; Richard Blais, Project Lead the Way; Laura Bottomley, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Catherine Didion, National Academy of Engineering; Norman Fortenberry, National Academy of Engineering; Christina Vogt, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

contribute to teacher learning, changes in classroom practice, and changes instudent learning in comparison to face-to-face professional development. As such, some future researchquestions might arise from the later stages of this project:(1) What is the value of an online professional development experience in comparison to a classroom-based professional development experience?(2) What is the value of online professional development experience which is organized as a non-facilitated online professional development experience?(3) What are the benefits (improved teacher learning, classroom enactment, and student learning) as afunction of the relative cost of different professional development conditions?(4) What are the lessons learned in developing

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Lord, University of San Diego; Michelle Camacho, University of San Diego

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

place an overt,and reflexive, emphasis on context in order to address relations of power embedded in theclassroom structure. Because “climate” is an elusive and tricky topic to tackle in engineeringeducation, our data incorporates voices from a range of professors to present a few perspectivesand practices that address this important issue.1. IntroductionWhile undergraduate engineering programs nationwide have made considerable strides toencourage greater numbers of women and minorities in the field, researchers are increasinglyinterested in identifying the variables that specifically relate to retention of students. The so-called, “leaky pipeline”1 example (students “switch” out of engineering to other majors) remainsimportant to consider: why

Conference Session

Potpourri Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Titus-Becker, North Carolina State University; Sarah Rajala, Mississippi State University; Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University; Dianne Raubenheimer, North Carolina State University; Jo-Ann Cohen, North Carolina State University; Kala Bullett, North Carolina State University; Susan Grant, North Carolina State University; Fay Cobb Payton, North Carolina State University; Adrianna Kirkman, North Carolina State University; Barbara Kirby, North Carolina State University; Wendy Krause, North Carolina State University; Carrie Thomas, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

paper will present an update on the WISE Village, a review of the program’s goals, in termsof assessment results from the first three years, and a discussion of the evolving plans of theVillage, including the implementation of a sophomore track within the program.IntroductionWomen only account for 24% of all science and engineering workers, although they comprise46% of all workers (Graham & Smith, 2005).1 Moreover, women and minorities continue to beunderrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at both theundergraduate and graduate levels. For example only 20% of engineering baccalaureate degreesare awarded to women (NSF, 2004).2Interest in science and engineering majors by female freshmen has not changed

Conference Session

K-12 Programs (Co-sponsored by K-12 Division)

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carol Stwalley, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

remained stagnant. Americanengineering colleges had just 20.1-20.6% women graduates for the last five years, while overallgraduation rates have declined.1 The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology Page 12.1415.3state that there must be attention paid to the domestic degree production of the science andengineering (S&E) workforce to replenish the retiring segment and allow for a slight growthindustry.2 The Bureau of Labor Statistics concurs and states that even with a stagnant industry,the number of retiring engineers will keep the demand strong for American engineers through thenext 10 to 15 years.3 The National Science Board

Conference Session

Potpourri Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Davids, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott; Heidi Steinhauer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

) programs, which in turn will directly increase the number of femalestudents in the engineering programs at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (seeFigure 1). The EmpoWER program is designed to increase interest and participation ofwomen at all academic levels from middle school through graduate school and beyond. Page 12.1211.3 Figure 1: Components of EmpoWER ProgramThe CoE Coaching program is one component of the EmpoWER curriculum whichfocuses on the retention of the female students enrolled in the College of Engineering.Students from all disciplines in the College of Engineering are included in the coachingprogram. The majority of these

Conference Session

Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kimberly Douglas, Kansas State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

participants sketch their logo designs and the images were scanned and posted on the website. The online survey system was used to allow the participants to vote for the preferred design and the winning artist won a $100 gift certificate to a very nice local restaurant.Metrics for WMW’s ImpactWomen Mentoring Women was designed to build community and to provide support for Page 12.994.4freshmen science and engineering students. The objective of the program was and is toincrease retention rates and results show that it is successful. Figure 1 illustrates how theWomen Mentoring Women program has grown over the past five years. These numbersreflect the

Conference Session

The Impact of Curriculum on the Retention of Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Romkey, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

impersonal, oftencreating a sense of alienation among female students (Brickhouse, Lowery and Schultz8,1999) while catering to males.Kohlberg’s model of moral development is based on stages that progress from reliance onrelationships to independence (Hekman25, 1995). Kohlberg’s sequence of moral developmentwas proposed as follows (Langford36, 1995): 1. Heteronomous morality: the avoidance of breaking rules to avoid punishment and the general avoidance of physical damage to persons or property 2. Individualism, instrumental purpose and exchange: following rules to meet one’s own interests and letting others do the same 3. Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships and interpersonal conformity: living up to what

Conference Session

K-12 Programs (Co-sponsored by K-12 Division)

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lynn Fujioka, isisHawaii and Women in Technology; Sheryl Hom, isisHawaii and Women in Technology; Leslie Wilkins, Maui Economic Development Board

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

provided guidance andencouragement to participating students on one of two levels: 1) as virtual mentors, or eMentors,through isisHawaii’s One+One Program; 2) as on-site mentors to participate in campus-basedprojects and activities involving computer science or engineering applications.It is important to note that the One+One Program is not merely a system-supported emailcommunications device, but a dynamic Web-based environment designed to help mentoringpartnerships set, track and update specific goals. By leveraging technology in this way, activeprofessionals are more inclined to volunteer as mentors, since this virtual relationship can takeplace at the participant’s convenience and does not depend on a physical commitment.Program support was

Conference Session

Preventing Marginalization of Underrepresented Students on Teams

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paige Smith, University of Maryland-College Park; Linda Schmidt, University of Maryland-College Park; Patricia F. Mead; Stephanie Adams

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Janet Callahan; Amy Moll, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

femalescience and engineering faculty and describe what has led not only to successful searches butalso to unsuccessful ones. In this way changes in policies, procedures and perceptions duringfaculty recruitment are focused most effectively.IntroductionA panel discussion on Professional Development and Women Faculty was held in June 2005 atthe American Society for Engineering Education annual conference in Portland.1 Engineeringfaculty panelists, including the authors, shared how they as women navigated pathways insuccessful academic careers. During the discussion period, a young woman from the audiencedeclared, “I chose to have a family instead.” Implicit in her remarks was the presumption that thebarriers and drawbacks of academic tenure outweigh the

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mike Murphy; Cecilia Chan, Dublin Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Page 11.1456.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006Women, Engineering and Research – providing choice and balance? Women researchers in engineering remain a minority in both Higher Education and dAbstract“Research cannot reach its full potential when half the population is excluded from itsactivities”1. Women researchers in engineering remain a minority in both HigherEducation and industry in Ireland. Recent statistics of women graduating in science andengineering indicated an increase (a slow increase) but the numbers moving through tocompletion of PhD and careers in academia or industry remain quite low. Statistics onwomen in professorial and senior positions within the engineering sector also remainslow.The educated workforce

Conference Session

Women Faculty Issues and NSF's ADVANCE program

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Aultman-Hall, University of Connecticut; Britt Holmen, University of Connecticut

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

engineering leadership –as managers, executives and deans – will result in benefits to society and industry,a more female-friendly culture in undergraduate engineering programs, andgreater success at the high school levels in encouraging and retaining femalestudents in science and math. Although many organizations have women inengineering programs, female engineering managers and female university facultyare missing among the target groups for these programs. A recent Summit hostedat the University of Connecticut by the Women in Engineering LeadershipInstitute (WELI) (www.weli.eng.iastate.edu) had the following underlyingmotivations: (1) A network of diverse leaders is essential to the future of the engineering profession. The solutions for

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University; Amanda Funai, University of Michigan; Allison Interrante, Northeastern University; Sara Wadia-Fascetti, Northeastern University; Bala Maheswaran, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

futureplans. Page 11.354.2BackgroundDespite consistent effort, interest among and representation in engineering for women is stillmuch smaller than in society at large.1, 2 Once women matriculate at the university, the need forretention among women is still an important factor in increasing the number of women inengineering and technical professions.3 Research has shown that women tend to drop out ofengineering earlier and with higher GPA’s than men, suggesting a lack of support andconfidence. The crucial year appears to be the freshman year when the largest drop inengineering students is seen.4Physics has particularly been a struggling point for women

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harriet Hartman, Rowan University; Moshe Hartman, Retired

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Department of Sociology.IntroductionSince 2000, the Accrediting Board of Engineering and Technology has emphasized as one of its11 program outcomes in Criteria 3 the importance for engineering students to master “an abilityto function on multi-disciplinary teams”1 and hence the need to integrate teambuilding skills intothe undergraduate engineering curriculum. This need has arisen because of changes in theworkplace, which now develops engineers into specializations, and requires collaborationbetween specialists and with non-engineers for product planning, design, and completion.Cutting edge engineering programs integrate teambuilding skills and experience into theircurriculum (see, for example, www.foundationcoalition.org).As Rosser2 notes, there

Conference Session

1st Year Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Whitney Edmister, Virginia Tech; Amanda Martin, Virginia Tech; Bevlee Watford, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Hypatia program. Bothprograms help women in engineering to explore critical issues surrounding women's roles inpredominately male fields.For the first-year seminar course, the students are divided into two sections of thirty-threestudents. It has been found that there is more student interaction in smaller class sizes. Onesection meets on Monday, and the other section meets on Wednesday. On Thursdays, the entiregroup meets as one with the Galileo students. Galileo is the male counterpart to the first-yearHypatia program and is also offered through the CEED office. Each class is 75 minutes inlength. Topics covered in the first-year seminar course can be found in Table 1.As the course syllabus states, the course is designed to assist the students

Conference Session

International and Sustainability Perspectives and Women in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nina Dahlmann, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Sabina Jeschke, Technische Universitat Berlin, Inst. f. Mathematik; Christian Thomsen, Technische Universitat Berlin; Marc Wilke, Technische Universitat Berlin

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

: prejudice and the perceivedtechnocratic image are so deeply rooted that modifications and modernizations are often barelynoticed. Modernization of these studies should therefore be accompanied by the development ofcompletely new models for technology-oriented studies explicitly addressing the interests ofwomen, in particular concerning inter- and multidisciplinary aspects.The project GENESIS, located at Technische Universität Berlin, funded by the European SocialFund, is developing several models of co-educative, gender-sensitive model-courses within thethree major areas of natural sciences, computer sciences and engineering. These courses andtheir underlying concepts will be presented in this talk.1. Introduction: The Image of Technological