Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Barbara E. Mizdail

projects reflecting the concerns of today’s students for the environment, positive feedbackfrom research faculty for student contributions with existing projects, and an awareness of thecapabilities of students at this first year level.The First Year ExperienceA first year experience for incoming students is not a new concept to higher education. For morethan twenty years, colleges and universities have contrived and implemented ways to supportstudent success during the critical first year. The majority of all colleges and universities offer afirst year seminar course or experience to their first year entering class. First year experiencescan increase the probability of students successfully completing their first year of study, whichleads to the

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

William Hornfeck; Ismail Jouny; John Nestor

. Engineering students need to beexposed to these concerns in their courses.IV. Curriculum InfusionsHaving discussed challenges to the incorporation of global considerations in electrical andcomputer engineering programs, the four subsections that follow point out the ways in which theECE degree program at Lafayette College has begun to embed global concepts in its curriculum.The overarching goal of this initiative is to bolster our students’ preparedness for thinking,collaborating, working, and even living beyond national boundaries.A. Nontraditional CourseworkElectrical and Computer Engineering majors are required to take a seminar type course in theirfirst year that focuses on a specific contemporary issue, involves classroom discussions andmultiple

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Arthur D. Kney P.E.; Nancy Ball; Traci Shoemaker; Danuta Bukatko; Angela Moran; Joe Colosi

(NSF) an important issue thatthis project addresses is student attitudes toward STEM learning. Although males are includedin the study, the specific concern will be females and minorities; those who are underrepresentedin STEM disciplines as identified by NSF. In a 2004 study, Zacharia and Barton9 determinedthat urban students and students of color had far more negative attitudes toward science and theirfuture in the scientific field than did white students and nonurban students. Further, variousstudies have found that gender differences, when considering attitudes of student interests inscience, remain an issue of concern, particularly in the domain of technology. Nicholson et al.10concluded that males and females begin school with a similar

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

of investor Relations, and she has received several awards includingin 2004 he was appointed vice president, the University’s George W. Atherton AwardTonnage Gases North America. for Excellence in Teaching, the Penn State Masetti was born in 1959 in New York Engineering Society’s Outstanding TeachingCity. He received a B.S. degree in mechanical Award, and the Dow Outstanding Youngengineering from Lafayette College in 1981 and Faculty Award. Engel was also a member of thean M.B.A. from Lehigh University in 1986. team that won the 1998 Boeing Outstanding Educator Award and is a Fellow of

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Carl A. Erikson

communicators of their creative ideas to solve societal needs, to invent new processingtechniques, to reduce wasteful use of resources, to express their ethical concerns about products,and to inform the public on issues of mutual concern.From the National Academy of Engineering’s “The Engineer of 2020”, the attributes of the 21stcentury engineer include the following: As always, good engineering will require good communication…. We envision a world where communication is enabled by an ability to listen effectively as well as to communicate through oral, visual, and written mechanisms. Modern advances in technology will necessitate the effective use of virtual communication tools. The increasingly imperative for

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

William Jemison; Christopher Nadovich

this projectis the Lafayette Photovoltaic Research and Development System (LPRDS) whichaddresses the design, fabrication, and testing of a 2kW solar energy system. Thisproject will be described to illustrate various pedagogical objectives of thecapstone course.Introduction – Capstone Design at Lafayette CollegeLafayette College is an independent co-educational college of 2400 undergraduatestudents and 206 full-time faculty, with approximately 20% of the students andfaculty being in the Engineering Division. The Division offers four ABETaccredited Bachelor of Science engineering degree programs including electricaland computer engineering (ECE), mechanical engineering, civil engineering, andchemical engineering as well as a Bachelor of Arts

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Andrew Grossfield P.E.

intervalnotation, they will find it easy to cut and reassemble pieces of functions. The techniques ofsolving, differentiating and integrating piecewise-defined functions will become obvious. Thepremature computational details involved with the piecewise-defined functions do not clarify thefunction concept.Areas of ConcernMathematics is wonderful. Students must be introduced to that wonder. This study need not beeither a chore or a bore. If faculty cannot demonstrate the wonder, at least let the texts be morestudent friendly. Consider the following areas of concern: tone, language, definitions,organization, strategies, forms and visualizations.Tone: These questions are sensitive but have to be considered if analytical enrollment trends areto be improved

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Jenn Rossmann; Karina Skvirsky

material,and address ethical or moral issues related to modern technology.ImplementationAnyone who has paid attention to the patterns formed while stirring milk into coffee, or stared atthe curl of a rising tendril of smoke, has participated in flow visualization. Images of flow fieldscan be both beautiful and instructive, as is demonstrated by the success of such collections asMilton Van Dyke’s Album of Fluid Motion6 and of online sources like the American PhysicalSociety Division of Fluid Dynamics’ Gallery of Fluid Motion7, whose potential for generalimpact was demonstrated by a recent New York Times article8.The science of flow visualization lies in the techniques that can reveal invisible swirls andcascades and wavefronts, and in the physics

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Alfred A. Scalza

“HOW STUDENTS LEARN” A Study in the Field of “Individual Behavior” By Prof. Alfred A. Scalza, P.E. Farmingdale State College Department of Architecture and Construction ManagementAbstractAlthough the definition of learning and the theories of “how students learn” have beenthoroughly studied, a new field has arisen in the study of “individual behavior” and how studentswho seem the same academically actually come to the first day of class with far differingpersonal credentials. Does “college ready” mean academically or should it also include sociallyand emotionally? All the students in their first day as freshmen

Collection

2010 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

Beth Richards; Karen Walsh

sections of the paired classes; sections arecapped at 20 students each. Students are placed in a paired FIG section when they register for fallclasses. The assignment is random, based on section availability and students’ other courses to bescheduled.In one section of the course, which we’ll call Track 1, the additional texts explored gender-related issues especially those concerning math/science vs. the humanities. In the other twosections, which we’ll call Track 2, the additional texts explored some of the great “nerds” in thehistory of science and technology, including Galileo, Charles Darwin, Ray Kurzweil, andcontemporary science writers, as well current practices in technical writing. The two differentapproaches evolved out of each