Paper ID #23301Peer Review and Reflection in Engineering Labs: Writing to Learn and Learn-ing to WriteDr. Vanessa Svihla, University of New Mexico Dr. Vanessa Svihla is a learning scientist and assistant professor at the University of New Mexico in the Organization, Information & Learning Sciences program, and in the Chemical & Biological Engineering Department. She served as Co-PI on an NSF RET Grant and a USDA NIFA grant, and is currently co-PI on three NSF-funded projects in engineering and computer science education, including a Revolutioniz- ing Engineering Departments project. She was selected as a
Society for Engineering Education, 2018 Successes and challenges in supporting undergraduate peer educators to notice and respond to equity considerations within design teamsAbstractWe describe and analyze our efforts to support Learning Assistants (LAs)—undergraduate peereducators who simultaneously take a 3-credit pedagogy course—in fostering equitable teamdynamics and collaboration within a project-based engineering design course. Tonso andothers have shown that (a) inequities can “live” in mundane interactions such as those amongstudents within design teams and (b) those inequities both reflect and (re)produce broadercultural patterns and narratives (e.g. Wolfe & Powell, 2009; Tonso, 1996, 2006a, 2006b;McLoughlin, 2005). LAs could
and focused motivational strategies [10]. These validated instructionaltheories and their assessment techniques offer a means to frame this project in the broadercontext of the student experience in University of Virginia, while delving more deeply into theclassroom setting.2.1 Background: Course Context The course that is the object of study at University of Virginia is a non-technical, introductorycourse, required for graduation by all undergraduate engineers. The course’s learning objectivesinclude, “To be true professionals, engineers need to have a sense of how people design andinvent technology, how intentions reflect the needs and wishes of a society, and how inventionsdiffuse through a culture. Without a thoughtful sense of
Background LiteratureService Learning and Service-Oriented Projects. Service learning as defined by the NationalService Learning Clearinghouse15 is “a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningfulcommunity service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civicresponsibility, and strengthen communities.” Building from this definition, we can identifyspecific elements of service learning which are identified in the book Service Learning:Engineering in your Community9 as possessing the following elements related to engineering: • Service: Service to an underserved area or people. This can be direct, and ongoing, or project-based, involve hands-on aspects or research and analysis. • Academic
mastery are the fundamental elements of intrinsic motivation. 3. Interdisciplinary: Our future challenges are increasingly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. This means that a stable and well-defined range of subjects is becoming obsolete. We need to provide a structural overview in their field of study that will enable them to integrate the knowledge they are constantly acquiring. It will be our job to provide this framework. 4. Mode of Assessment: Standardized tests or general exams are useless. Student assessment should be based on their individual reflection of their own learning progress and their contributions to the collective learning process. 5. Source of Knowledge and Information: Our students have numerous
), where students are presented with a set of options to select theappropriate response. The responses of the students to the questions capture the level of awarenessand reflection on ethics. The final eight questions are designed to measure the level of interest ofengineering students on ethics.The concept questions were derived from the textbook by Barry and Seebauer13, and the shortcases used in the questionnaire were adapted from a list of cases published by the NationalAcademy of Engineers (NAE) (2014), National Society of Professional Engineers (2014), and theVanderbilt University Center for Ethics (2014). The questions were reviewed and endorsed by anexternal subject experts representing industry and academia who served as project
at the end of the semester after theworkshops (spring 2017). This study was framed by the following research question: To what extent are faculty beliefs about student-centered strategies reflected in instructional practices in the undergraduate engineering classroom?Literature ReviewStudent-Centered Teaching in EngineeringStudent-centered teaching, or active learning practices, engage key course concepts and materialin an adaptive and interactive manner. Scholars have conducted many empirical studies whichdemonstrate the effectiveness of student-centered teaching practices in higher education. Thesestudies have shown that student-centered instruction promotes greater learning andunderstanding than traditional content
and value, while others speak to the social aspects of learning in theinstructional setting (e.g., relatedness). In this way, the analysis attempted to understand thesocial interaction and environment.After the first examination of the transcripts in which the deductive codes were explored, thetranscripts and codebook were revisited to explore patterns across the coded segments and todevelop themes. These themes are presented in the Findings and Discussion.LimitationsThe focus groups were limited to the perspectives of those present. Since participation wasvoluntary, it cannot be assumed that the voices were reflective of the rest of the students in thecourses. Recruitment in qualitative research has been linked to interest in the subject
engineering science courses and humanities and social science courses. So, while the technical engineering science courses focus and - and privilege the technical, the humanities and social science courses in many universities do just the opposite.The separation of technical and social within the curriculum reinforces the perceivedseparation in students’ minds, which is not reflective of engineering practice where the twohave to be considered simultaneously.Requirements vs. electiveSome interviewees also commented on the challenges associated with teaching ESI inrequired versus elective courses. Elective courses are conducive to high engagement andmotivation because student self-select into them based on prior interest. An interviewee whohas
3.07(1.07) 4.00(0.82) from other disciplines Accurately recognize goals that reflect the disciplinary backgrounds of 3.00(1.18) 4.00(0.82) other team members Talk about a project design using other discipline language 2.86(1.17) 3.86(1.07)rated as the least confident (M = 2.86). A total of 13 students completed 4 sets of knowledgequestions and confidence level rating in the survey. There were 8, 6, 10, and 3 students whoprovided the correct answers respectively.Post-survey: In student rating of the 8 topics in terms of their importance to future career, 3topics received the highest scores: Integration of
partial credit defined in the rubric. Moredetails about the rubric and the grading scheme are described in [8,9].Locating, classifying and correcting errors on exams can be a very important part of the learningprocess. This is referred to as reflection by cognitive scientists [2], and we prefer that studentsrather than graders glean this benefit. We hope that this process leads to higher accuracy andgrades in the future, all while developing an engineering mindset for checking work and locatingmistakes.Early and Frequent Assessment. In this new course design the timing and frequency ofassessment is important. It is recommended that students get two or three early assessmentsduring the first five weeks of the semester. If the assessments are left
already exists. Why not give them anorchestra to call their own—a conductorless orchestra where they practice leadership,teamwork, and communication in a large team environment—while doing something theylove—music?Augmenting an Engineering School The Olin Conductorless Orchestra (OCO) is the oldest group at Olin College and provides anenduring example of what an engineering school can represent. The orchestra has been avehicle for talented students studying engineering since 2002, and shows the Renaissance sideof their education. Its concerts often take place in front of sizable groups of people (e.g., OCO’s2017 Great Hall concert at Cooper Union in New York City), thus reflecting positively on thecollege’s multidisciplinary approach to
retrospective reflections regardingthe impact participating in our program had on their education and career choices.Alumni tracking for the three comparison environmental engineering REU Programs found thatover 60% of participants of the Clarkson REU attended graduate or professional school [9],approximately 60% of the CU-Boulder Program’s participants continued on to graduate studies,and nearly 50% of participants of the Water REU at Virginia Tech were attending or hadattended graduate school [10]. Thus, our outcomes for students attending graduate school aresimilar to single-campus REUs in the same discipline.Challenges and opportunitiesOperating an REU Site across multiple campuses presents a number of logistical challenges, asothers have described
institution with a response goal of10 percent of the faculty and 10 percent of the undergraduate student body. The goal for studentresponses was to have an equal number from each of the traditional four academic years. Asecondary goal was to have the gender and academic majors of the student respondent populationmirror institutional balance. Finally, the timing of the survey was critical as we needed to reachnewly matriculated students prior to completing their first course evaluations on campus.The survey contained ten Likert items, where each item was a statement that reflected one of theten questions from our current online course evaluation. The online course evaluation is shownin Appendix A, while the survey statements we developed are shown in
learninggains immediately after their completion compared to student performance on the concept questionsseveral weeks after the activity. In addition, 25% of the concept inventory questions reflect the situationsfound directly in the inquiry-based activities. Because of that parallel construction, it would be importantto examine and contrast student performance on questions directly related to the activity from those thatasked students to apply their understanding of the concept to new situations. This latter will provideadditional information about the effectiveness of the activities for promoting transfer, a key educationaloutcome and one that is often difficult to achieve. Finally, it would be beneficial to have additionalmeasures of students
understanding of theworld and the ability to make judgments in light of historical, social, economic scientific, andpolitical realities is demanded of the professional as well as the citizen” (p. 23). In the twodecades since that paper appeared, engineering educators and practitioners have increasinglycome to embrace its principles. Bordogna, Fromm, and Ernst,[5] for example, argue that“contextual understanding capability” is an important component of engineering innovation, and Page 25.254.3this growing recognition is reflected in the emphasis reports by the National Academy ofEngineers,[1,2] the National Science Foundation,[6] and the National
design of the VR teachingmodule to be more immersive and visualized. The current VR module is a semi self-paced tutorial.Concurrent research (Phase III) is being conducted to investigate how well students understand thequeuing theory concept using this updated VR teaching module versus traditional classroomlecture. Data is currently being collected using a different set of students with the same conceptualquiz but taught the topic in a traditional classroom manner (control group). Afterwards, we plan toprovide a comparative analysis of both approaches, control group versus experimental group anddisseminate the results.. The sections discussed below only reflects how well the students performusing the VR training module (experimental group
throughout problemsolving. The findings from this study suggest that the difficulties students have with solvingnovel problems can be at least partially attributed to weaknesses in their procedural knowledge. Students develop procedural knowledge through their experiences completing problems.The ability to apply these procedures fluently (see Fig. 2), with little effort required, is developedthrough practice. The Instructional Implications section of this paper presents ideas on how thisknowledge can be developed for thermodynamics.Conditional Knowledge Conditional knowledge refers to students’ knowledge of the situations in which particulardeclarative or procedural knowledge should be applied.4,31 This knowledge reflects the
on a Google sheet that the instructor manages.Tasks include grading daily quizzes, running critique workshops of three to six students, gradingmajor assignments, and special assignments, such as creating a format template in MicrosoftWord for the proposal.Background: Rather than having students bring drafts to class for on-the-spot critiquing,the course runs more formal critiquing based on the Iowa Writers Workshop One feature that distinguishes the course is the course’s peer critiquing, which follows theIowa Writers’ Workshop for creative writing [11]. In this approach, the students submit theirassignment excerpts at least two days before the workshop so that the peers and often a mentorhave the chance to read, reflect, edit, and