be an effective leader. Through reflection and self-assessment, the Gordon Candidates begin to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, preferred styles, biases and potential blind spots. Customized development plans and regular mentoring sessions serve to increase the Candidates’ ability to perceive and effectively deal with the range of personalities they face within diverse teams. For example, conflicts created by the contrasting personal styles of individual team members can be mitigated with appropriate empathy, coaching and direction. Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes to Successfully Lead Engineering Teams: The next level targets the development and mastery of best practices
christel.heylen@mirw.kuleuven.be 2 Jos Vander Sloten, Faculty of Engineering, Division of Biomechanics and Engineering Design, K.U.Leuven, Belgium Technical communication and technical writing are important skills for the daily work- life of every engineer. In the first year engineering program at KU Leuven, a technical writing program is implemented within the project based course ‘Problem Solving and Engineering Design’. The program consists of subsequent cycles of instructions, learning by doing and reflection on received feedback. In addition a peer review assignment, together with an interactive lecture using clicking devices, are incorporated within the assignments of the
level of frustration. Additionally, based on the undergraduate reflections, itappears that they understand the overall goal of the project: inspire the participants, withoutoverlooking the benefits that this type of activity provides to their own personal and professionaldevelopment. This has been observed in several of the reflections submitted. A couple ofexcerpts that attest to this statement follow. Reflection 1: “The first item that can be reflected upon is how this activity provided a learning experience for the college students themselves. It may seem like this day is mainly for the younger students, but it is prepared for mostly by college students. This allowed students an opportunity to understand how
been used to evaluate the course itself and the benefits of differentproject types. Because FCQs and the departmental ABET survey are completely anonymous,differentiation between different project types is not possible; thus results from these evaluationsare not included in this paper. The evaluation tools allow the students to reflect on theirexperience and provide feedback. Additional evaluations were completed by project mentors.Each evaluation method used to draw conclusions about the course is briefly described below.Service Learning Papers. For the first time in Fall 2004, students were asked to reflect on theirservice learning experience in a full class discussion (2 hours) followed by 3 to 8 page writtenessays. Based on numerous
made sketches. Each set of blocks on the graphic organizer represented onecomplete panel for the novel. Most students ended up with between 20-30 panels in theirfinal novel. A post activity writing reflection was used to assess the student’s opinion of thegraphic novel activity, attitudes towards science/engineering and what they thought theylearned from the activity. The rubric used to analyze the writing reflection (Appendix 4)and the students’ self-assessment is compared to the assessment of the final product.Results: Initially all four grades were assigned the project but the 5th grade class was notable to complete the assignment in time for inclusion in the results. However compliancewas 83% for the rest of the population. Table 1
engineers can do to make positive change. We can take aleadership position through developing a new paradigm that better reflects the modern world.An Emerging World ViewThe new paradigm I’ll describe is already evident to some extent in certain engineeringdisciplines and in the recent literature, including the new accreditation criteria, but it has not yetbeen adopted comprehensively nor in its most visionary sense.Ecology has taught us that the world is all about connections and is an incredibly complex webof systems and subsystems, both living and nonliving. If we ignore or misunderstand theseconnections, then at best our designs are suboptimal, and at worst are dangerous and lifethreatening. Emphasis on a piece of a problem can obscure the
that geology would be onenatural science that would be a typical choice for civil engineers. Support for a third sciencebeyond physics and chemistry is also reflected in the civil engineering program-specific criteriafor ABET accreditation, which requires that civil engineering programs include at least one basicscience other than chemistry or physics.Context for Course DevelopmentThere are currently no geology faculty members at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Rose-Hulman). However, the Department of Civil Engineering (CE Department) has always stronglyfelt CEE students should be able to learn geology as a science elective, and has thus worked hardto see that geology is available to students at least once each year. The institute has
) Expertise Area of Study Content and Context Area of Study Content and Context Learning Theories Learning Theories Personal Champion Supportive of Professional Success Reflective Reflective Supportive of Professional Success Optimistic Optimistic Open-minded to Research Paradigms Professional Invested in Engineering Education Invested in Engineering Education Access to funding Connection to relevant networks Familiar with navigating
capstone design and laboratorycourses. The course runs as a one-semester, stand-alone course (not coupled to a complementarytechnical or laboratory course) with assignments ranging from laboratory reports, design reports,resumes, cover letters, interviews, technical presentations, and project proposals tocommunication with lay audiences. This paper takes a case study approach to examine theevolution of the laboratory report assignment over the course of three semesters. We found thatincorporating additional authenticity into laboratory report writing assignment motivated studentengagement and learning. Midterm and final course evaluations are used as data to reflect on theeffectiveness of three iterations of the assignment:· Fall 2011: Common
; Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering EducationOnce all engineering technology students in the leadership class completed their JuniorAchievement exercise, they submitted a short report reflecting on their experience whileaddressing specific questions. In the report, they addressed the behavior of the children in theirteams, their motivation and their learning. They reflected on special behaviors that promoted ordistracted from teamwork. Finally they examined leadership principles that they learned fromtheir research in influencing the behavior of the children. They presented the report to the classin the presence of the president of Junior Achievement organization. Students’ comments about the exercise
ABET Criteria and Continuous Process Improvement David Elizandro, Jessica Matson, and Jane Fraser Tennessee Technological University/Colorado State University--PuebloAbstractThe ABET 2000 Criteria shifted accreditation emphasis from prescribing a curriculum toarticulating characteristics of a strategic management processes to administer programs and aminimum set of Program Outcomes for accredited programs.There have been broad interpretations of the ABET 2000 Criteria by programs seekingaccreditation. Similarly, governing professional societies have taken different approaches toarticulating Program Criteria. The recently approved 2005-06 Criteria reflect the first iteration incontinuous
solidify communication networks with the local and nationalcorporations and industry professionals. Weekly email and telephone contact keeps the networkalive and functional. Many continuing contacts (face to face meetings, conference presentations,workshops for students, faculty and staff) have been used to build value though networkconnections.Much has been learned in recent years about optimizing the Alliance. Flexibility has always beena key issue and the Alliance has evolved to reflect the needs of its constituents. The mostpressing questions needed to be answered first, how find all the opportunities, what the bestmethod of distribution would be for each university, and finally what could be done to removebarriers for students interested in
knowledgeto be learnt.‘Through the course of history, questions relating to how knowledge is formed have becomeseparated from different domains of knowledge – of whatever kind.’ (Bowden and Marton1p285).For the purpose of this paper we will consider an intimate relation between learning and knowingor becoming knowledgeable about something. It is my belief that enabling engineers to reflect onthe knowledge they negotiate and on the process of negotiation itself, they will be able to helpstudents live the spirit of discovery. What students will learn within the University will then bemore akin to how to be an engineer, rather than how to pass exams.Certain educational researchers take the perspective that teachers need to help students think andreflect
strength of the relationship between exerciseparticipation and self-esteem. In a study which analyzed the responses of 427 subjects (61% ofwhom were female) to a battery of normative instruments, it was determined that physical self-worth accounted for 30% of the variance in self-esteem for the female sample of respondents.When combined with social self-concept, physical self-worth accounted for 42% of the variancein self-esteem regardless of gender. Interestingly, male respondents reported that they exercisedat higher intensity and for longer periods than females, perhaps reflecting a differentialsocialization of males and females regarding involvement in sport and physical activityparticipation. These results reinforced our desire to counter the
equations. Students learnthe concepts of the plane wave, wave reflection and transmission, boundary conditions, andpenetration depth. These principles are then applied to waveguides, antennas, and free spacewave propagation. The final subject of the course is an introduction to RF communication links.Basic communication system architectures are presented and the concepts of noise, signal-to-noise ratio, and link budgets are introduced. This paper will discuss the course curriculum andthe laboratory in detail.Introduction In today’s industry where many electronic systems operate at increasing frequencies, anunderstanding of fundamental electromagnetics is becoming not only a desired trait but also arequirement for the entry-level engineering
students and no group specific indicators of varying performance have been identified. • Afro-American freshman engineering students parallel the overall student performance at a lower total SAT level. The lower group average SAT scores are reflected in the group grade performance. However, it appears that “pockets” of these students respond well to targeted support programs that attempt to ameliorate the academic and social struggles common to all students. • Hispanic freshman engineering students tend to follow overall student norms but display large variations in performance. This is attributed to the limited number of Hispanic students used in the study. As a result, no general
team tolearn to come to a consensus as to what issue they would like to address, and howthey plan to address it. At the end of the year the students participate in a capstoneevent where they can share with others their process. According to Cathryn BergerKay, M.A., there are five Stages of Service Learning. “They include: Inventoryand Investigation, Preparation and Planning, Action, Reflection andDemonstration”. 8 All our STEM Tech Clubs follow this model.The SISTER mentors and professionals facilitating the groups tie the issue ofconcern to the students various level of curriculum. They share their enthusiasmand knowledge of STEM education and opportunities. The school administratorswork with the groups, as well as teachers to help with this
tool aims to provide students with asafe, virtual environment in which they can: i) learn about their team effectiveness and teamissues, and ii) practice methods to improve on identified areas of weakness before trying themwith their teammates. This on-line tool will serve as a one-stop, on-line portal through whichstudents can access self-reflections and feedback from peer-assessments across different projectteams and track their improvement across different years of their degree. A description of theproposed tool design is provided herein.2. Pedagogical Foundations of the ToolAs discussed above, a student-centred and personalized approach is required to teach team-effectiveness due to the range of student proficiencies. Given the focus of
the course and instructor continually improve, each team is required to completea midterm evaluation of the course and the instructor. [2] contains a copy of the midterm courseand instructor evaluation form. Each team is required to discuss the answers to the questions andtry to reach consensus. If consensus is not reached then the team makes it clear that the answerdoes not reflect the entire team. Each team submits its evaluation electronically, so that the teamremains anonymous. This method of requiring the team to reach consensus helps precipitate themost widely perceived positive and negative aspects of the class and the instructor. (This courseevaluation method of using team consensus is similar to one used at the first year
cannot be a prerequisite for ABC 101 because then there would be no way to takeeither of them. This makes the graph abstraction both directional and acyclic. Within this representation,the number of credits for each course is reflected by the node size. The course level graph abstraction can allow for the scheduling of one’s term and visualizing howcourses interact with one another. However, these dependencies rely on the accuracy of the prerequisiteswhich could have been established years prior and the courses and, more broadly, the curriculum couldhave changed since. For example, students may be encouraged by their adviser to take ABC 103 and ABC104 in the same term. From the graph abstraction, this need is not clear perhaps because ABC 103
the first chapter and reinforced in eachfollowing chapter [3]. When teaching a course that fosters both process and content mastery, carefulattention must be paid to problem-solving processes, which require a conceptual understanding. Previousstudies have shown that several factors lead to success in problem-solving such as student interest in theprompts, clear explanations, and engaging in reflective practices [1].In order to measure students’ attitudes toward a course, we leveraged findings from two related studies,where students were asked to answer a questionnaire with 60 questions related to disposition that was takenfrom the following validated instruments: the Index of Learning Styles[4], the Growth Mindset Scale[6],and sense of
course viaZoom, called “ACTIVA tu Speaking (AtuS).” The USGA students spoke Spanish whileMexicanUG students spoke English. The students jointly chose two projects, performednecessary research, and designed prototypes to meet the design needs of their respectivecommunities. This course was not originally conducted as an engineering educationresearch project; thus, this is a retrospective summary. Using a promotional video thatthe USGA students produced about the course and the course reflection paragraph thateach USGA student wrote, we performed a word frequency analysis. Based on the wordfrequency analysis, we conclude that the students’ identification as engineers increased,students connected their academic engineering to real-world problems
specifically for mobility engineers. Since examination is oneof the pillars toward licensure, the gap reflects the lack of a complete roadmap toward theprofessional career of mobility engineers. It implies the effectiveness of education programs andquality of practice in this field could be undermined. For example, decision making generatedfrom engineering judgment may lack the grounds of widely accepted norms. Besides,engineering practice could be less tracked, disciplined, or protected. Eventually, less regulatedpractice could lead to adverse impacts on public safety as well as the health of the engineeringcommunity.One of the most important purposes of professional engineering licensure is to provide assuranceto the public of a minimum level of
people working at such high levels of Iron Range Engineering gave me the chance to prove what I can do and feel like I am capable of being an engineer (Student 6, para. 2)Student 3Student 3 was a participant who only made connections between four of the framework elements(no mention of Knowledge) and showed limited connections between those that were mentioned.Their co-occurrences happened less frequently than those in Students 6 and 10’s reflections. As areminder from Table 2, student 3 mentioned Skills, Values, and Epistemology in 40% ofparagraphs and Identity in 100%. This correlates with the size of the nodes in Figure 4.Four out of the five paragraphs in Student 3’s
“line groups,” that visually correspond to what are commonly known as frieze patterns.Translations, half-turns, vertical reflections, horizontal reflections, vertical & horizontalreflections, glide reflections, and vertical reflections & glide reflections with half-turns constitutea practical visual manner in which to identify them (Table 7). Throughout our travels in Peru,students were on the lookout for examples of all 7 types. Table 7 Frieze patterns and their categorization Basic visual coding of all 7 types of frieze patterns using letters of the alphabet. Eight different Incan frieze patterns (top
pedagogical approaches which nurture these capacities.Traditional engineering curricula fail to adequately address the active, iterative, and process-oriented nature of design found in the ABET definition. The use of cornerstone and capstoneprojects does not sufficiently foster the transfer or application of technical knowledge or providerepeated, meaningful opportunities to practice the behaviors associated with design.Research on how students learn engineering design most effectively call for repeatedopportunities to engage in hands-on, open-ended problems. For example, Prince (2004) suggeststhat design and other engineering subjects are best learnt through hands-on, active pedagogy, e.g.project-based learning.6 Impromptu design exercises reflect
. Further investigation indicated that many FYEstudents could identify the superficial features from the problem statement, but they werenot able to identify the implicit logical steps or deep structure of the problem.Our current data provided the baseline of how FYE students abstract and interpretinformation from a design goal to generate a specific problem statement. We areinterested in treatments to improve students‟ ability to recognize critical features of agiven context and encourage taking multiple perspectives to identify alternative solutions.We are combining the use of graphical representational tools as organizational tools tosupport teams collaboration and we encourage opportunities to reflect and refine theirdesign process. This
the circuit diagrams for the two cases where the digitalI/Os are used in this project [4, 5, 7]. Page 22.270.5 Figure 4 Digital I/Os circuit diagrams for (a) Pushbuttons and (b) Reflectance SensorWhen the pushbutton is connected to a digital I/Os it can be used as a reset or start up controlsignal. In Figure 4 (a) pin PB1 is connected to VCC through the pull-up resistor R (20-50 k)which sets the voltage on the input pin to 5 V, so it reads as a digital 1. Pressing the buttonconnects the input to ground (0 Volts) through a 1 k resistor, which is much lower than the valueof R. This sets the input voltage very close to 0 V, so the pin reads
havebeen introduced since then. It also discusses students’ and teachers’ strategies, aiming atadapting their behaviour to the way they have perceived those new paradigms. Somesignificant changes were detected, namely those related to students’ work, expected to beautonomous and continuous throughout the semester, benefiting from teachers’ tutorialguidance and reflected in a continuous evaluation.Nonetheless, it has been a road dotted with some difficulties: changing students’ attitudestowards work and persuading instructors of the importance and need to look for innovativepedagogical strategies is not an easy task. Still, in a significant number of courses, some newteaching/learning models were introduced, based on skills development models
Sustainable Community Development. Our project is acritical pedagogy, one aimed at enhancing students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes to reflect onthe historical and political location of engineering, question the authority and relevance ofengineering problem-solving and design methods, and “examine their education, includinglearning objectives, the course syllabus, and the textbook itself” (Riley, 2008, p. 113).Specifically, our project is aimed at engineering education as it relates to a diversity of theseefforts, which we call “Engineering to Help” (ETH). ETH initiatives often exist under namessuch as community service, humanitarian engineering, service learning, Engineers WithoutBorders (EWB), Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) and