Conference Session

Project Management and Team Issues

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Mehria Saffi; Mariana Alvaro; Diana Mejia; David Bowen

Page 10.761.5area. Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering EducationThe appearance of these methods high on our list of those utilized in industry suggests a fewstrategies regarding time commitment and expertise level. If team skills are to be imparted tostudents, sufficient time needs to be reserved and emphasis placed on skill acquisition.Workshops focused on team skills in conjunction with specific teams and projects are indicated,along with time for mutual reflection and learning from the experience after students haveacquired a certain level of expertise. This reflection activity needs to be provided

Conference Session

Lab Experiments & Other Initiatives

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael Anderson; Lance Perez; Jerald Varner

the frequency domain and the frequency response signal. But seeing the real sign and real frequency response I think helped a lot. If nothing else, just to get a real world sense of how we actually use the equipment, so I think so.Many student responses reflected a common notion about “real world” and “seeing” indicatingthat the concrete applications inherent in the lab lessons helped clarify abstract course concepts.Another student stated that it was “interesting to see in real life what actually happens when youlow-pass-filter something”. Overall, the students consistently stated that the lab helped themunderstand course concepts. Moreover, quantitative results based upon their

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jessica Yellin; Jennifer Turns

canpotentially serve as a cost-effective way to provide additional instructional support.This paper presents a pilot offering of a peer-focused teaching training program in whichundergraduate instructors discuss, reflect, and share strategies about their teaching within thecontext of creating a teaching portfolio documenting their instructional activities. This pilotoffering also included a preliminary research study that had two major goals: to gather someearly stage user data about the initial curriculum design, and to gain insight about howundergraduate instructors think about teaching. The purpose of this research study was not toconduct an exhaustive, in-depth, generalizable investigation of these issues, but rather to take asnapshot that

Conference Session

Design and the Community

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Carol Haden; John Tester; Jerry Hatfield

weregained during the course, with a rating of 1 being “no confidence” to a rating of 5 being “veryconfident”. The final two items were rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “strongly disagree” and5 being “strongly agree.In the revised course format, students rated themselves significantly more confident in theirunderstanding of simple sensors and simple motor control. They also rated themselves moreconfident in their ability to program a control system for a simple robot and in designing systems tomeet desired needs and specifications. These results support the course revision efforts to increasetechnical content in the course. We also believe the students gained confidence in the latter categorydue to requiring their small teams to reflect on

Conference Session

International Engineering Education I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Teresa Larkin; Dan Budny

Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”are on the site visits and also while they are on their own time, they are representing theUniversity of Pittsburgh. Thus, their actions directly reflect on the university’s image and theimage of the United States. Thus, failure to maintain acceptable behavior results in failure of theparticipation component and can be grounds for failing the course and being sent home.Acceptable and unacceptable actions are described in the pre-departure sessions. To date, wehave not had the need to send anyone home, but these students are 19 years old and in all thecountries we visit the age of drinking and

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rufus Carter; Claudia Milz

. They run theclasses; maintain the lab, and grade lab reports, quizzes and orals (such as colloquia). Thus mostof the feedback to the students is provided by other students. Lecture is seen as the fastest way for new teachers to be able to present the information,and deviation from almost 100% lecture is often discouraged since new and radical methods maybe rather risky in regards to the student evaluation, a tool used to assess the teaching situation inan institution and its teachers. Poor evaluations will harm the national ranking of a department,but may often not reflect the validity of the teaching methods used, the efficacy of the facultyadministering them, or the readiness of students receiving them. This said, classroom time

Conference Session

New Approaches & Techniques in Engineering II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Reza Sanati-Mehrizy; Afsaneh Minaie

specializations are computerscience, software engineering, networking, and computer engineering. In this curriculum, thestudents matriculate into the CNS department after successfully completing the requirements of30 hours of core courses common to all computer science students. The students continue takingcore courses until the first semester of their junior year, when they begin choosing their electivesfrom different specialization areas.Digital logic design courses are fundamental core requirements in both computer engineering aswell as computer science departments, in which students get their first exposure to hardwaredesign. It is important that the content of such courses reflect the current design styles used inindustry.This paper describes a

Conference Session

Education Ideas in Software Engineering

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

James Vallino; Michael Lutz

rigorous analysis that is the cornerstone of modern engineering.Until recently, such modeling was impractical for software systems. Informal models abounded,such as those created in UML1, but rigorous models from which one could derive significantproperties were either so rudimentary or so tedious to use that it was difficult to justify theincremental benefit in other than the most critical of systems. In part this is a reflection of therelative immaturity of software engineering, but it also reflects a key distinction betweensoftware and traditional engineering: whereas the latter builds on numerical computation andcontinuous functions, software is more appropriately modeled using logic, set theory, and otheraspects of discrete mathematics. Most

Conference Session

K-12 Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Sherwood; Stacy Klein-Gardner

results are shown below.Should your teacher be concerned about theseresults?” After initial brainstorming by thestudents, the mosaic was broken down into threelegacy cycle modules. Challenge 1 focused on howthe heart beats and why. Challenge 2 focused onwhat the normal ECG measures and whatinformation is reflected on the normal ECG.Challenge 3 focused on how the ECG reflectsabnormalities of rhythm and structure. Majortopics of the typical Physics curriculum taught inthis mosaic included electric fields, dipoles, andvector projections. Major topics of the typicalAnatomy & Physiology courses that are includedin this mosaic are the following: cardiac cycle,cardiac anatomy, the heart’s intrinsic conduction system, the cardiac action potential

Conference Session

EM Skills and Real World Concepts

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rafael Landaeta; Kawintorn Pothanun; William Peterson

Certification Program as well.The ProblemIs Engineering Management an academic discipline, a position at work, or some combination ofthe two? Mechanical Engineering is an academic discipline which is often reflected in a job titleof mechanical engineer. Industrial Engineering is an academic discipline which may be reflectedin a job title of industrial engineer. The person holding the job title of industrial engineer, basedon 15 plus years in industry managing IE functions, is more likely than not to not hold anindustrial engineering degree, an engineering degree, or in many cases no degree at all. ASMEdoes not certify its members as mechanical engineers. Of all the professional societies, SMEseems to be the only one which offers certification as an

Conference Session

Architectural Engineering Education I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

William Adamson; Cluny Way; David Cowan

. The project - based method also mimics the architectural industry, where information isoften dispensed in meetings rather than in formal lectures. To create a realistic portrayal ofindustry, and to manage a unique project that will be discussed herein, job meetings were used todispense information rather than teacher-centered lectures. The discussion in this paper is based upon the use of job meetings within a particularcourse: Residential Construction. The prime purpose of this course is to produce a set ofworking drawings for a wood framed house. This paper reflects upon a unique, internationalproject developed for this course that involved three countries (Canada, the United States, andIndonesia). In an attempt to organize the

Conference Session

Interdisciplinary Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Harry Fox

. Theresearch began with a brief search of the literature for previous work at developinginterdisciplinary controls courses.Literature Search A complete review of control systems engineering education was made about ten years agoby Kheir, et al.1 Sample programs relating to control from twelve universities, seven from theUnited States and five from Europe and Asia, were surveyed for the paper. Kheir reports that afirst course in control frequently has students majoring in electrical, mechanical, aeronautical, orchemical engineering, which reflects on the interdisciplinary nature of the field. The subsequentmore advanced courses tend to be less interdisciplinary, however, since engineers from thedifferent classical disciplines approach the field of

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching I

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Donald Carpenter

accomplish.Informing students of the intended outcomes at the beginning of a course will provide not onlydirection for their learning, but also a basis for self evaluation of their progress. It can also beadvantageous for instructors to periodically review the course learning objectives with thestudents. This will aid students in determining where the instructor is and where he is going in acourse. In the end, the students will have a better understanding of course content and will likelyretain more information if they periodically reflect upon their accomplishments. Arguably, oneof the distinctions between educated individuals and those that are merely trained is thateducated individuals possess the ability to reflect on their goals, and how they have or

Conference Session

Innovative Curriculum Developments

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Renshaw

Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”3.9 Be self-motivated.Producing a good product in the IT professional world requires self-motivated individuals. Anintern needs to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. How you spend your time atwork will be reflected in the quality of product or job you produce. During the development ofthe Virtual Demonstration Garden we consistently looked for ways to improve the project.The project became our project and is a true reflection of our work. Internships provide theopportunity to display your talent to businesses before you graduate. It is a time to be self-motivated.3.10 Always look for ways to learn and

Conference Session

Engineering in High School

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Stephen Schleicher; Aubrey Hunt; Sean Brophy; Christopher Garay; Cynthia Paschal; Stacy Klein-Gardner

. Repeat this for thicknesses of 2and 4 paper towels, performing two trials for each thickness. Also average these and record allthese values in Table 2. # of Towels Trial 1 Trial 2 Average The lab can stop here, at which 1 point the students are asked some 2 reflection questions: (1) How is 4 thickness related to attenuation and Table 2. Record the amount of water than went how does this relate to photon through the paper towel here. Average the two values absorption? (2) How is this lab set- for each thickness and record that, too

Conference Session

Computers in Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Turner; Joseph Hoffbeck

, and may become discouraged. One solution to this problem is to give the students a set of tools that allow them toexperiment with the theory to verify the theory and to test their understanding of the theory. Thestudents can then become active learners engaged with the material by designing their ownexperiments, making observations, and reflecting on the results. The software package Simulink from The MathWorks, Inc. can be used to model andsimulate a variety of systems in a high-level, block diagram format without any low-levelprogramming. Many papers discuss how Simulink can be used as an effective teaching tool inareas such as electronic control systems,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 dynamic systems,11,12,13,14,15,16 mechanicalsystems

Conference Session

Emerging Trends in Engineering Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

William Moeller; Margaret Pinnell; Bernard Amadei; Angela Bielefeldt; Robyn Sandekian

reading it in atextbook. They need the opportunity to perform the task in order to truly learn. Dr. Bickmanalso stresses that reflection is a critical component to bring the experience back into the abstractlearning process. Also, partnerships are critical to long-term success of service-learning projectsin developing communities. Communities need to have a sense of project ownership; otherwisethe projects are doomed to fail. Setting expectations early will keep people from beingdisappointed when modest results are achieved. Once a community’s basic needs are met, thenthey can begin to consider ways to improve their economic situation.References1 Hargroves, Karlson C. “Integrating Sustainable Development in Engineering Education Curricula as a

Conference Session

Tricks of the Trade for Teaching II

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Bijan Sepahpour

individuals into a fully functioning, cohesivegroup.Table (1) reflects on the evolutionary process of preparing the students for their demanding tasksin their senior year. The remainder of this section briefly discusses the steps taken in formingand developing Senior Project Teams with the specific intention to participate in a national or Page 10.1443.2international collegiate competitive event. Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education Nature of the Design

Conference Session

Innovations in CE Education Poster Session

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Piechota; Shashi Nambisan

Page 10.808.9than an equal share of the work, and lower grades to students who did less than an equal share of Proceeding of the 2005 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society of Engineering Educationthe work. Figure 7 is the peer rating evaluation form used for the design project in CEE 413.Table 1 summarizes the results from nine (9) student groups. The results of the evaluations wereused by the instructor to adjust the student grades. It is noteworthy that in all groups gradeadjustments were needed. A maximum of 3% adjustment was used to avoid excessiveadjustments that may not reflect the true contribution of the students

Conference Session

Math and K-12-Freshman Transitions

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Fengfeng Zhou

-calculus andcalculus, so they felt frustrated with regard to derivatives, these results should be regarded asvery positive. In addition, every student felt the activities were challenging, and they were foundto be quite engaged in carrying out their investigations. Figure 2 Students concentrating on their work Page 10.743.5Although students’ reflections should be heeded, they need to be heeded with analysis. Toinvestigate students’ attitudes about learning, a third activity was implemented following the twoProceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition

Conference Session

Potpourri Design

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul King; Joel Barnett; Donald Kinser; Andrew Dozier

Society for Engineering Education”7. Students were asked to reflect on the course and to give suggestions for improvementsas well as criticisms. Their responses included:Suggestions for improvement/negative comments: • make the class less boring (6 responses) • make the class more interactive (3) • homework was annoying (3) • make it more “real world” (2) • engage the class more (2) • have more non-engineering speakers/broaden topics (2) • use a single screen for displays (1) • move this to the junior year (1) • don’t do group activities (1) • have only guests, not our professors (1) • have food (1) • link the speakers and topics (1) • instead of homework, require one job or

Conference Session

New Frontiers in Manufacturing Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Beverly Davis; Hugh Jack

. Moreover, we must reviseour programs to reflect the new reality of manufacturing as a global enterprise where ourgraduates are likely to design products locally to be produced in another part of theworld.IntroductionMany Manufacturing Engineering and Technology programs in this country are seeing analarming decline in enrollments. There are twenty-five ABET accredited manufacturingengineering programs, however there are only approximately twenty still activelyrecruiting students. In most cases, if not all, the programs shrinking as the numbers ofincoming students dwindle. For many Americans, the word “outsourcing” and"globalization" conjures up images of manufacturing job decline [5]. Airwaves are abuzzof late with talk about the loss of

Conference Session

ERM Potpourri

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Jefferey Froyd

future learning can be fostered by confronting students with meaningful, [realistic, challenging] … problems that are representative of tasks they will encounter in the future”8. De Corte Principle #5. Fifth, learning activities should induce “students to articulate and to reflect on their cognitive and motivational processes during learning and problem solving. Indeed, to become productive and self-regulated users of their cognitive and motivational potentials, students should be aware of them, and believe that they are worthwhile and useful”8.Extensive work on a pedagogical approach for open-ended problems referred to as ModelEliciting Activities (MEA) has generated six principles in developing a MEA14-16

Conference Session

Capstone/Design Projects: Mechanical ET

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rebecca Blust; David Myszka

the project. Most questions the teams ask arethe same. However, a few questions reflect different approaches, understanding andresponses to the problem. At this point, the competition begins. Now the advisors mustcommunicate a few ground rules to the project participants.Ethical DilemmasThe word competition is often associated with negative business environments.Therefore, if we wanted teams to perform ethically and respectfully, we had tocommunicate our expectations to the teams and their leadership. Students perform andact to the expectations set by their leadership. As advisors, our responsibility to set thestage to ensure this happens. We conduct separate meetings prior to the initial clientmeetings to discuss ethical dilemmas that are

Conference Session

Course and Program Assessment

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Sohail Anwar

classroom setting.The on-line learning environment facilitates a learner-centered approach to learning, withthe learner as an active participant in the learning process. The approach requires that theteachers help learners to direct their own learning in ways that suit their individuallearning styles.This manuscript describes development and implementation of a Web CT-based coursewhich requires the engineering technology students at Excelsior College to develop on-line portfolios reflecting technical competencies acquired by them during their academicstudies. The course is titled “Integrated Technology Assessment” (ITA). It is a capstoneexperience for students documenting their ability to integrate knowledge from technologyand general education

Conference Session

Knowing Students: Diversity & Retention

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Shane Brown

taking abilities, senseof belonging and connectedness with others, achievement, and educational aspirations [32]. Faculty can increase student interaction in the classroom through active learningexercises. Active learning exercises encourage discourse among students in the classroom. Therole of student discourse in the classroom has been investigated extensively. Jones argues thatwithin the framework of interactive teaching exists several teaching components and strategiesthat have been shown to positively impact learning of mathematics, including higher-orderquestioning, student presentation and discussion of mathematical ideas, and reflective discourse[33] . In addition, each of these strategies needs to be conducted in a

Conference Session

Assessment & Quality; Accreditation in Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

John Rowe

and therefore the new scheme focused on other areas of feedback to students.Educationally, the nearer in time feedback is to the learning it relates to, the better and allowingapriori access to developed assessment criteria helps to foster a reflective approach amongststudents, as previously described. For staff, the use of assessment grids as feedback sheets isefficient and effective in supporting the specific requirement for the timely return of markedwork and the rapid provision of feedback.From an ontological viewpoint, publication of assessment criteria prior to assessment placesparticular demands on the assessment criteria themselves. Although as mentioned earlier theILOs from a programme of study are aimed at a lay audience this does

Conference Session

Inservice Teacher Engineering Education

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Erin Cejka; Chris Rogers

engagingteachers in these activities in a professional development environment, as they would engagetheir students, and providing them with opportunities for reflection, all these concerns can belessened26,27.What preconceptions do teachers hold about engineering, design, and technology? McRobbie,Stein, and Ginns found that though some preservice teachers realized there is a process involvedin creating technology, they had naïve perceptions about the engineering design process. Theyheld vague notions of experimental procedures and research, but they made only very narrowconnections between the process and the production of technology. However, by engaging thepreservice teachers in an authentic design project, it was found that these preconceptions

Conference Session

Undergraduate Retention Activities

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Laura Kramer

approach is methodologicallyunwieldy, however; it more typical that researchers “hold constant” one or more of theorganizational levels.33 In the interviews, engineering faculty reflected on the student experience, and on theeveryday realities of lives as faculty members. I asked about approaches to common pedagogicalissues, and possible links between these practices and the retention of women and students ofcolor. Interviews also explored views of group differences, as they might pertain to theacademic experience, and ideas about "climate" and its relation (if any) to retention patterns,particularly in underrepresented groups. We discussed attitudes toward various schools ofthought on curriculum and curricular change. The

Conference Session

Women Faculty & the NSF ADVANCE Program

Collection

2005 Annual Conference

Authors

Rachelle Heller; H. David Snyder; Catherine Mavriplis; Charlene Sorensen

expectation for the three-day event and 2) a life or career goal for the next fiveyears. Some of the responses are shared with the whole group in order to, again, buildcommunity and to show participants what their peers are thinking in a non-threateningway. This type of socialization rarely occurs in academic departments. Participants areasked to review their responses at the end of the workshop and indicate whether theirexpectations were met or not.A short reflective email survey was sent out to participants six months after theworkshop. Participants are asked to recall a single most memorable event of theworkshop. They are also asked to relate any specific event in their career that made use ofmaterials or information gained at the workshop. We