Conference Session

The Impact of Curriculum on the Retention of Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Patricia Backer, San Jose State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

the students continualfeedback both on their writing and the content.Each research paper is completed in three parts (see Figure 4). First, the students submit theirreferences to the instructor. Next, the students bring a first draft of their papers to class where thestudents conduct a peer review. The instructor uses the peer review rubric designed by theWriting Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison6. Each student completes a peer reviewof at least two other student’s papers. The instructor also participates in the peer review and the Page 12.1377.5instructor gives feedback to all students in the class. Finally, the students

Conference Session

Perspectives for Women Faculty

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Birmingham, Grove City College

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Page 12.1014.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Leaving Tenure Behind: Lessons LearnedIntroductionThe goal of many Ph.D. engineering graduates who aspire to an academic position is to land atenure-track job at a large research university. Certainly, this was my goal – I had been trained ata large engineering research institution (ERI), and was unaware of that the majority ofengineering colleges in the U.S. were smaller, undergraduate-focused engineering teachinginstitutions (ETI). Indeed, when I was considering whether or not to pursue an academic careerafter graduating, I was encouraged by my Ph.D. advisor and student peers to apply only to thetop-ranked research universities. I also assumed that a tenure

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

equality in the study of engineering. It is suggested [10] that women’s learning isbetter supported in an environment that is different from those in traditional education and from thosethat support men’s learning. The ‘chilly climate’ in engineering classrooms has been identified as themajor reason that leads to women’s inferior experiences to their male peers [9]. Through addressingsome commonly identified issues for female students in male dominated courses, Lewis [21]elaborates what is required for technical education to be gender inclusive. She pointed out three Page 12.779.2aspects that have been neglected in the construction of

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Krause, Arizona State University; Dale Baker, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

knowledge and skills from one to another. Recommendationsare made for team-based classroom activities that would promote positive engineering self-efficacy.IntroductionThe disproportionately low representation of female practitioners in the field of engineering isstill an issue1. Engineering is one of the few fields where women representation is as low aseleven percent2. Recent studies show that women are more likely to drop out of engineeringbecause of the social and affective factors and the environment that they perceive asunwelcoming3,4. In addition, female students have lower confidence in their engineering skillscompared to their male peers, causing women to believe that they cannot do engineering5, 6.There is some evidence that self-efficacy

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

students in general and underrepresented groups in particular. Project RISE(Retention Initiative in Science and Engineering) initiated campus Learning Centers in gatewaycourses. Through this program, various centers have been developed and staffed since the 1990s.There are viable learning centers in Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering (Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials). In addition,the university supports the MTU Writing Center, Modern Language Learning Lab, Center forComputer-Assisted Language Instruction, and tutoring services. The Learning Centers areutilized in two ways. First, students who need help with homework or course concepts can obtainassistance on an as-needed basis from

Conference Session

Perspectives for Women Faculty

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Sheridan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Eve Fine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jessica Winchell, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Christine Pribbenow, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Molly Carnes, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jo Handelsman, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Wisconsin-Madison designed and implemented training for chairs of facultyhiring committees. Training began in 2004 and continues to the present. The workshopsare implemented using a variety of formats, but the common elements that make themsuccessful include: • Peer Teaching: Incorporating faculty from the unit to deliver short presentations and serve as discussion facilitators; • Active Learning: Most time is spent in discussion and a sharing of practices from different departments; presentation is kept to a minimum; • Unconscious Biases & Assumptions: Participants are introduced to the social psychological literature on unconscious biases and assumptions, and learn how these tendencies might impact the hiring process

Conference Session

Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lari Garrison, University of Washington; Reed Stevens, University of Washington; Portia Sabin, University of Washington; Andrew Jocuns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

and technical writing, oh wait, wait, and English 131. And after that, you can apply to aerospace engineering program. …Uh, the process, I believe you have to pick up an application, write an essay, send in a transcript and, I’m not quite sure what else, probably recommendations from teachers. (Jane freshman year)Students were familiar with the stated “nuts and bolts” of the admission. They would have tosubmit to apply to their majors, an application, an essay, their transcripts and possibly letters ofrecommendation. Knowing what they had to submit however was different from knowing howthese submitted documents would be used to judge them. Furthermore, knowing what to submitwas not enough to alleviate the uncertainty

Conference Session

An International Perspective

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University; Bianca Bernstein, Arizona State University; Nancy Felipe Russo, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

assist women in resisting or coping with situations thatmight interfere with their completing their doctoral studies. Given differences in thedirection of the proportions of domestic and international women attaining engineeringdegrees over time, understanding how the experiences of these two groups of womenmight differ became of particular interest to us.III. Focus Groups as an Initial Research ApproachWe sought to understand the many critical incidents or interactions with faculty, peers,family members, and others that in aggregate may lead to experiencing encouragement ordiscouragement. The best way to learn these details was to speak to the studentsthemselves and to ask them what techniques had either worked or failed in

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yong Zeng, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; John R. Duncan, Clemson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

supported by the findings of the study whereby persisters reported fewerrestraining forces while switchers reported fewer driving forces. The two driving forces that arecommon among persisters and switchers are formal support programs and peer supportprograms. Strengthening these two programs would increase the driving forces for all students.These findings will assist faculty, advisers, and program planners to better meet the needs ofwomen in engineering programs and likely help to reduce the attrition rates of women inengineering.Keywords: women engineering persistence environment motivation force-fieldWhile there is a general shortage of engineers, the need is acute in the under-represented areassuch as women and minorities. According to the

Conference Session

Perceptions of Women's Success in STEM

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Metz, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

in the sciences and quantitative disciplines. Page 12.993.2 Continuity: Access to institutional and programmatic opportunities, material resources and guidance that support advancement to increasingly complex content in the sciences and quantitative disciplines.While the level of each characteristic can vary, all are required for an individual to pursue anengineering career. Girls graduate from high school with skills and knowledge equivalent tothose of their male peers. However, substantially fewer girls continue in engineering and thephysical sciences which suggests distinct differences in engagement

Conference Session

Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Helene Finger, California Polytechnic State University; Tracy Van Houten, University of Southern California; Barbara Curry, California Polytechnic State University; Jennifer Harris, United Parcel Service; Malia Francisco, United Parcel Service; Betsy Sale, United Parcel Service

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

Access (including obtaining current business cards from companies atcareer fairs), writing thank you notes to companies who support SWE, and compiling andtransmitting the corporate brochure to all companies in the database during the summer.The Academic Director contacts companies and individuals that are interested in sponsoring aSWE scholarship, creates and distributes scholarship applications to SWE members, oversees theselection of scholarship recipients, solicits nominations, selects, and distributes quarterly the“Most Active SWE Member” scholarship, solicits nominations and selects the “Most SupportiveProfessor” Award, maintains the test bank, and organizes study groups and peer tutoring formembers.There are two Evening with Industry (EWI

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

student, Mandy Plumley, has been active in MentorNet forfour years. She appreciated the informality of communicating with the mentor; i.e., not puttingon a professional demeanor that she perceived a face-to-face contact would include; therefore, “Ican be more myself.” Especially during her first two years of school when she did not have aprofessor who she knew well enough to ask personal questions, Plumley valued the support andinfluence of her mentors. At times that meant help with homework, resume writing, andinterpersonal situations. She valued hearing about the reasons behind her mentors’ decisions tochange positions or to go back to school. Her first three mentors felt like “an experienced peer”;females who were flexible with communicating

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

mathematics and computing, particularly by authors writing from outsideengineering such as Hacker17, did not take account of the role and contexts in whichmathematics and computing were used. It is suggested as more helpful to look forexplanations in linking concepts of separate and connected knowing18, 19with the disciplines.The much quoted Belenky et al.19 hypothesised that more women than men may be“connected knowers” (where the relationship between the self and the knowledge is important– being able to link topics to personal experience) and that more men than women operated as“separate knowers”. Separate knowing, they suggested, was more like the traditional,objective, rule-seeking ways of evaluating, proving or disproving truth – reflected in

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

STEM disciplines. Her other interests include, Native American Self-Determination, Native Peoples, and Native Americans and Higher Education. Ms. Swimmer is a member of the Navajo Nation.Karen Jarratt-Ziemski, Ft. Lewis College Karen Jarratt-Ziemski received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is currently a visiting faculty member of the American Indian Studies Program at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Dr. Jarratt-Ziemski is also the advisor to the Fort Lewis Chapter of AISES, and writes and works on many American Indian issues, including American Indian Self-Determination and Environmental Justice and Native Peoples. Dr. Jarratt-Ziemski is also