the previous year and plans to dedicate more than six hours per week to FLL.Power Ratings by Type of Team and Percent Minority Page 22.1195.5Figure 3 shows the average power ratings of different types of teams in 2010. Not surprisingly,youth organization-based teams had the lowest power ratings, and independent teams had thehighest. Teams with the highest percent minority representation had the lowest power rating(Figure 4). These data held true for 2009 teams as well.Use of Power Rating to Assign Teams to Qualifying CompetitionsThe basic reason to assign power ratings was to give
. Page 22.1711.14A respect for disciplines outside engineering and interdisciplinary connections is furtherencouraged by the requirement that all HMC students plan a coherent program of study ingeneral education with the assistance of a humanities and social science advisor. The goal of thisrequirement, according to HMC’s 2003 Self Study, is to help students develop “breadth in aseries of courses from different [humanities and social sciences] disciplines and depth in aconcentration of courses in a single discipline [outside their field of study]” (p. 11).Cumulatively, the humanities and social sciences requirements comprise about one-third of aHMC student’s course work.At MIT, like Harvey Mudd, the college-wide general education curriculum also
planning must be used to find the best places for these types of opportunities to beintroduced into the curriculum to enhance the educational experience of the student withoutjeopardizing any of the existing university constraints.Efforts are being made to find commonalities in certain courses across all 3 programs to expandopportunities for cross disciplinary activities. For example, all 3 programs have a 2 credit hourcourse titled Freshman Experience. In this course, they are introduced to the engineeringprofession, taught study skills, computer skills, and engage in various project based activities tospark their creative engineering minds. Up until the Fall 2010 semester, each of the 3 programshad their own Freshman Experience course so all of
Center assists faculty in aligning the service projectwith the learning objectives of the class; maximizing learning opportunities; including residentinput in the planning, implemention and evaluation of the project; developing outcome measures;and documenting, analyzing and interpreting outcome data.Renewable Energy Engineering Class Service Learning Project DetailsThe students go through several milestones throughout the semester for the Renewable Energyservice learning project. First, the students are assigned to a renewable energy technology (suchas solar cells or wind power). Students are surveyed on their preferences and teams are assignedthat balance the student’s choice while also diversifying student majors and level(undergraduate
student suggestions were addressable andwhich were not. University teaching involves a lot of time spent planning for classes alone. Thementoring helped to break me out of this vacuum and solicit and receive constructive feedbackfrom a seasoned professional based on actual student concerns. As someone new to theprofession this was appreciated, especially as not everything can or should be changed based onwhat students write on the cards.When presenting the index card procedure to my classes, I solicit feedback specifically on whathelps and what hinders their learning, and not just what they do or do not like. I have found thatsome mechanisms that I use in my course are not liked per se, but are acknowledged to help
management is, therefore of paramount importance tomembers of a college-level ROV team. Time management is also, unfortunately, a struggle formost college students (hence the popularity of “all nighters”) so learning and practicing good Page 22.1480.4time management is one of the great benefits of ROV team participation. The first challenge isfor the students to realistically plan their work on the vehicle, this is most difficult for new teamswhere few may have hands-on building experience let alone experience with ROVs. The advisorcan help at this stage by encouraging the students to be realistic about the time they can devote tothe project
severalthe benefits of hands-on activities in promoting subprojects and areas as illustrated by thelearning in science courses relative to the traditional organizational chart in Figure 1.lecture-only approach at the elementary, middle andhigh school level [1][2][3][4]. Studies at theuniversity level have also suggested improvedlearning outcomes in engineering courses whenhands-on activities are a part of the lesson plan[5][6]. Moreover, these outcomes are in agreementwith what current theories of learning would predict[7]. Project-based learning involving hands-onactivities has been introduced into engineeringcourses to improve student motivation andengagement. A challenge has been to identifyprojects at the freshman level
, while male students were more often presenting moretechnical material. This observation led to the development of a research plan to assess whetherthis gender difference did indeed exist in student presentation groups, and what implications thismay have on active participation.Research MethodologyThere were two primary components to this research investigation. The first involved asystematic investigation of the roles adopted by students as a function of students’ gender andthe gender composition of their presentation group in the videotaped presentations. A codingscheme was developed for analysis of the archived videotapes of the group project presentations.Two independent judges were trained on the coding scheme and each judge evaluated each
“attribution of selected characteristics to an institution(i.e., to its practitioners, methods, stock of knowledge, values, and work organization) forpurposes of constructing a social boundary that distinguishes some intellectual activities asoutside that boundary.Faculty members expressed a clear idea about the types of intellectual and collaborative “work”done within their own department in order to contribute to the goals or expansion of their“disciplinary space”. A full professor described the strategic planning that his department hadengaged, and used in a first year class that works at the same time theory, modeling andlaboratory experiences by means of specific design projects: “At the beginning it was difficult to believe that students
underutilized as a wellspringfor STEM workforce development planning. Page 22.1209.2 While it is useful to test SCCT using nomothetic, quantitative methods, it is valuable tocomplement such research with idiographic, qualitative methods capable of elaborating specificself and environmental percepts that could inform educational interventions. For example, priorwork on SCCT has established that social supports and barriers generally have been linked topersistence in engineering majors (largely indirectly, through their relation to self-efficacy), butthe mostly nomothetic research on this issue has focused on global aspects of supports andbarriers
Review in an Engineering Design Course,” IEEE Professional Communication Society, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 264 – 279, September 2008. [4] Eschenback, E. A., “Improving Technical Writing via Web-Based Peer Review of Final Reports,” Proceedings, ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, pp. F3A1-5, 2001. [5] Brufee, K. A. “The Brooklyn Plan: Attaining Intellectual Growth through Peer-Group Tutoring,” Liberal Education vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 447-468, December 1978. [6] Smith, M.K., “'Jerome S. Bruner and the Process of Education,” The Encyclopedia of Informal Education, 2002. Available: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm [7] Harden, R.M., “What is a Spiral Curriculum?,” Medical Teacher, vol. 21, no 2, pp. 141 – 143, 1999. [8
amultidisciplinary team versus an interdisciplinary team. Faculty also will need to providethe structure and space in which this reflection can occur.Additional data collection about the first junior-year course is planned by the evaluationteam. We hope this additional evaluation work will show us what individual studentslearned from the experience and the course shaped the TLP students’ perceptions ofmultiscale design.Transporting the Technology Leaders Program to Other InstitutionsWith many of the major components of the TLP implemented at the University of theBlue Ridge, more effort has shifted towards transporting the program to other institutions.Transporting the program has been a significant goal since the program’s initialconception. Early
interface more accessible to a broader audience.DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL FOR TRAINING VIGNETTESThe use of critical incident analysisThe development of training vignettes is a central strategy for this project. Our plan was to use acritical incident methodology to identify a wide variety of team behavior to include in thevignettes. Originally developed by Flanagan,1 the critical incident technique gathers specific,behaviorally focused descriptions of work or other activities. Bownas & Bernardin2 assert that “agood critical incident has four characteristics: it is specific, focuses on observable behaviorsexhibited on the job, describes the context in which the behavior occurred, and indicates theconsequences of the behavior.” Thus, a good critical
Page 22.1567.7his or her own computer. Some students met virtually through the chat program or in personoutside of class to finish assignments or plan for upcoming tasks. Most of the students self-identified as prospective biomedical engineering majors. Preliminary results include the pre- and post-interviews that students completed on the firstand last days of their virtual internship. These interviews took the form of short-answer surveyquestions completed online. Our preliminary results with Nephrotex suggest that: Students made engineering content learning gains from the pre to the post interview. Students were able to solve engineering design problems better during the post interview. Most students enjoyed the
tutor.” During each semester of the mentoring implementation, mentors invariably took on the role oftutors to satisfy student needs. Most documentation of these sessions alludes to more technicaldiscussions and review of concepts through concept mapping and other instructional strategies. Verylittle is actually said about any psycho-social issues (e.g. the difficulty of working and being in school,future career plans, life lessons, etc.) discussed during the meetings. It is unclear whether this situationrepresents a true challenge to the program or merely reflects the reality of what students in the programneed. It is equally unclear from the mentor documents whether this tutoring mode was more congruentwith the mentors’ range of experience
beendemonstrated with reasonable levels of success13. It is largely beyond the scope of this paper tointroduce active learning strategies, but the work of Prince13 provides a nice summary. The pointwill be made here, based on the author’s experiences, that the active learning strategies chosenshould be natural, considering the course content and the personalities of the students and theinstructor. If the teaching method is “forced”, in other words if an active learning exercise isbeing used just for the sake of using an active learning exercise, its effectiveness is lost.The instructor’s experience suggests that often a well-planned, effectively-delivered, “activelecture” can be just as effective as any “active learning strategy.” When the course content
not important enough to merit much attention to featureslike improved accuracy and precision. However, in complex measurements, when the stakesbecome greater, the selection of measurement equipment and techniques and the interpretation ofmeasured data can demand considerable attention. CBI for MECE 3320 teaches students theimportance of measurements in these complex situations. The technique helps students developan experimental test plan and use the measurement system so that the engineer can easilyinterpret the measured data and be confident in its meaning. The study by Pandy et al. [1] whichshowed that the CBI approach, as compared to a traditional approach, increased the students’conceptual knowledge and the ability to transfer the
State University. Through collaboration andcooperative arrangements with other departments and colleges, and flexibility in the program,science and engineering students at The Pennsylvania State University with special interests inenergy are able to obtain dual or concurrent degrees, minors, options or general education inenergy engineering. The plans for this program were initiated in Fall 2005 and the major was approved to startin Fall 2007. The program is consistent with the University 2006 Energy Task Force report andthe recommendation for the University to “develop an exciting new undergraduate and graduatecurriculum in energy”. The undergraduate program in energy engineering is designed to reflectthe growing impact and demand for
possible non-persisters and createan opportunity for intervention. Finding these differences in engineering technology learners,although subtle, will assist the school in planning similar interventions. The intermediation “canensure that students engage in substantive conversations and relevant experiences to inform theirdecisions to stay or move away from engineering. These conversations and experiences mightcome from, for example, advising, courses, or extra-curricular involvement.” (p. 391)Research by James-Byrnes6 suggested non-intellective factors influence the student’s academicsuccess. Their purpose was to “identify variables that can predict the academic success offreshman engineering technology students at Ferris State University in Big
NXT Kits. The students present theirprojects the last day of the program. They share their results with the other students.Additional benefits of the group projects included improving team working skills andpublic speaking ability. Page 25.358.62. Career ComponentThe program manager, Dr. Barbara Christie, plans a Career Day during SECOP. Theguest speakers work for engineering -based organizations and all are African Americanand Latino leaders in mechanical, civil and electrical engineering fields. Several fieldtrips to different science and engineering-based companies exposed students to differentcareer opportunities. In the past several years the
%. Page 25.362.8 3. In their self evaluations, the students ranked remote consequences as the least important among all the performance indices. The experimental group’s improvement over the control group was 11%. The same improvement (11%) between the two groups was noted by the results of the instructor’s grading on the assignments.The authors plan to extend this strategy to two other courses over the next three years. Themethod presented in this study may be used at other institutions in their courses with appropriatemodifications in order to prepare the students for using creativity to enhance their technologyliteracy.Bibliography1. Mumford, M. D. (2003). Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity
any of them? What time of year do you want the flowers to bloom? How much tenderloving care are you planning to spend? How hardy does the variety have to be? Do you wantannual plants or perennials?If you choose vegetables, what kinds do you like to eat? How much tender, loving care are youplanning to spend? Do you want to use herbicides and pesticides, or do you want to gardenorganically?Although the list of questions is long, people do get through it and plant gardens. The following is alist of things that are necessary for the successful production of vegetables or flowers: (1) fertileground, (2) sunshine, (3) tools, (4) weed control, and (5) water and fertilizer. Many people plantand grow successful gardens every year.As with gardening
experience and the pilot runof the course experience are both available, with some assessment data, the next course offeringcan be improved significantly. The designs of devices up to the mask designs will be sent formanufacture and used as actual samples for students to investigate. Time in the cleanroom tomanufacture devices would be planned for possible expansion outside lab time. Knowledge gapsinherent with students are more known now and can be treated within the course, through pre-requisites of the course, or by collaborating with instructors of common courses which precedethis course but are common to most students in engineering.Bibliography[1] L. McAfee et al., "MEMS and Microsystems Courses with National and International Dissemination
robotics and renewable-energy systems control via TCP/IP andBluetooth.Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation (Grant No.NSF-DUE-CCLI- 0618665) for its financial support of the project.Bibliography1. V.B. Sunil & S.S. Pande 2003, ”WebRobot: Internet based robotic assembly planning system,”Computers in Industry 54 (2004) 191–207.2. Melinda F. Robinette, Associate Member, IEEE & Rachid Manseur, Member IEEE, ”ROBOT-DRAW,an Internet-Based Visualization Tool for Robotics Education,”IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 44. No. 1, Feb 2001.3. Angeles, Jorge, “Fundamentals of Robotic Mechanical Systems: Theory, Methods and Algorithms,”Springer-Verleg, New York
University, Calumet Joseph Edward Cody is a graduate of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power School for Enlisted Personnel and a veteran of the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Submarine force. He is currently employed as a Electrical Com- munications Specialist with Novaspect, Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill., and specializes in industrial electrical communications and protocols. Cody remains engaged at Purdue University, Calumet, as a student and plans on staying educationally active for as long as possible Page 25.397.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 Design of a Mobile Robot and use of
design and planning, and computer simulation and OR. He renovated the indus- trial and manufacturing engineering curriculum with introduction of CAD/CAM/CAE and 3D modeling applications to manufacturing systems, and has taught Boeing engineers on the subjects for 12 years. He was a recipient of a NSF/MRI grant on developing a supply-chain manufacturing system and a NSF re- search grant on developing an integrated design-aid tool for flexible manufacturing systems. He authored a book on CAD on Unigraphics: Engineering Design in Computer Integrated Design and Manufacturing. His papers appear in numerous refereed journals, books, and proceedings. In 2004, he organized the CAD/CAM/CAE student design contest in the PLM
complete any market research on what was expected of atechnical short course delivered via internet. This course was originally recorded by having theinstructor deliver the class in Lawrence in front of a classroom. The plan was to present theslides and exercises with the recorded audio; however, some video was recorded, too. The slideswith exercises were processed step-by-step to match the associated audio recordings. There wasno animation, and long lecture segments were delivered using RealPlayer media with asupporting website. The instructor, while working from home due to his health conditions,always interacted with the students by e-mails. There was a discussion board with threads forseparate topics; however attendees rarely participated in a
virtual HPC cluster • Hands-on experience in virtualization, cloud computing technologies, and networking • Introduction to MPI (message passing interface) 3 , high performance LINPACK (HPL) 21 , and HPC system schedulers like TORQUE 18 • Students exposed to an IaaS tool via OpenNebula • Students gain experience in planning, designing, building, and benchmarking deployed VMs within each student’s virtual HPC cluster6 Our ApproachEach student was assigned 16 recycled computer lab desktop computers and a recycled monitorfrom Purdue University’s IT department, a commodity Gigabit Ethernet network switch, a fewcarts to store the computers and monitor on, and a number of other peripherals and cablesrequired to use the equipment. Each
improvement is used toenhance the quality of skills each graduate possesses and the pathways in which he or sheacquires these skills. However, continuous improvement is not a procedure that can be conductedad hoc. Rather, it requires careful planning, documentation, review, and adjustment to makeprogress toward the desired improvement. Furthermore, many institution and program oversight groups have placed an emphasis onhaving a continuous improvement system in place to as part of accreditation. For example,ABET, Inc. which is the principal accreditation authority of engineering programs has requiredthat evidence of continuous improvement is a mandatory criterion for accreditation1. To demonstrate the improvement process institutions
sections focusing onthe engineering design process, engineering content, gender differences, science content,reflective and active learning, students’ level of frustration, and the amount of direct supportfrom the teacher (see Table 2) for sample items.Table 2. Sample Items from SEcLO (Pilot Version)Category Sample Items1) Engineering design a) Students identified a problemprocess b) Students shared and developed a plan c) Students created and tested their chosen design d) Students communicated results of their design and testing e) Students improved their design f) Students retested their design2