Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Audrey LaVallie; Eakalak Khan; G. Padmanabhan

ASEE-NMWSC2013-0004 Impact of a Research Experience Program on North Dakota Tribal College STEM Student Retention Audrey LaVallie1, Eakalak Khan2, and G. Padmanabhan2 1 Faculty, Turtle Mountain Community College, Belcourt, North Dakota (e-mail: alavallie@tm.edu) 2 Professor of Civil Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota (e-mails: Eakalak.khan@ndsu.edu and g.padmanabhan@ndsu.edu respectively)Abstract Recent educational research shows that students who engage in research projects aremore likely to

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Byron Garry; Suzette Burckhard

findings of “Innovation withImpact”, a six-year nation-wide study of top engineering schools. One of the conclusions of thatstudy is that engineering education innovation requires, at the least, engineering and educationexpertise working in continual cycles of educational practice and research.The committee surveyed the College of Engineering faculty on their topics of interest, anddecided on a format of a continuing series of one-hour sessions, led by SDSU engineeringfaculty. Over the last five semesters there have been twelve discussion sessions, on topics suchas teaching on-line, engaging students in the classroom, rubrics, assessment, active learning, andacademic quality and rigor. This paper discusses the goals of the series, what has been

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Sousada Chidthachack; Mark A. Schulte; Forster D. Ntow; Jia-Ling Lin; Tamara J. Moore

’ knowledge andcompetencies of six ABET professional skills. We follow the notion used by Shuman et. al(2005) and divide these ABET professional skills into two groups: process skills and awarenessskills.7 Process skills include communication, functioning on multi-disciplinary teams,understanding professional and ethical responsibilities. Awareness skills include the broadeducation to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context,knowledge of contemporary issues, and recognition of the need for and the ability to engage inlifelong learning. Fourteen students in the traditional program and sixteen students in PBL wereinterviewed in late March and late April, respectively. Interview notes as well as

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Gretchen A. Mosher

develop functional learning teams will also be a focus of the paper.Data on student performance and their feedback on the process will be included in the finalportion of the paper.Benefits of Team-Based LearningResearchers have identified several benefits of TBL for students. These include: benefits tolearning such the ability to tackle tasks of higher complexity, a stronger consideration of diverseperspectives, and a higher order of critical thinking2, 3. Other benefits noted involve studentsocial development. Researchers have observed greater engagement of students, enhancedabilities to collaborate effectively with student colleagues, and more highly developed civicvalues as a result of TBL6. In the science classroom, Carmichael6 noted that TBL

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Aurenice M. Oliveira

hasthe strongest impact on students’ academic performance and their attitudes towards engineeringprofession 3. Despite of the fact that many students may have been academically prepared andmotivated to study engineering, 50% of students who enter engineering programs as freshman donot earn an engineering degree 1, 2. The gap between engineers needed annually and the numberof graduates available to fill positions is still wide 4, 5. Instructors are confronted by the task ofconveying a general knowledge base to non-majors while simultaneously laying the foundationfor continued study by majors. Teaching electrical engineering (EE) and electrical engineeringtechnology (EET) hands-on courses to non-majors has been recognized by a number

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Adam Kramschuster; Gregory Slupe

performed by each class. Individual groups within both classes wouldconsist of 2-3 students, depending on class size. In order for a successful project to be completed,the groups would need to communicate their ideas effectively, and work within student andlaboratory capabilities. The part and mold design experience for the plastics engineers in PLE-310 is the first experience the students have had using 3D modeling to design parts and molds,and the computer numerical control (CNC) machining experience for manufacturing and plasticsengineering students in MFGE-325 is the first exposure to CNC machining. Therefore, it iscritical to design parts and molds that have a high chance for success, while still implementingsome degree of complexity. This

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Wendy R. Stary; John R. Schultz

E-mail: schultzj@uwstout.edu 715-232-2348AbstractThough vast in overall size, the world today seems quite small due to the ease with which peopletravel from one region to the next. In business and industry it is quite common for companies tohave facilities, or at least customers, world-wide. This often requires employees of thesecompanies to travel and communicate with people of diverse cultures on a regular basis. In orderto better prepare the future workforce for success in this environment, the faculty and staff at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Stout endeavor to create opportunities that allow their students to studyabroad under many different contexts. Specific to this

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bakr M. Aly Ahmed; Mike Christenson; David A. Crutchfield

usuallytranslates to a much better return on initial investment in terms of operational cost andproductivity. Beyond the efficient design, construction and operations of buildings, the factorthat ultimately impacts energy efficiency is the end user of the building. Students of architecture,as end users of buildings, must not only learn techniques and strategies for achieving optimalbuilding performance but should be expected to experience and learn from the buildingperformance of their immediate surroundings.Visualization and interactivity are identified as important components of efforts to educateconstituents, including students, about the importance and criticality of building performance.2Eco-visualization systems are seen as a means of achieving both

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Cory J. Prust; Stephen M. Williams

. Evaluate behavior on a design team in the context of (f) an understanding of professional and ethicalx professional and ethical responsibility responsibilityx Give oral status reports on the design. (g) an ability to communicate effectivelyx Make a formal oral presentation on the project.x Prepare a formal design report Understand the impact of engineering solutions in a (h) the broad education necessary to understand the global, economic, environmental, and societal context impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic,x environmental, and societal context

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Francis Peloubet; Eakalak Khan; G. Padmanabhan

member acted as theadviser for one design group as well as the technical consultant in his/her area of expertise to allgroups. Students had to consider the social, economic, and environmental factors associatedwith the project. In general, the students gained an appreciation for assigning specific individualduties within each group and working together toward a common goal. The course fulfilled theABET criterion of a “combined background of curricular components.” One of therecommendations for improvement was to bring in input by additional professionals from theengineering community at the beginning of the course that would give more of a real-worldatmosphere to the project. These individuals could also be used to critique the designs at

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Luis Rodriguez; Gail Coover; Dalelia Davis; Angela Frey; George Johnson; Oumar Kaba; Andrew Pham; Kathlyn Bender

and physics. All students takethe 3 classes and they are not divided into groups to account for initial knowledge level. Rather,the 3 instructors work together to create a unified science experience revolving around acommon topic, for example: energy, to be studied from their respective points of view. Pre-assessment and post-assessment is carried out to evaluate conceptual understanding.The communication and study skills class has an emphasis on career and academic majoradvising. Pre-assessment and post-assessment are carried out by means of essays intended tomeasure writing and composition skills. During the eight weeks, students engage in independentprojects such as developing their academic plans for declared and alternative majors

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Devin R. Berg

approach that has received widespread support in theengineering education community and has a strong foundation within the cognitive neuroscienceliterature1. At its core, this method of learning (or teaching) attempts to allow the student toidentify a problem or question and formulate their own solution. It has been shown that thisprocess leads to greater concept retention and ultimately better performance on assessments.Additionally, it has been demonstrated that students perform better on assessments when usingan inquiry based or active learning method during preparation2,3. The application of this methodcan take many forms as, in general, inquiry-based learning shares several common features withother active learning educational approaches such

Collection

2013 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Roger Green

writing, although they aremore adept at nonconventional communication such as video. Compared to students just adecade or two ago, today’s students are far less likely to utilize brick-and-mortar libraryresources, preferring to consult, often with high frequency, Google and the internet forinformation. Instant access to information enables today’s students to enjoy a much broaderview of topics, although this same instant availability to massive amounts of information maydiminish students’ self-reliance and ability to solve problems independently. Free access toinformation, on-demand entertainment, and an increasingly consumer-driven education model allcontribute to a rising sense of entitlement on the part of students as well as instructors (see