Accelerating Engagement of First-Year Students in Academics: Use of Ideas from Quality Literature David A Gray Messiah College Grantham, Pennsylvania Abstract: This paper discusses three ideas that stem from concepts in the literature of Quality that combine to promote a more rapid transition of first year engineering students from the high school environment to the academic environment of college. These three ideas are: 1) The student is the primary employee in the academic process, 2) Grade distribution interpreted in the
Accelerating Engagement of First-Year Students in Academics: Use of Ideas from Quality Literature David A Gray Messiah College Grantham, Pennsylvania Abstract: This paper discusses three ideas that stem from concepts in the literature of Quality that combine to promote a more rapid transition of first year engineering students from the high school environment to the academic environment of college. These three ideas are: 1) The student is the primary employee in the academic process, 2) Grade distribution interpreted in the
they’ve experienceda multiplicity of Targeted Breaks. In the bulk of these they can be shown engineeringapplications and then hear how, thanks to what they’re learning that current week, they’llbe able to do such things themselves. Or perhaps, at one layer removed, how the materialthey’re learning will allow them to learn item such and so, which will allow them to do whatthey’re seeing on screen.The essential point is that they’re seeing, very clearly, real engineering uses of the theory andare being told quite directly how what they’re learning enables the doing of the activities.There will be no doubt in their minds that, yes, they’ve been shown how to approach andaccomplish engineering tasks.In addition, the material in the Targeted Breaks are
is at this point that the engineering minds are challenged. Contemplating methods to improve a process from the current state to the future state can be difficult. Typical methods include brainstorming, and ‘fish-bone” analysis in a group environment. Of the many possible solutions to the problem, several would be chosen and reviewed in depth until a single solution emerges. From this unique solution, the method of implementing it can be determined and detailed. Step 6: Initiate the improvements. Finally the last step in the process; initiate the improvements. At this time the team/group can determine if the proposed solutions actually produced the desired effect and to what degree. Did the change/improvement result in
democratic society all citizens should be informed and responsible for makingdecisions that may directly influence their daily lives. Energy is one of the mostpredominant elements of modern human societies and their survival in a healthy political,economic, and social environment. Hence, the main teaching goal of ENGR 101 is topromote student participation in every aspect of the course activities, ranging from the in-class discussions to the design of the course projects. With this goal in mind, peerteachers, graduate students, engineering faculty, and learning scientists systematicallyworked together over the academic semester which was the focus of this research toemphasize a learner-centered instructional design in teaching the ENGR 101 course
To Dam Or Not To Dam: An Insight Into The Environmental Politics Of Rivers Ashraf Ghaly, Ph.D., P.E. Professor of Engineering, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308 Megan Ferry, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308ABSTRACTIn today’s highly charged climate of environmental politics, decisions about building dams are extremelyhard to make. Simply put, those who have the authority to make such decisions are damned if they damand are also damned if they don’t! There is no easy answer to many of the questions related to damconstruction. No matter what the
To Dam Or Not To Dam: An Insight Into The Environmental Politics Of Rivers Ashraf Ghaly, Ph.D., P.E. Professor of Engineering, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308 Megan Ferry, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Modern Languages, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308ABSTRACTIn today’s highly charged climate of environmental politics, decisions about building dams are extremelyhard to make. Simply put, those who have the authority to make such decisions are damned if they damand are also damned if they don’t! There is no easy answer to many of the questions related to damconstruction. No matter what the
AC 2008-1047: A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FORGRADUATE STUDENTS AT NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITYRebecca Brent, Education Designs Inc. REBECCA BRENT, Ed.D., is President of Education Designs, Inc., a consulting firm in Cary, North Carolina. Her professional interests include faculty development in the sciences and engineering, support programs for new faculty members, preparation of alternative licensure teachers, and applications of technology in the K-12 classroom. She was formerly a professor of education at East Carolina University. She is co-director of the ASEE National Effective Teaching Institute.Richard Felder, North Carolina State University RICHARD M. FELDER, Ph.D
true freshmen who enter with substantialadvanced placement (AP) or dual enrollment credit.Introduction Today, many people are opting to begin their engineering education at communitycollege and then transfer to a four-year institute. Escalation of college costs1-4 is the majormotivation driving this trend,5 but community colleges offer more than just a less expensive trekthrough the first two years. They often provide a smaller, more intimate campus, and a greaterflexibility in class scheduling, with more evening classes. They also offer an opportunity to pickup remedial math and science for those who decide to pursue engineering too late to prepare forthat path in high school.6 With a transfer in mind, taking fundamental freshman
Laboratories with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Purdue University since July 1999. He received his PhD in 1998 from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He teaches Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design, advises senior design project teams, supervises teaching assistants in several laboratories, develops computer engineering laboratory curricula, manages design automation software for instruction and research, and is chair of an ECE committee for instructional innovation. Dr. Johnson served as proceedings chair for Microelectronic Systems Education 2003, program chair for Microelectronic Systems
AC 2008-2403: PREPARING EFFECTIVELY FOR ABET ACCREDITATION:WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?Kristi Shryock, Texas A&M University Kristi J. Shryock is a Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. She received both a B.S. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M and is actively involved in the ABET process.Helen Reed, Texas A&M University Dr. Helen L. Reed is Professor and Head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. She is active in computational work in boundary-layer transition, flow control, and hypersonic flow; in unmanned and micro aerial vehicle systems; and in micro
Interactive Engagement (IE), in the sense thatstudents are engaged in both “hands-on” (sometimes) and “minds-on” (always) in the learningprocess. FCI data were collected for 10 semesters and 15 sections (2003 – 2007) with a total of292 students participating. Table 2 shows the conceptual Hake-gain for each semester. The dataclearly show that there is a substantial gain in conceptual understanding despite the fact that thestandard deviations are significant. A one-tailed t-test was performed for each semester in orderto detect differences in achievement between the night and day sections. In each case, the null Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Annual Conference Copyright
AC 2008-2203: RENEWABLE ENERGY EDUCATION OF FUTURE ARMYLEADERS AT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMYGunnar Tamm, United States Military AcademyA. Ozer Arnas, United States Military AcademyDaisie Boettner, United States Military AcademySeth Norberg, United States Military Academy Page 13.1034.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Renewable Energy Education of Future Army Leaders at the United States Military AcademyAbstractThe United States military is the world’s single largest energy consumer, with an energy budgetof over $10 billion each year. In this role, there is both a great responsibility and greatopportunity for renewable and
AC 2008-2439: HOW ACCURATE IS STUDENTS’ SELF-ASSESSMENT OFCOMPUTER SKILLS?Michael Collura, University of New HavenSamuel Daniels, University of New Haven Page 13.671.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 How Accurate is Students’ Self-Assessment of Computer Skills? AbstractSelf-evaluation by students is commonly used as a key element in program and courseassessment plans. Such instruments are intended to provide crucial feedback for programimprovement and thus play a significant role in closing our assessment loop. For many of theprogram outcomes, self-assessment by current students and graduates augments other
AC 2008-773: DATA MANAGEMENT FOR OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENTBertram Pariser, Technical Career Institute, Inc.Cyrus Meherji, Technical Career Institute, Inc. Page 13.350.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Data Management for Outcomes and AssessmentAbstractOur college faculty has been inundated with requests for data concerning Outcomes and Assessments. Often thequestion on most of the faculty minds is what is the purpose of keeping all this data? Will it improve the qualityof education that we provide? This question is academic because Middle States and Tac Abet are veryconcerned and required analyses of Outcomes and Assessments.To comply with
improvementof undergraduate education [13, 14, 15, 16]. With this in mind, we now introduce the modelthat governs and sustains the teaching and research mission of our university laboratory.The synergistic interaction between teaching and research, their drivers and end-results isalso illustrated. These drivers can be classified into those of resource needs (e.g. qualifiedpersonnel) and technology related issues. Resource needs can be further classified intothree types – (1) design and application engineers, (2) radar system integrators and man- Page 13.89.6agers, and (3) research and development scientists. These needs are met by BS, MS, andPhD graduates
Natural Sciences" and director of the MuLF Center (Multimedia Center for "New Media in Education and Research") at Berlin University of Technology (TU Berlin). Starting in 2001, her Berlin group has been a driving force behind the development of multimedia technologies at the university, implementing multimedia educational elements in the education of undergraduate students, in particular for engineering students. In May 2007, Sabina Jeschke has taken over a full professorship for "Information Technology Services" at the University of Stuttgart and is also acting as scientific and executive director (CEO) of the "Center of Information Technologies" of the University of Stuttgart
Comprehensive Design Process of Planar Mechanisms for Small and Medium-sized CompaniesEugeny Sosnovsky, Bradleigh Windsor, Yiming Rong(Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Mechanical Engineering)Abstract - A process for the design of planar SDOF mechanisms for small and medium-sized companieswas developed. The process incorporated tools from several theoretical design processes. The developeddesign process was tested using a case study, in which a self-closing mechanism for linear slides wasdesigned using the developed process. The case study proved the process to be effective, with thedesigned mechanism satisfying all requirements.1 IntroductionIn industry, companies use custom design processes specifically
AC 2008-2295: A PROBLEM-CENTERED APPROACH TO DYNAMICSGary L. Gray, Pennsylvania State University GARY L. GRAY came to Penn State in 1994 and is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993. His research interests include the mechanics of nanostructures, dynamics of mechanical systems, the application of dynamical systems theory, and engineering education.Francesco Costanzo, Pennsylvania State University FRANCESCO COSTANZO came to Penn State in 1995 and is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from
AC 2008-526: LEARNING STATICS BY STUDYING WORKED EXAMPLESMark Rossow, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Mark P. Rossow is Professor of Civil Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He received the B.S. (1964) in mathematics engineering, and M.S. (1966) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in applied mechanics from the University of Michigan. From 1973 to 1979, he was on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis. In 1979, he joined the faculty of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His research interests lie in applying computers to problems in fields such as engineering education, solid mechanics, soil mechanics, surveying, reactor safety analysis, and structural
College Press. 8. Volkema, R. J. (1983) Problem Formulation in Planning and Design, Management Science, Vol. 29, No. 6, pp. 639-652. 9. Clement, J., Lochhead, J., Monk, G. S. (1981). Translation Difficulties in Learning Mathematics. The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 88, No. 4., pp. 286-290. 10. Ryan, S. M., J. K. Jackman, R. R. Marathe, P. Antonenko, P. Kumsaikaew, D. S. Niederhauser and C. A. Ogilvie (2007). Student selection of information relevant to solving ill-structured engineering economic decision problems. Proceedings of 2007 Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, Honolulu, Hawaii. 11. Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes
AC 2008-1196: EFFECTS OF SUPPLEMENTAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIESDESIGNED TO ENGAGE DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLESKay C Dee, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Kay C Dee is an Associate Professor of Applied Biology and Biomedical Engineering, and the Founding Director of the Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She is primarily responsible for the experimental design and analyses reported in this paper. Her educational research interests include learning styles and student evaluations of teaching. She has received a number of honors for her teaching, including the opportunity to serve as the 2003 Fellow at the National Effective Teaching
AC 2008-568: DESIGNING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING CURRICULUMFOR UNDERGRADUATES: SAFE, HANDS-ON AND INEXPENSIVEINSTRUCTIONKristen Jevsevar, Vanderbilt University Ms. Jevsevar is a senior in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. She was one of four undergraduates who conducted the beta testing and developed the project in the summer of 2007. Ms. Jevsevar completed the adaptation of the undergraduate materials that were developed to the high school level.Melanie Aston, Vanderbilt University Ms. Aston is a senior in biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. He was one of four undergraduates who conducted the beta testing and developed the project in the summer of 2007
AC 2008-116: GUIDED INQUIRY LESSONS FOR INTRODUCTION TOMATERIALSElliot Douglas, University of Florida Elliot P. Douglas is Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. His education research focuses on critical thinking, active learning in the classroom, and qualitative methods for engineering education. Page 13.660.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Guided Inquiry Lessons for Introduction to MaterialsAbstractThis proposal describes a project to develop and test new classroom materials for theIntroduction to Materials course within
AC 2008-1746: INTEGRATION OF AN INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMWITH A WEB-BASED AUTHORING SYSTEM TO DEVELOP ONLINEHOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS WITH FORMATIVE FEEDBACKRobert Roselli, Vanderbilt UniversityStephen B. Gilbert, Clearsighted, Inc.Larry Howard, Vanderbilt UniversityStephen B. Blessing, University of TampaAditya Raut, Vanderbilt UniversityPuvi Pandian, Iowa State University Page 13.770.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Integration of an Intelligent Tutoring System with a Web-based Authoring System to Develop Online Homework Assignments with Formative FeedbackAbstract.A web-based authoring tool, developed using VaNTH CAPE
AC 2008-2928: EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT BOARDS FOR LABORATORYBASED EMBEDDED MICROCONTROLLER COURSES: A FORMALEVALUATION MATRIXJeffrey Richardson, Purdue University Jeffrey J. Richardson is an Assistant Professor for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Department at Purdue University where he teaches introductory and advanced embedded microcontroller courses as well as project development and management courses. At Purdue, he is active in the recruitment and retention of students, applied research and has written several conference papers related to teaching embedded microcontroller systems
, Page 13.842.10South Padre Island, Texas, March 28-30, 2007.4. Ames, C. and Ames, R., Research on Motivation in Education, Chapter 1: Wiener, B., Vol 1. Orlando:Academic Press, 1984.5. Malone, T., Towards a Theory of Instrinsically Motivating Instruction. Cognitive Science, 4, 333-369, 1981.6. Norman, D., Twelve Issues for Cognitive Science. Cognitive Science, 4, 1-32, 1980.7. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., and Cocking, R. R. (Eds.), “How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, andSchool, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1999.8. Brophy, S., and Bransford, J., “Design Methods for Instructional Modules in Bioengineering”, Proceedings ofthe 2001 American Society for Engineering Education, 2001.9. Fuentes, A.A
AC 2008-65: VIBRATIONS LABS TO HELP ACHIEVE A RESONANCE INLEARNINGPhillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Phillip Cornwell is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received his B.S degree in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1985 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989. His present interests include structural dynamics, structural health monitoring, and undergraduate engineering education. Dr. Cornwell has received an SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award in 1992 and at Rose-Hulman he has received the Dean’s Outstanding Teacher award in 2000 and the Board of Trustees Outstanding Scholar Award in
when confronted with assignments that do not have cookbook like instructions. There is little comfort in explaining to students that real engineering problems do not come with cookbook instructions. 3. Making the experimental apparatus “interesting” or “practically relevant” does not fully compensate for the student discomfort at being confronted with a task that they feel unprepared to successfully complete. 4. The post-lab surveys did not clearly tell the student to limit their answer to the inquiry- based experiments. This error in our instrument caused many students to report on their experience with both types of experiments in mind. The next version of our instrument will correct
language thatmust be spoken and interpreted. The greatest method for deeply embedding multiple notationsinto students’ minds is for them to constantly interact with each type of notation.1 Constanda, Christian. Solution Techniques for Elementary Partial Differential Equations. Boca Raton, Fl: CRCPress LLC, 2002. p. 882 Morton, K.W., and D.F. Mayers. Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations, 2nd edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005 p. 2203 Burden, Richard, and J. Douglas Faires. Numerical Analysis, 8th edition,. U.S.: Thomson:Brooks/Cole, p. 7214 Gaul, Lothar, Martin Kogl, and Marcus Wagner. Boundary Element Methods for Engineers and Scientists: An Introductory Course with Advanced Topics. Berlin Heidelberg