Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pat Pyke, Boise State University; Leandra Aburusa-Lete, Boise State University; Christa Budinoff, Visioneering LLC; Janet Callahan; Michael Luque, Boise School District; Cheryl Schrader, Boise State University; Michelle Taylor, Micron Technology, Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Education. She taught in several schools before starting employment with Page 11.1448.1 Micron Technology as a Training Specialist and is now in the K-12 outreach.© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Where the Girls Are: Applying an Integrated Marketing Approach to Attract Girls into Engineering ProgramsAbstractThe steady national decline in women engineering students persists despite a plethora ofprograms and camps at engineering colleges around the country aimed at attracting girls intoengineering and technical fields.1 Discussions about this decline often suggest that influentialcultural

Conference Session

Knowing Our Students I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christina Vogt, National Academy of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

have an efficient but not necessarily supportive function.5 If we Page 11.1265.2consider the alternative to traditional college lecture halls, collaborative learning research hashighlighted the distance between faculty and students in institutions of higher education: thefragmentation of curriculum, the detached and impersonal lecture style and routinized tests.8These foster a system that reinforces students who are passive learners, yet simultaneouslyambitious and competitive toward their classmates. It is this competitive classroom atmospherewhich has often left women feeling more alienated.2,3,4 Unfortunately, these dynamics constitutethe

Conference Session

Using Teams, Seminars & Research Opportunities for Retention

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Hailey, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

freshmen and in Fall semester 2005 only femalestudents selected the course. The seminar was one credit hour, met once a week for an hour, andwas not required for any engineering major. Course goals were to: 1. provide a variety of speakers who share their knowledge and experience about the many career-options available in engineering, 2. provide information about internships from career placement and planning specialists, 3. discuss the ways in which women integrate their professional and personal lives, 4. provide information and strategies for the academic and interpersonal skills needed to succeed in engineering, 5. develop a community of learners among peers with similar academic and career goals.After completing

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan DeWaters, Clarkson University; Susan Powers, Clarkson University; Mary Graham, Clarkson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

show math’s relevance to their lives and community.[26]High quality after-school, weekend, and summer programs have been shown to strengtheneducation and career aspirations.[27] However, scheduling and recruiting constraints often limitparticipant enrollment. Programs are most effective when implemented within the schoolsystem, preferable integrated into the existing curriculum.[2, 15] Similarly, programs thatintroduce girls to science, math, and engineering through experiencing the creative, community-oriented aspects of engineering problem solving, within a supportive, team-based environment,will give them a more positive and inviting impression of engineering studies and careers.This paper provides a descriptive analysis of an outreach

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen White, Purdue University; Mara Wasburn, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

programs include a substantial website component. TheBEST initiative15 argues that while websites may have some beneficial effects, they wouldbenefit more from increased curricular integration of science, technology, and math. To beeffective, web-based materials must direct the target audience to the resources, or alternatively,exhibit a strong interest in the subject in order to seek them out.16The Gender & Science Digital Library (GSDL) project has addressed the needs of teachersseeking to provide an “interactive collection of high-quality, gender-equitable science,technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) resources for K-12, higher education(community college and university), women's studies, teacher preparation programs, andinformal

Conference Session

K-12 Programs for Recruiting Women

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ann Beheler, Collin County Community College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

: Basicbooks.2. Blum, L., & Frieze, C. (2005). The evolving culture of computing. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 26(1): 99-109.3. Boudria, T. (2002). Implementing a project-based technology program for high school women. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 26(9): 709-722.4. Chirot5. Denner, J., Werner, L., Bean, S., & Campe, S. (2001). The girls creating games program. A Journal of Women Studies, 26(1): 90-99.6. Durkheim, E. (1973; orig. 1925). Moral education. New York: The Free Press.7. Harrell, P., Walker, M., Hildreth, B., & Tyler-Wood, T. (2004). Mentoring BUGS: an integrated science and technology curriculum. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 23(4), 367

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heidi Steinhauer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach; Lisa Davids, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach; Darris White, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

workforce.To promote more female participation in the engineering curriculum, the Embry RiddleMechanical Engineering program has created a student project where undergraduatewomen design and build an off-road race vehicle for the SAE Mini-Baja competition2.The project is integrated into the Mechanical Engineering curriculum and is funded by agenerous grant from The Boeing Company. The project has increased womenparticipation in the project by 10 times compared to last year.This project has three goals. The first goal is to increase retention of women in thecurriculum. Potential women students turn away from engineering for a variety ofreasons, which are typically related to their perception of the engineering field3. Manyfemale students view

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

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

appeal to women andbecause of its place in the freshman engineering curriculum. Desired results are a largeparticipation by freshman women engineering students, a qualitative increase in confidence (bothacademically and in engineering in general), a quantitative increase in grades, and, over the longrun, an increase in the retention rate for women in engineering at Northeastern University.Freshman Physics ClassesEngineering students at Northeastern take their first physics class in the spring semester of theirfreshman year, covering the elements of Newtonian physics. This class involves a twice-weeklylecture held in a large lecture hall, a weekly small ILS session where students take quizzes andwork on homework, two weekly homework assignments

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Mary Cordova-Wentling, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Cristina Camacho, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

curriculum istaught and interpersonal climate (Anderson1;2; Anderson-Rowland6, 1997; Brainard & Carlin16,1998; Liu & Blanc38, 1996).Most of the studies that have concentrated on the recruitment and retention of women inengineering, have studied the factors that affect the educational journey of students at thebeginning, and/or in the middle of their college years. There is very little systemic empiricalresearch that focuses on students’ who are about to graduate from an engineering department. Itis important to study the experiences of students who have completed or are about to obtain anengineering degree because, since they have recently gone through situations that femalestudents experience by being a minority in engineering, they can