reform to impact graduate education: a case studyAbstractFor more than a decade, American industries have complained that the skills of engineersentering the workforce are not sufficient to meet the challenges of a high-performance workplace[1]. In addition, ABET has recently changed the student outcomes required for engineeringgraduates to reflect many of the skills lacking in undergraduate training [2]. Additionally,national studies suggest the preparation of US graduate students is too narrowly focused onacademic research skills, at the expense of professional skills such as communication, teamwork,mentoring, and leadership [3]. In response to these studies, many departments are trying toradically change their
do your research methods employed tostudy engineering education align with your social justice values? In what ways could you examine orimprove upon your research methods to reflect a critical intersectional frame? How might that framebe relevant to your work and change-making in the field of engineering education? Participants willleave the workshop with an increased awareness of how to do engineering education research thatreflects social justice values, paired with concrete methodological ideas to run with. 1 Aligning your Research Methods with your Social Justice Values Plan for the workshop
number of students. Wehere report on the inaugural year of our Clinical Scholars program, its impact on participants,and lessons learned on how to broaden its impact to non-participating students via our BMEcurriculum.Scholar selectionApplicants to the clinical immersion program must be either rising 3rd or rising 4th yearbiomedical engineering students. As a result, by the time they enter the clinical environment allparticipants will have completed one semester of quantitative human physiology, and a course incell and molecular biology for engineers. A holistic yet targeted admissions process helps toensure the diversity of the Clinical Scholar cohorts. Finalists are selected based on their responseto several reflective questions rather than on
their model using different mathematical andcomputational pathways. The Planning the Model step occurs largely prior to instruction in thecourse, giving the students full opportunity to explore different ways to solve the problem.Second is Building the Model, where students actually create one of their modeling solutionpathways individually. During the Building the Model step, students program the model anddocument their thinking process through a final report and in-code comments. In the third step,Evaluating the Model, students meet with their team and other teams to compare solutions inorder to identify key differences in how the problem could be solved, documenting theevaluation process. Finally in the Reflecting on the Model phase students
, soteaching staff are dealing with larger workload [6], [8]. Consequently, they spend less timereflecting about curriculum and teaching practices [9], [10], and they resist to fulfillingadditional assessment requirements at a program level [4]. Besides lacking opportunities to reflect, most faculty lack opportunities to collectand analyze meaningful learning data due to the complexity of assessing student learningoutcomes on a program level [11]. To deal with this challenging but essential task,teaching staff rely on both quantitative (e.g., quiz results, test scores, mid-term students’satisfaction and end-of term evaluations) and qualitative data (e.g., open-ended responsesto end of term comments from students and colleagues) to identify
scientific theories ofgender/sex, race, disability, and sexuality influence one another. Throughout the course,students are asked to reflect on who gets to be a scientist or engineer, who defines whichquestions researchers ask and which problems engineers solve, who benefits from thesesolutions, and what role social justice plays in science and engineering practice.Throughout the course, we explore these inter-related questions: 1) How do our cultural ideas about race, gender, disability and sexuality influence science/engineering knowledge and practice? 2) On the other hand, how does our science/engineering practice influence our cultural ideas about race, gender, disability and sexuality? 3) How can we use science and engineering
thatproblem. They may instantly consider application of a particular formula and then look for clueswithin the available information that matches the variables in the formula. To be effectiveproblem-solvers, however, students must learn to construct accurate and appropriateunderstandings and knowledge about the relationships between task characteristics (i.e., purpose,structure, and components of tasks) and associated processing demands. This personalknowledge about the problem-solving task at hand is known as metacognitive knowledge abouttask (MKT) [13]. Ideally, the MKT helps students enact more effective self-regulation,particularly task interpretation processes. Students’ engagement on a task as a whole, includingtheir active and reflective
others would also consider your recovery successful/unsuccessful? Why or why not? g. Has your event affected your future behavior? Based on their class section, participants were either given the “unsuccessful” recovery or“successful” recovery first, followed by the other option. This difference was implemented tomitigate the potential effects of the first failure type reflection on the answers for the other (i.e. anegative reflection could influence the next positive reflection). How an individual responds tofailure can give a good amount of information pertaining to the general trends of saidindividual’s motivation. For analysis of this qualitative data we used emergent thematic analysisto code and subsequently identify thematic
students, one instructor, and fiveteaching assistants, with course activities spread across multiple lecture, lab, and recitationsections meeting at different places in time and space.This research paper explores the consequences of this scaling for the students enrolled in thecourse, as well as for the instructors, teaching assistants, and facilities involved in courseimplementation. A mixed-methods approach featuring quantitative data including studentacademic performance metrics, demographic characteristics, and pre- and post-survey resultsrelated to attitudes and motivations to persist in engineering are combined with qualitative datafrom individual student interviews and textual responses to biweekly reflection questions tounderstand how the
particular skill after taking theworkshop and to provide feedback about the workshops, the workshop instructors, and their skilldevelopment in their engineering projects course. The data in the surveys is analyzed alongsidequalitative data from individual student reflections and focus groups to determine theeffectiveness of the workshops and how students report subsequently using those skills. Thegoals of this study are to 1) identify if and how students are using the skills developed duringskill-building workshops, 2) determine if and how those skill-building workshops affect studentsself-efficacy levels in engineering, and 3) generate suggestions for improvement to theworkshops to make them more equitable experiences for all students.BackgroundThe
project was LED Dexterity Challenge. A survey wasconducted to collect data right after students completed each workshop to evaluate the content ofthe workshop. 169 girl scouts members participated in the STEM program and took the survey inthe past two years. The survey shows 95% students enjoyed Electrical Engineering workshopactivity while 98% of the students enjoyed Computer Engineering. Students reflected that theywould like to participate more STEM related activities in the future.The program represents part of our university’s ongoing efforts to interest young women inSTEM and is part of the Girl Scouts' “fun with purpose” K-12 curriculum. That initiativeintroduces scouts of every age to STEM to inspire them to embrace and celebrate
References for Study Studies literature. 3: Study Selection Define screening process. Eligible References Coding the literature and Literature Data for 4: Charting the Data record vital information. Analysis 5: Summarize & Report Condense & organize all Identify current literature Results information collected into a report. trends & potential gaps.During the initial phase of the literature review it is crucial to be critically reflective of the process,re-visiting prior stages to ensure that the final review meets the desired scope of
, it had28 students and two instructors which reflects the high student:teacher ratio reflective ofUSCGA and the hands-on nature of this course. Thus is was somewhat of a hybrid lec-ture/lab (active learning) configuration. The first 15 − 20 minutes were often devoted to abrief lecture to introduce that day’s topic and then the students were provided an in-classexercise to complete for the remainder of the period. Once completed, students were encouraged to help others but were able to leave if theyneeded/chose to. The students were required to bring their own laptops to class each meeting(fully charged). A preference for open-source resources existed as outlined below. At theend of each class, students were required to submit evidence of
embeddisciplines as distinct knowledge bases [7] and communities of practice [8].Figure 1 illustrates the intertwined evolution of a profession’s preparation and practice [9]. AsFigure 1 suggests, the enactment of a professional discipline is guided both by ethics andstandards of practice; these activities define competencies, job roles, and ultimately career paths.Professional societies codify these elements by defining ethics and competencies, but also byFigure 1. Model of a Professional Discipline [6]reflecting professional performance. Professional societies span another boundary:governmental. By promoting and facilitating certification and licensure, professional societieslegitimize and allow external bodies to monitor and enforce professional
, noticing and reflecting on the results, and possibly getting feedbackfrom someone else” (Felder & Brent, 2016, p.3). We understand that the assumption underlyingthe rubric will not hold in all cases in all courses. We reason, however, that the target EMbehaviors are performance-based and therefore can only be internalized through practice.Therefore, weighting skill development over lecture is appropriate. We reason that assessmentincreases impact. Gibbs (1999) argues that “assessment is the most powerful lever teachers haveto influence the way students respond to courses and behave as learners” (p. 41). Grades raisethe stakes of student learning, particularly when assessment is preceded by skill development,which increases reinforcement of
6- Failure Rate of 1st Year Students in GEE 103Failure reflects students that do not pass in assignments and who have frequent absencesfrom class. The lack of commitment in such a survey class shows general lack of effortsince the performance criteria is relatively low.discussion and future studyThe development of a Pre-Engineering program at the University of Maine began in 2014 togive academically under-prepared students interested in engineering an opportunity to enterengineering study through another entry point. Many of these students don’t have theacademic skill set to satisfy the entry requirements to enter the College of Engineering butmeet the general requirements for admission to the University of Maine. These students areaccepted
widely disseminated to educational institutions with limitedresources.Many analytical techniques can be implemented with imaging and optical detection devices suchas smartphones, low-cost digital cameras and USB ‘microscopes’, desktop scanners, andmodified CD players. For example, the CCD camera of a smartphone can be used as an opticaldetector in absorption, reflection, scattering, and fluorescence measurements, albeit for somemethods requiring also an optical source (e.g., and LED) and optical filters. Color cameras candiscriminate wavelengths, thus allowing spectroscopic measurements. These pervasivetechnologies are highly familiar and accessible to students, and offer additional features such asconnectivity, data processing and archiving
foreign students is diverse,thus, insight around these needs is a starting point for developing communication programs thatsuccessfully provide value.Literature ReviewFew studies specifically examine the communication needs of graduate engineering students oridentify resources and training efforts that address these needs. Nonetheless, academics andpractitioners alike seem to agree that engineering graduate students are faced withcommunication challenges reflective of the complexity of the material that they mustdisseminate, and thus would benefit from supportive efforts to hone their skills.Many guides and textbooks are available to help teach the international student population inU.S. universities in general, but less is specifically geared to
student engagementsurvey also asked students to reflect on what they learned in the course, and asked them to reflecton how the course could be improved.Skills assessmentStudent performance was evaluated through a pre and post exam in mathematics, several quizzesand a final exam in the course, and through assignments and presentations. In addition, studentsself-evaluated themselves at the beginning and end of the course on a list of skills that werecovered. Students rated their confidence in each skill on a 4-point scale at the beginning and endof the course. The average score for skills in each category is shown in Figure 1 for both the2017 and 2018 cohort of students. At the beginning of the course, students felt the mostconfident in chemistry
capstone courses. • To provide a mechanism that requires students to work on keeping their portfolios up-to- date.The second innovation of the new curriculum is the portfolio requirement, in which the studentdemonstrates that he or she has attained the student learning outcomes (SLOs) of the program.For their portfolios, students are required to: ● Showcase their strongest work from a variety of classes, both in and outside of their major. ● Discuss the thought and effort that went into creating the work shown. ● Include written reflections that discuss the challenges faced, strengths and weaknesses, and what was learned from creating the work.Pedagogical advantages of portfolios have been discussed in the literature. The
anomalous sentences, novel metaphors, and conventional metaphors compared withliteral sentences. These findings were one of the first to contribute to a growing body of evidencesuggesting that the retrieval of stored conceptual knowledge about conventional and novelmetaphorical expressions involves greater cognitive effort (as reflected by more negative-goingN400 amplitudes) compared with literal sentences, yet not as much as compared with anomaloussentences (for similar findings, see [18, 22-24]).In most psycholinguistic experiments that explore phrase or sentence comprehension,participants are asked to make judgments about whether or not a word–pair or a sentence makessense. Coming back to our previous example, when presented with a sentence “the
political systems, which is combined with logistical issues and a lackof political learning across disciplines. Voting is not the only measure of student civicengagement, but it is fundamental and, now, can be objectively measured as a basis for lookingat civic engagement in higher education.This is reflected in the document A Crucible Moment (2012), issued by a National Task Force onCivic Learning and Democratic Engagement and containing a call to action warning that the stateof U.S. democracy was declining, and colleges and universities were failing to embraceeducating for democracy as an educational priority. Others have warned that higher education’scivic purpose has yet to be realized (Saltmarsh and Hartley, 2011). Part of the problem
[11]. Specifically, immersive virtual reality (IVR) provides an effective way of 3generating a first-person experience not limited by the constraints of reality, possessing theability to essentially create the impossible in a potentially transformative way. Virtualtechnologies are transforming our external experiences by focusing on the high level of personalefficacy and self-reflectiveness generated by their sense of presence and emotional engagement[12].The power of IVR is its ability to enable a person to change their body representation, i.e.gender, race, age, ability status, etc., in a process known as virtual embodiment. In IVR, whenthe
critical thinking activities. LCs first cameto our institution, City Tech, through a Title V Grant in 2000 and were adopted by the college in2005. The academic performance of students participating in LCs at City Tech reflects nationaltrends. When compared to the general population at the College, students in LC earn higherGPAs, have higher retention rates, and demonstrate greater satisfaction.In order to complement the community-building efforts within learning community classrooms,we, a cohort of faculty leaders and administrators of City Tech’s First Year LearningCommunities, a program offered through the college’s Office of First Year Programs, developed“Our Stories” digital writing project which extends the student’s network beyond the
and Self-management Relaxation exercise Learning misconceptions Teaching Practice Small Group Activity Course Learning Teaching Practice Individual Reflection Outcomes followed by review Bloom’s Taxonomy Teaching Practice Small Group Activity Effective Teaching Teaching Practice -- Course Design -Syllabus Course Planning -- Course Design – Session Course Planning Individual Reflection Plans, Good Questions followed by review Instructional Design Learning Theory -- Framework Active Learning Methods Active Learning Activity design in small
waterproofing materials on their hydrophobic testing sheet.3. Students will devise two ways to waterproof their chosen material. Students must develop a written plan for both methods. Students must modify and label at least two approaches Material A and Material B.4. Students will engineer and modify their 2 surfaces.5. Teams will then observe and diagram the drop profile/contact angle of a drop of water on their modified surface. a. Place a drop of water on the surface. b. Look at the drop from the side and sketch the drop profile or your worksheet. *Additional steps on full online versionWrap UpStudents will reflect upon their designs and test results. They will choose a spokesperson to communicate their results and futureimprovements
Outcome Feature and GradebookCanvas allows for real-time assessment of students’ progress towards mastery of a skill. Afterinputting the standards and associated descriptions as outcomes we created lab report rubricsusing these outcomes. All standards are scored on a scale from one to five where one equates to“novice” and five is “distinguished”. We set a level of “3” out of “5” as reflecting sufficientmastery for each skill. Then these scores are given various weightings to produce a final reportscore which directly comprises a percentage of the final grade. The four reports comprise 7.5%,10%, 12.5%, and 15% of the final grade respectively. Building the rubric with outcomesallowed for quick visual feedback regarding progression towards mastery
within people as connections are made toother knowledge. The academic theory of service-learning has been used for both types ofconnections. Service-learning connects people through the “service” that is done and currentexperiences to previous ones through reflection upon that service[1], [2]. It is through theseconnections that service-learning can be used to make STEM education less superficial.Oftentimes, STEM educators want to provide cross-cutting experiences and higher levels ofcognition—primarily because the nature of today’s world requires solutions to complexproblems. Instead of just remembering or understanding facts, experiences should lead toanalysis, evaluation, and creation. Connections between academic learners and practitioners
are supported by communities that focus on developing software to solve societal challenges and improve the human condition. These projects provide rich opportunities for computing students to practice and learn both technical and professional skills. In addition, the transparency of HFOSS projects provides students with an opportunity to create a portfolio of their contributions to real- world projects. This paper reports on three different undergraduate courses where students learned by participation in an HFOSS project. The paper provides an overview of each class and description of results. Student reflective writing about their class experiences was used to gather unstructured observations about the student experience and learning. This
engineeringdesign process. For example, Wendell, Wright, and Paugh [4] describe the reflective decision-making practices observed in 2nd through 5th grade classrooms as students completed designactivities within the Engineering is Elementary curricula. Previous research on the middleschool curriculum described in this paper [5] utilizes longitudinal interview data to documentprogressions in how individual students describe their work with the stages of the engineeringdesign process over the course of several exposures to the curriculum.Researchers have also investigated how integrated STEM curricula promote the transfer ofknowledge from one STEM subject or context to another, ultimately enhancing student learning[6], [7], [8]. Because STEM integration