Conference Session

Tree-huggers, Diggers, and Queers--Oh my!

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

AC 2009-1237: “SUSTAINABILITY” AS AN INTEGRATIVE LENS FORENGINEERING EDUCATION: INITIAL REFLECTIONS ON FOURAPPROACHES TAKEN AT RENSSELAERDean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Page 14.1386.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 “Sustainability” as an Integrative Lens for Engineering Education: Initial Reflections on Four Approaches Taken at RensselaerIntroductionOver the past decade, the concept of “sustainability” has gained increasing attention acrosssociety at large and within many educational institutions. As the problems associated withglobalized industrial production and the energy-intensive consumer economy worsen, newmodels for addressing

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sally Blomstrom, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Hak Tam, University of California, Santa Barbara

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

accountability.The overall assessment plan included direct and indirect measures gathered as formative andsummative assessments using quantitative and qualitative assessments [3]. The portion of theplan presented in this paper is a quantitative, indirect assessment used as a pretest and posttest.We recognized the importance of alignment [4] and examined the university’s mission, thegeneral education goals, and the student learning outcomes for the course. The instrument usedin this study was developed to align with the course outcomes and the course content. Evaluationforms used by the instructor, the student for her/his own reflection, peers, and audience memberswere developed to reflect the same criteria. The instrument reported on in this paper

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Hanson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Trustees Outstanding Scholar Award. Page 14.458.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Developing Students’ Abilities in Technical Leadership: The Rose-Hulman Leadership AcademyIntroductionThe importance of leadership skills for engineers is reflected in the addition of “leadership” tothe institutional student learning outcomes of our college. In recognition of that importance, theRose-Hulman Leadership Academy was created to help develop leadership confidence instudents with untapped leadership potential. This paper provides an overview of the objectivesof the Leadership Academy, the curriculum

Conference Session

Tree-huggers, Diggers, and Queers--Oh my!

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York, Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Queens University, Kingston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

manner: (1) new paradigms for ethicaldecision-making are introduced; (2) a specific ethics case is introduced and examined; and(3) series of reflective questions for the ethics case from the perspective of each of the newparadigms are generated; and (4) final thoughts and commentary are offered. The firstapproach we shall examine is an outgrowth of the ethics of freedom. Page 14.542.2II. Engineering and FreedomA commonly held perspective is that Western culture is a body of knowledge derived fromreason with the foundation of reason serving as a springboard towards a vast accumulationof understanding related to reality or nature, including human

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Richard House, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Anneliese Watt, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

own teachingof communication to the intrinsic motivation of personal or departmental conviction. Manywould likely agree with a respondent who reported teaching communication “because it’s theright thing to do.” The stated reasons for this imperative vary, with some respondents citingcompetitive advantage for graduating job-seekers, while others report that they want toencourage reflection or critical thinking. One view is compatible with a distinction between“soft skills” and core engineering competencies; the other implies what one respondent termed a“symbiotic relationship” in which engineering and its communication practices are inextricablefrom one another.The account changes appreciably, though, when respondents describe motivations

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill Genereux, Kansas State University, Salina; Elena Mangione-Lora, University of Notre Dame

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

make connections, reflect on and interpret what they are learning; build learningcommunities, collaborate and negotiate nuanced elements as they create the narrative; and refinetheir communication skills by learning through teaching. The student use of video is apowerfully interactive way to process, interpret and negotiate meaning within a group from theplanning stage through production and post-production. The nature of video requires students toattain deep understanding in order to clearly articulate their ideas to others. Video requiresstudents to function as team members who use artistic and technical tools of multimedia to createa successful project.Perceived BenefitsThe authors of this paper have used digital video production in their

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Herkert, Arizona State University Polytechnic; Jameson Wetmore, Arizona State University; Heather Canary, Arizona State University Polytechnic; Karin Ellison, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

responsibility and skill necessary tocommunicate science to the public. Different students have different interests and can be drawnin by different topics.To further make sure that we are covering topics of interest to the students, and thereby motivate Page 14.763.3them to more fully participate in class and reflect on the issues, we let the students play animportant role by choosing the readings and projects we engage in. In some versions of thecourse we have a different student choose a popular news article each week that can helpfacilitate a conversation about an important and timely topic. In other versions of the course wehave students develop

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christy Moore, University of Texas, Austin; D'Arcy Randall, University of Texas, Austin; Hillary Hart, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

environmentalmovement; homeowners in a new subdivisions, who have discovered there isn’t enough water tokeep their new lawn alive; a farmer, Curtis Peterson, who remembers the way things were;Willie Nelson, who compares Austin to Maui; William Greider, a reporter for Rolling Stone, whobelieves that developers in some sense embody the can-do American spirit; and an oncologist,Judah Folkman, who explains the difference between the growth of cancer cells in the body andhealthy growth. The film’s conclusion seems to be that urban growth in itself is not bad, butunhealthy growth, such as the overdevelopment that threatens the environmental health of theTexas hill country, is like cancer. The conflict portrayed in the film is a reflection of similarconflicts arising

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Helen Donis-Keller, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. Understanding the nature of the tools that weuse to communicate will enhance our ability to make the best use of the materials at hand,therefore we should become familiar with state-of-the-art technologies for digital capture andediting, and we investigate the scientific and engineering basis of seeing and hearing.Competencies directly addressed in this course are communication (visual, written, and aural)and life-long learning (researching and learning topics independently).the philosophy and main objectives for the course are embodied in the following specificlearning objectives:1. Learn how to make art that reflects enlarging of one’s awareness and communicates one’s intent. The major objective for each student in the course is to make art

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Sharp, Vanderbilt University; Marilyn Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

the“You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours” syndrome, the actual grade each student receives forthe peer review is a combination of scores from other students and a score reflecting formcompletion, based on the review guidelines in Figure 5. Page 14.1287.12 Oregon Institute of Technology Civil Engineering & Communication Departments CIV/COM 401. Senior Project Peer Review Guidelines You will receive two scores for your peer reviews: one for how well you complete the forms and

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beth Todd, University of Alabama; Garry Warren, University of Alabama; Susan Burkett, University of Alabama; David Cordes, University of Alabama; Marcus Brown, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

having to do something that seemsartificial during class. Students tend to value activities that are reflected in their grades, and an Page 14.392.3example of this implementation follows with samples of student work.Each week, one faculty member has the task of making an initial pass through the Sciencesection and identifying a set of potential articles for discussion. Once this set of articles isidentified, this selection is distributed via e-mail to all participants (current and past) in thereading group. Students can either read the Tuesday NY Times in print or access these articleselectronically to prepare for the meeting. However, some

Conference Session

Liberal Education and Leadership

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Val Hawks, Brigham Young University; John Harb, Brigham Young University; Alan Parkinson, Brigham Young University; Spencer Magleby, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

) Managing conflict and conflict resolution Understanding and use of power, authority and influences Managing and measuring performance Communication and interpersonal skills Project managementGlobal (Holistic) Understanding: Effective leadership occurs within the context of global,meaning general or comprehensive, systems. This has always been true, but the nature of themodern society adds emphasis to this dimension of leadership. The complexity of modern,worldwide systems is reflected in the changing ethnic composition of organizations, the potentialof political change to quickly alter environments and situations, and the extent to whichinternational issues, including trade, business, and employment, affect local

Conference Session

Communication and Collaboration

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University; Are Magnus Bruaset, Simula Research Laboratory; Melissa Marshall, Pennsylvania State University; Marianne M. Sundet, Simula Research Laboratory; Sarah Zappe, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

represented 27 other countries. These countries were spread across every continentexcept for Antarctica. Table 1 presents the distribution of participants across the disciplines. Thisdistribution of disciplines reflects the distribution of engineers and scientists in Norway. Page 14.1197.7Table 2 presents the distribution of institutions in which the participants are studying orworking. As shown in Table 2, more than half of the participants came from Norway’stwo largest institutions: the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of Scienceand Technology in Trondheim.Figure 1. Distribution of the 28 home countries of the participants. All

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Brocato, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

authentic engineering situations. The first case study, “The Pendergrass Circuits E-mail,” is a one-page story that literally puts students into the narrative as a character, requiringthem to read, analyze, discuss, and reflect on the story’s details before deciding what sorts ofactions and written documentation are necessary. The second case study involves close analysisof the space shuttle Challenger disaster, in particular the written and oral communication thattook place prior to the disaster itself. As this paper shows, using case studies as described herecan provide students with valuable exposure to the types of decisions they might have to make intheir professional careers while also providing engineering programs with a sound method

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Beams, University of Texas, Tyler; Luke Niiler, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

, memorandum, oral presentation, other);≠ Intended audience;≠ Report requirements.While this was a well-intended effort, the results were not particularly impressive. Studentsseemed to treat it as another hoop through which they were to jump and not as a prompt forthoughtful reflection. This was underscored by the observation that frequently students wereobserved printing the forms immediately after entering the laboratory and completing them byhand to be submitted on the spot, with little apparent forethought.ConclusionOur study of the maturation as writers of the cohort of EWI students has culminated in an NSFproposal (#0837338) to improve the quality of student writing at all levels of the Engineeringcurriculum. In the study Drs Beams, Niiler