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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

NADIYE O. ERDIL; KOENRAAD E. GIESKES

% 26.8% 31.9% Sections Poor 7.7% 21.3% 17.5% 15.8% 9.3% 4.9%Table 2 The results of SOOTs - teaching methods and instructor ratingsConclusionIn this paper we focused on the impact that a pilot program for an Engineering Learning Community atBinghamton University had on the interest and engagement of freshman engineering students. Throughthe combination of an introduction to engineering course, a technical communications course, a calculuscourse, and a shared residential hall, as well as assignments and events that were created specifically forthis program, we were able to successfully promote student interest and engagement.Throughout the semester the students were presented a

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

A.E. Schuster; J.A. Sanchez; C.W. Swan; J.L. Durant; D.M. Matson

traditional classroom experience. Specifically, it supports theAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Criterion 3 Program Outcomes addressingthe students ability to design a system to meet specific needs of a community, function as a member of amultidisciplinary team, identify and solve engineering problems, understand professional and ethicalresponsibilities, communicate despite the potential language barrier, understand the impact of the projectin a global and societal context, recognize the need to engage in life-long learning to allow them toaddress real problems outside of traditional discipline-based engineering challenges, and show knowledgeof the contemporary issues connecting community health and sustainable engineering

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Qing Li

likely this student will end up choosingengineering (Astin & Astin, 1992; Shuman, et. al., 1999). High school peers’ influence is also found to be agood predictor for successfully graduating with a STEM degree (Leslie, et. al., 1998). Friend’s encouragementplays an important role not only in a student’s college enrollment decision, but also in the retention decision(Bean, 1983). After entering into university, positive peer influence leads to successful education outcomecomes from opportunities like participating in honors program, tutoring other students, living on campus (Leslie,et. al., 1998). On the contrary, lack of student community on campus is found to have negative impact onstudents’ retention (Buyer & Connolly, 2006).Adult

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

John Hartke; Robert Kewley; Greg Kilby; Greg Schwarz; Gunnar Tamm

Multidisciplinary High Energy Laser Weapon System Student Design Study John Hartke, Robert Kewley, Greg Kilby, Greg Schwarz, Gunnar Tamm United States Military AcademyAbstract:With the recent advances in materials, electric power generation and storage, and solid state lasertechnology, the time has come to examine the application and feasibility of developing a mobile highenergy laser weapon system for the military. The high energy laser offers many advantages as a weaponsystem over conventional kinetic or explosive systems because of its power scalability, speed-of-lightengagement capability, and precision engagement capability. The development of such a

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Rashmi Jain; Keith Sheppard; Elisabeth McGrath; Bernard Gallois

designed to increase the number of K-16 students who enter and succeed in STEM fields. TheCenter’s teacher training programs have impacted more than 25,000 K-12 educators across the countryand its award-winning online real time data and telecollaborative projects currently engage more than100,000 students from 35 countries annually. Under McGrath’s leadership, CIESE has launched twomajor initiatives to advance K-12 engineering education in New Jersey and to infuse innovative andresearch-based teaching strategies into Stevens’ undergraduate programs. She holds a B.S. degree inMass Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University and a M.Ed. from the University ofMaryland.BERNARD GALLOIS is George Meade Bond Professor of Engineering at Stevens

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Promoting Active Learning and Creativity in the Strength of Materials CourseAbstract“Active learning” has proven to be a better way of engaging students in the learning process.Traditionally, creativity has not been one of the requirements in instructional engineering problems. Aprogressive open-ended problem has been incorporated into the strength of materials course. The idea isto allow students to advance from the basic straightforward experiences to more open-ended ones. Abeam has been chosen as the open-ended problem. Given specific restrictions on size, shape andmaterials, students are able to go through a cycle of design, construction, testing and redesign. In additionto meeting the

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Roy T.R. McGrann

design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability (d) an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams (e) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems (f) an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility (g) an ability to communicate effectively (h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context (i) a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning (j) a knowledge of contemporary issues (k) an

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Ashraf Ghaly; Megan Ferry

thedesign of dams include engineering design, safety, method of construction, materials used, flood control,environmental impact including greenhouse gas emission and health effects, hydropower generation,sedimentation and erosion problems, water salinity, fertility on farmland in the downstream, loss offarmland in the upstream, navigation in the waterway, economical factors, finance issues, construction ofnew communities for displaced people, and compliance with codes and regulations (7). The non-technicalaspects include history, culture, disturbance to people’s lives due to displacement and resettlement, effecton the social fabric in the area, quality of life in the basin of the river, recreation and tourist activities,effect on wild life and

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Ashraf Ghaly

Statement, one of Union’s major goals is to further integrate engineering withthe liberal arts. The college recognizes that “students graduating from Union belong to a generation inwhich technology has revolutionized communication and that they are part of a world where theunderstanding and appreciation of a multiplicity of cultures and perspectives will be essential to theirsuccess.” -1- American Society for Engineering Education ASEE Zone I Conference, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, March 28-29, 2008The college acknowledges that “preparing students for the 21st century requires that we take Union tonew frontiers of technology

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

B.M. Wright; C.W. Swan; D.M. Matson

in the highlands of northern Ecuador with student teams responsible forevaluating local conditions, providing education to local stakeholders, and assessing the impact of theproject on both the community and the team members involved in the project. Communication of surveyresults helped the village to identify municipal project priorities that would unify the community. Thissocial process, initiated by the student visit, resulted in successful attainment of a grant to construct awater filtration facility for the community based on the water quality sampling test results and on a pilot-scale technology demonstration of slow sand filtration.IntroductionThe Tufts University chapter of Engineers-Without-Borders (EWB)1-3 was founded with two

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Diana Schwerha; Chang Liu; Sertac Ozercan; Tripura Vadlamani; Lev Neiman

(StockerCenter), Right: A welcome center that does not resemble any real-world buildings on Ohio Universitycampus.2.2 The Groupthink ExerciseThe Groupthink exercise was originally developed by Michael Ernst at M.I.T. as a way to demonstrate theimportance of team communication in software specification processes.9 The original version of thisexercise was based on paper and pencil. It was time consuming and error prone to tally the results of theexercise by the instructor or the teaching assistant. To improve the speed and accuracy of resultcalculation, and to further engage students, Liu and his students developed the Groupthink learning aid inSecond Life. 9 Researchers at Ohio University have used the Groupthink exercise and the Second LifeGroupthink

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Hudson V. Jackson; Evelyn A. Ellis

aligned with the realworld needs of business and industry. Several programs such as STEM summer programs and internshipshave been developed to address these issues, but to a large extent, such programs are short-term based.Additionally, they mostly target high school students; are only applicable in one grade level; or are onetime project-based events. What would be the impact of systematically exposing PK through high schoolstudents to engineering concepts, applications, and career opportunities on a long-term, continuous basisat each grade level? If students are constantly reminded that engineering is part of their daily lives, thiscould generate a lifetime interest in the engineering profession and engage them in benefiting humanity.The

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Michael Berry; Paul Russo; Joshua Wyrick

laughing with one another. 3Cultural Relevance and Learning PerspectivesAs a student, it was humbling to engage in the activities of the community which included the dailyroutine of five hours of gathering water and three hours of pounding millet in the morning (for eachrespective woman). The drudgery of this task seemed so mundane yet so real, something quite foreignfrom our Western frame of reference living in the United States. When taking time under a tree in themiddle of the Sub-Saharan desert you couldn’t help but think “is this really the 21st century?” Thesepeople are living in a subsistence-based lifestyle simply trying to survive

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Arthur Heinricher; Brian Savilonis; David Spanagel; Robert Traver; Kristin Wobbe

engagement, especially in the final project work, was achieved forthe majority of the students. In almost every case, the first-year students completed work wellbeyond what faculty had believed possible.Assessment has included pre-surveys for the entire first-year class focusing on attitudes andexpectations connected to project work. An external consultant has interviewed focus groups aswell as the faculty. Post-surveys will be administered near the end of the academic year, onceagain to the entire first-year class. The most important component of assessment will study thelong-term impact of the seminars; do the students from the Great Problems Seminars have abetter project experience in their junior and senior years?Early observations from

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2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Projects ProjectsAn ability to design and conduct experiments as well as to Xinterpret and analyze data.An ability to function on a multi-disciplinary team. X XAn understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. X XAn ability to communicate effectively. X XThe broad education to understand the impact of engineering X Xsolutions in global, economic, environmental, and societalcontexts.A recognition of the need for and ability to engage in X Xlifelong learning.A knowledge of contemporary issues. X

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Aixia Shao

,polymers and photonic materials using Lego® bricks stands out [42][43][44][45][46][47].. A unique feature of the TASEM program is that it, encompassing a number of inquiry based ideas,focuses on current and future technologies using a hands-on approach, including nanotechnology. It isbased on the notion that if macro/micro technologies and mini-robots are used as enabling technologies toexplain nano concepts in a fun way, both the formal and informal learners can be engaged providing acontinuous challenge. For example, in a study conducted during 2005-07 on over 300 undergraduate andK-12 students, it was found that as the learners watched the skin of soap bubbles changing their color afew times before they break, their excitement and

Collection

2008 ASEE Zone 1 Conference

Authors

Dean M. Aslam; Zongliang Cao; Cyrous Rostamzadeh

paper is based on teaching at theundergraduate/graduate (formal) and K-12 (informal) levels. It may be pointed out that no formal educationresearch was conducted to generate the Table 1. Thus, the data provided here is qualitative and is based on theassessment of instructors, parents and other professional observers (one of the observers had a doctorate ineducation) during 2006-07. Table 1 Learning level (Basic, Intermediate, Advance), underlying STEMS areas (S, T, E, M), expected impact (Low, Normal,High), learner interest (Low, Normal, High), possible audience types (Families, Children, Adults, College Students, Teachers,Professionals, Underserved, Retired, Boy Scouts, Hobbyists and Explorers), and possible locations (Museum, Science &