Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kevin Scoles; Harriet Millan

integrated experiencein engineering, science and humanities. Two of the courses must be within the student’s major,while the third can be in any discipline. Presently, there are over 200 WI classes at Drexel.Undergraduates, representing all majors are trained and paid peer tutors who work with 10-15students in a specific writing intensive class. Peer tutors read drafts of student writing. One ofthe hallmarks of the program is that it is not housed in the English Department. Because of itslocation within the University’s Honors Program, the program’s dual mission is to create aculture of writing at Drexel.The ECE Department has decided to exceed the minimum of two writing intensive courseswithin the CE and EE degree programs by changing four lab and

Conference Session

Innovations in CE Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott Hamilton

negative aspects of group dynamics being developed in teams.An observation of homework submissions indicated the process was meeting with more successthan the previous semester. Some students clearly continued to like the idea and appreciated theincentive to check their work for accuracy. The author also observed much more documentationof help received during the review process, but he noted that not everyone had yet bought intothe approach. The author observed a few cases of students who would take the 5% cut for nothaving peer review done at all. He also noted that there were cases of students writing notes tothe effect, “My work did not match my reviewer’s work, but I could not find the error.” Closerinspection of these comments usually found

Conference Session

ChE Department and Faculty Issues

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Valerie Young

education.It includes both discipline-specific resources (e.g., demonstrations, tutorials, on-line experiments,course notes) and more general resources for educational research and improvement (e.g.,guidelines for writing and assessing student learning outcomes). Although other databases exist,MERLOT is unusual because it includes a system for peer review. Editorial boards assignobjects already in the database to reviewers with relevant technical expertise. Reviewers’comments on technical content, ease of use, and educational potential are then displayed in thedatabase along with the link to the learning object as well as suggestions for how to incorporatethe learning object into a course. The MERLOT engineering editorial board is actively

Conference Session

Architectural Engineering Education II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph Betz

students develop complex theory papers starting with "low-stakes" writing activities that leads to "high-stakes" formal papers. This process incorporates acontinuous improvement plan that uses several types of peer review. A campus-wide committee,referred to as the Writing in the Discipline Committee, also reviews and approves thepedagogical writing process used in the course. Student survey data is presented to measurestudent attitudes and perceptions. Sample grades are presented to show trends. Analysis,recommendations and conclusions are given. The goal here is to present a useful case study forfaculty interested in teaching a writing intensive or WID course.BackgroundThere are two important background points that should be made. One, what type

Conference Session

Innovation for ChE Student Learning

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

James Newell

Impact of Structured Writing and Awareness of Cognition on Effective Teaming James Newell1, Kevin Dahm1, Roberta Harvey2, and Heidi Newell1 1 Department of Chemical Engineering and 2College of Communications Rowan University Glassboro, NJ 08028AbstractMetacognition is the awareness and understanding by a student of his or her own learningown skills, performance, preferences, and barriers. This paper describes a pilot scaleeffort to develop metacognition in engineering teams at Rowan University, throughstructured writing, and the use of the Learning Combination Inventory (LCI). Thetheoretical basis for the LCI is the

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rufus Carter; Lisa F. Bullard; Douglas G. Schmucker; Misty Loughry; Richard Felder; Matthew Ohland; Richard Layton; Cynthia Finelli

Session 1526 Developing a Peer Evaluation Instrument that is Simple, Reliable, and Valid Matthew W. Ohland, Misty L. Loughry, Rufus L. Carter, Lisa G. Bullard, Richard M. Felder, Cynthia J. Finelli, Richard A. Layton, and Douglas G. Schmucker General Engineering, Management, Clemson University / Institutional Research and Assessment, Marymount University / Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University / Center for Research on Learning and Teaching-North, University of Michigan / Mechanical Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology / Civil Engineering, Western Kentucky

Conference Session

Faculty Development II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rebecca Bates

Constructing an Interdisciplinary Peer Mentoring Network for First Year Faculty Rebecca A. Bates Minnesota State University, MankatoAbstractThe success of a first year faculty member depends on many things, both internal (inherent to theperson) and external. Given a record of success, i.e., many years of schooling and completion ofa Ph.D., the internal factors contributing to success are already available to most facultymembers. The external factors that contributed to this earlier success may be difficult toduplicate at the new home institution. Along with information about mentoring in general, thispaper presents one method of building

Conference Session

Improving Multidisciplinary Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Teresa Mayes; John Bennett

ABET Best Practices: Results from Interviews with 27 Peer Institutions Terry S. Mayes, John K. Bennett College of Engineering and Applied Science University of Colorado at BoulderAbstractABET2000 criteria permit a variety of approaches to assessment. While this flexibility allowseach institution the freedom to develop practices best suited to its particular circumstances, suchflexibility can also create doubt whether the assessment practices employed will be found to besatisfactory by ABET evaluators. As the College of Engineering & Applied Science at CU-Boulder prepares for a fall 2005 ABET General

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Askew; Cari-Sue Wilmot; Colley Hodges; Richard Bannerot

time in the fall 2004. The paper will describethe development of the course-specific workshops and the establishment of a “draft review”process utilizing a peer Writing Consultant. Student surveys were used to assess theeffectiveness of the new process. The student response was positive, but a few students resistedthe implementation of a significant writing component into a “design” class. Only minormodifications were implemented as the intervention continues for this spring semester.IntroductionSince 1980 the BSME degree at the University of Houston (UH) has required a sophomoredesign class. Initially, the course covered primarily the design process and design methodology.A semester-long design, fabricate and test team-project was the major

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Joanne Lax; Amy Van Epps

students consult are IEEE-affiliated, we useIEEE style in-text citations and reference list.20 However, I caution the students that in futurewriting they will need to determine the appropriate style by consulting the requirements of thepublication or conference to which they are submitting a paper.Writing process pedagogy is used as a way of encouraging the students to write multiple drafts oftheir papers in the seminar. Showing students that writing is as much a process as lab research isa means of eradicating the typical “bingeing” behavior of writing papers the night before they aredue.18 To this end, a rough draft of the literature review is due in class a week before the finaldue date. The rough draft is exchanged with a peer reviewer

Conference Session

Using IT to Enhance Design Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Ritsuko Izuhara; Hideo Miyata; Toshiyuki Yamamoto; Kazuya Takemata; Masakatsu Matsuishi

Session 1625 A Peer-to-Peer and Instructor-to-Students Interactive Learning Process in Engineering Design Courses Enhanced by an e-Learning System Masakatsu Matsuishi, Dr. of Engineering Matsuishi@neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp Kazuya Takemata, Dr. of Engineering Takemata@ neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp Toshiyuki Yamamoto, Ph.D. caitosh@ neptune.kanazawa-it.ac.jp Division of Engineering Design

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Beverlee Kissick; Alysia Starkey; Jung Oh; Judith Collins

section guide simplifies thenumber of mouse-clicks required to bring students to databases in the programs served by thecourse. The technical writing section guide includes: general tips, types of research tools,additional tools to try, search tips, Salina resources, and main campus resources.Helpful hints are provided in red type. The hints are derived from the content of the inservicevisit, the activities modeled during the visit, and are helpful in performing the final assignment.In addition, the selection of databases are described, guiding students to select the mostappropriate for the task they have been assigned.The section guides include deep Internet databases subscribed to by the library (peer-reviewed,discipline-specific journal

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Lisa McNair; Ben Miller; Judith Norback

curriculum model combines several approaches. The humanities-driventechnical communication instruction teaches narrative professional writing skills within ascience, technology, and culture context. The computer science department teaches generalanalytical skills for adapting to ever-changing demands of a dynamic field. The National ScienceFoundation (NSF)-sponsored approach combines these two and provides discipline-specificwriting instruction based on actual workforce reports and real-world email protocol. Thisinterdisciplinary pilot is created for Computer Science students, but aims to provide a model forvarious disciplines that any individual instructor can incorporate into his or her own curricula.This model of curriculum development is based

Conference Session

Useful Assessment in Materials Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kendree Sampson; Darin Ridgway; Valerie Young

that occur outside of class and before the material is covered in class. Classroomtime is devoted to some combination of lecture, student presentations, general discussionbetween the students and instructor, peer review, critiques of sample responses from previousyears, and practice quizzes. Writing assignments are checked immediately before or duringclass; but the evaluation of homework is limited to whether or not a good faith effort was made.The instructors do not provide a “correct” answer. Instead, they moderate and guide classdiscussions and provide their own critique of the answers as needed. Closed-book examquestions are chosen from the homework questions so students know ahead of time whatmaterial will be tested on the exams. All of

Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Holt; Keith Williamson; Paul Kauffmann; Tarek Abdel-Salam

Page 10.486.7students are better writers than their DE peers. These results contradict classroom scores using Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Educationfinal exam and laboratory report grades for a writing intensive Fluids Mechanics Laboratorycourse. Using this classroom data as a criterion, DE students out performed their on-campuspeers. Despite these mixed findings, at nearly 65 percent pass rates for at both Engineering (non-DE) and Engineering Technology (DE majority) students imply a need for more contextualwriting in both programs. Based upon this study, several questions deserve future

Conference Session

Course and Curriculum Innovations in ECE

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Martha Ostheimer

enoughto “win” a good grade. To address this finding, students over the last few years have beenrequired to submit outlines and drafts of their documents, which are then peer- and self-evaluated. We would argue that students’ ability to critically evaluate the quality of their peers’writing, as well as their own writing utilizing sound criteria, will also better prepare them toobjectively assess their own work product. Students are also being encouraged to “buy into” theassessment process throughout the senior capstone classes by being given responsibility fordeveloping appropriate criteria for assessing each assignment. The ability to develop thisknowledge requires that students clearly understand the goals of the assessment process.The outcome

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Elsa Villa; Louis Everett

Session 1526 Increasing Success in a Dynamics Course through Multi-Intelligence Methods and Peer Facilitation Louis J. Everett, Elsa Q. Villa College of Engineering The University of Texas at El Paso1.0 AbstractThe University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) located in a multicultural region of far west Texas has astudent population which is more than 70% Hispanic. UTEP is one of the largest producers ofHispanic engineers in the United States and prides itself in providing access to an exceptionalquality

Conference Session

ELD Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kiem-Dung Ta; Helen Clements; Kevin Drees

Creating a Library Instruction Session for a Technical Writing Course Composed of Engineering and Non-Engineering Students Kevin P. Drees, Kiem-Dung Ta, and Helen Peeler Clements Oklahoma State UniversityAbstractThis paper provides a framework of ideas for librarians and technical writing instructorsinterested in developing library instruction programs to enhance students’ performance intechnical writing courses. A new library instruction program for ENGL 3323: Technical Writingaddresses a concern of engineering faculty that engineering students, the largest studentpopulation enrolled in this course, are not locating the high quality resources needed to round outthe

Conference Session

Engineering Education Research and Assessment I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Frederick Berry; Patricia Carlson

language in the learning process all place added emphasis on writing intoday’s engineering curricula. However, most instructors of engineering design believethemselves to be hard-pressed to incorporate additional writing assignments into courses alreadyfilled with content materials. Also, most engineering design instructors may not have either thetime or the expertise to provide commentary on student written work. Thus, the formativeassessment for these assignments, so critical to learning, doesn’t emerge, and the experience maydevolve into “busy work” in the eyes of the student. We report on early results from an NSF-funded1 study using Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) – a web-delivered, collaborative learningenvironment for writing assignments – in

Conference Session

Faculty Development II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Amy Miller; Maher Murad; Robert Martinazzi; Andrew Rose

write a conference paper and get it accepted.After attending their first ASEE national conference, each new faculty member realizedmany ideas and opportunities for preparing papers of interest to the different divisions ofASEE.At UPJ, untenured faculty members have collaborated on education related papers andhave reviewed abstracts for each other. Peers have suggested which division might bemost appropriate for a given paper. There also has been collaboration with otheruntenured faculty outside of the engineering technology division.Professional development in the technical disciplines may be more difficult for untenuredfaculty at small teaching schools. Research possibilities are limited due to the heavyteaching loads and the lack of graduate

Conference Session

K-8 Engineering & Access

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Kevin Staszowski

The Effects of Peer Interactions on the Development of Technological Fluency in an Early-Childhood, Robotic Learning Environment Kevin J. Staszowski, Marina Bers Tufts University/Tufts UniversityIntroduction Students interact in a classroom environment in a daily basis – interactingwith teachers, classmates, and even with technology. The effects that these peer interactionswithin the educational setting have been extensively studied in the field of education over thepast 20 years and have been shown to improve students self-esteem and attitude towards theeducational process.7 Beyond these general improvements in

Conference Session

Architectural Engineering Education I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Sze-wai Chan; Ming-yin Chan

surveyor of abuilding team. It is hoped that they could learn from the process. Each group was required tosubmit a set of documents prepared by the group at the end of the academic year forassessment. The documents included a written report, meeting minutes, diary and drawings.An oral presentation was assessed by a group of tutors. The project carried a highly weightedfactor for their final year curriculum and lasted for an academic year. The assessmentcomponents include writing skills, operational skills, presentation skill, and professionalcompetence. The difficulty of assessment is not only quantity of work, but also quality ofwork. Literature review has suggested a number of approaches. Common methods areweighting factor, pool of marks, peer

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Constance Kampf; Dave Kmiec

– Why is it a problem? – Why should it be solved now? – Why is it compelling (cost/benefit)? • Link to your solution – How will your solution contribute to solving the problem? – How will people be affected by the outcomes of your solution?In the context of a memo, these components are rather granular—sentence and paragraph level.Beyond providing structural and informative points of consideration for students in theproduction of documents, the problem-solution memo scheme gives the writing consultant avocabulary for discussing the components of the students’ memos during the review and revisephase and gives students a vocabulary for discussion during cooperative writing and peer

Conference Session

Scholarship in Engineering Technology

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Nancy Denton; Sarah Leach

© 2005, American Society for Engineering Education” 24% e. other __________ 6. Based on your experience with ASEE, the peer review process has impacted the scholarly aspects of the Annual Conference Proceedings 24% a. by substantially raising the quality of the writing 57% b. by raising the quality of the writing somewhat 10% c. in no significant way d. in a negative way. (Explain _______) 7. At your institution, how do you feel ASEE Conference Proceedings papers are perceived, with respect to their role in scholarly endeavor? 5% a. conference proceedings papers do not imply scholarship, especially not

Conference Session

Documenting Success

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Mickelson

university grant that funds much of our learning community initiative.Notably, our assessment program is approved through our university human subjectscommittee. Following the discussion of our assessment methods, we will present thefindings from our research regarding the student participants.Assessment MethodsBoth quantitative and qualitative assessment methods have been used for data collection.Specifically, we have gathered information through student records (retention, gradepoint, academic progress), student and peer mentor surveys, student and peer mentorfocus groups, and student writing samples.‡ First-year composition courses are frequently taught by graduate students or by adjunct staff, which has

Conference Session

Potpourri Design

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Janice Miller-Young

beginning of the students’ careers in engineering: • Both the instructor and peers are resources in developing critical thinking skills, as students receive guidance in evaluating their peers’ and their own work. • The problem (in this case, preparing instructions) is used as the point of entry into the subject of successful teamwork and written communication, and thus provides increased motivation for sustained learning. • The activity challenges students to think critically on their own first, then provides appropriate support by facilitating discussions on technical writing and effective instructions. • The problem is activity-centered rather than text and lecture centered. • Students are

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rassa Rassai; Mensah Patrick; Jean-Pierre Bayard; Valerie Young; Joseph Tront; Edward Perry

useful tools for new (and old) engineering educators. First,MERLOT provides links to free, public domain, online learning objects for engineeringcoursework in a variety of disciplines. These learning objects include course notes, diagrams,tutorial programs, demonstration and interactive applets, and even online mini-courses. Alongwith the link to the learning object, MERLOT provides a description of the content and, often,sample assignments demonstrating methods for incorporating it into courses. Second, MERLOTprovides links to free, public domain, online pedagogical tools such as learning preferencessurveys and guidance on constructing rubrics, writing course outcomes, and planning learningactivities at all levels from Knowledge and Application

Conference Session

Improving Statics Instruction

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jennifer Kadlowec; Dexter Whittinghill; John Chen

project, our hypothesis is thatsuch learning is facilitated in an active, peer-assisted environment in which the students areprovided frequent and rapid feedback of their state of learning.Background and MotivationBransford et al.1 point out that “effective learning is its durability and transferability,” whichmeans having a long-term impact on how it influences other kinds of learning or its applicationin other contexts. Furthermore, they state: “Learning must be guided by generalized principles(concepts) that are widely applicable. Knowledge learned at the level of rote memorization ofrules and algorithms inhibit transfer and limit durability. Learners are helped in their independentlearning attempts if they have conceptual knowledge

Conference Session

Developments in Chem Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Joseph Holles

retained, additional topics and assignments havebeen included to more completely cover the graduate school experience. A typical classschedule is shown in Table 1.Table 1: Typical Class ScheduleWeek Class Topic Week Class Topic1 1 Welcome/Introduction 8 1 Paper Writing 2 Library 2 Paper Writing 3 Why Grad School? 3 Paper Writing2 1 Holiday 9 1 Ethics 2 Communications Basics 2 Ethics 3 No Class 3 Ethics3 1 Presentations 10

Conference Session

Project Management and Team Issues

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jerry Westbrook

the following scores.Attribute 1, Goals - 1Attribute 2, Support - 1Attribute 3, Peer Support - 1Attribute 4, Access to Technology - 3Attribute 5, Support of “Godfathers” - 1Success Environment Measure – 7Conclusion: low probability for success.Potential StrategiesIf the use of the assessment instrument reveals a score of less than 15, as in the cases above,significant changes are called for.Most successful unit managers will use the strategy of doing the same things with greater effort.Work longer hours. Write reports to prove worth of the program. Show money generated,budget outlays. Try to change the minds of higher administration. This type of strategy seldomworks but it is usually the first one tried. Strategies that better address the