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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Rose-Margaret Itua; Sharnnia Artis

571In February 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)issued an undergraduate STEM education report indicating fewer than 40% of students whoenter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. Increasing theretention of STEM majors from 40% to 50% would alone generate three-quarters of the targeted1 million additional STEM degrees over the next decade. With the first two years of collegebeing the most critical years for the recruitment and retention of STEM majors, it is imperativeto focus actions on methods that influence the quality of STEM faculty and adopt teachingmethods supported by evidence derived from experimental learning research.Research has found that high-performing students

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Jeffrey Ashworth; William Crisler

caused by this revolution. Several crucial battles have already been lost, and some ofthe trends may be irreversible. One issue is regarding the topical content and quantity of contentin an engineering degree program. Apart from the extra training in math and computerprogramming required for teaching computational methods, a whole new discipline of grid-making (or meshing) came into being. Furthermore, classical engineering principles had to beextended to computational methods. This was easily more than a year’s worth of extra contentbeing added to an already rigorous and challenging degree program. Engineering educators wereconcerned that our most talented and promising students might opt for the less-demanding 4-yearprograms in other

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Pradip Peter Dey; Gordon W. Romney; Amir Rezaei; Amelito G. Enriquez; Bhaskar Raj Sinha; Mohammad Amin

20180). Like Crouch, the authors of this panel discussion paper are also concerned about generaleducational environments and more specifically about engineering and science education. Theauthors openly discussed the pros and cons between the major traditional educational paradigmsand the new emerging paradigms without reaching any consensus. It is realized that it would beappropriate to raise some of the important issues and differences here in order to more openlydiscuss them with the audience during the panel discussion session. Differences of opinionbetween the authors may lead to passionate debates during the panel discussion session with newperspectives.The U.S. is losing its leadership in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

M. Zoghi; L. Crask; B. Hyatt; V. Luo; W. Wu

376 A Proposed Grand Challenges Scholars Program in the Lyles College of Engineering M. Zoghi, L. Crask, B. Hyatt, V. Luo, and W. Wu Lyles College of Engineering California State University, Fresno, CAAbstractThere has been a growing concern regarding traditional engineering education - for notadequately preparing future graduates who will be able to address society’s increasingly complexproblems. Future engineers will need a new set of skills in the context of the global economy.Additionally, the retention of engineering

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Monica Palomo P.E.

forpublic use or recreation 1. Water availability issues have prompted lawsuits and policydevelopment to ensure that water quality is sustained and that water is equitably distributedamong all users.Literature is rich in studies that attempt to analyze public perception regarding water issues andwater education 7,8,9,10,11. Water experts have realized that community perceptions, attitudes,values and behaviors concerning water vary from region to region 12. People’s attitudes andbehavior regarding water issues are complex responses that incorporate regional characteristics,family background, public education, and the influence of the media. Southern California watercompanies (MWD, Orange County Water District, Golden State Water Company, etc

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Craig V. Baltimore; James Mwangi

instrumental in planning the hands-on curriculum and providing theresources. All issues and possible problems in creating the hands-on experience were able to beidentified and addressed by the industry partner. For faculty who are not intimate with industry,the partner was able to eliminate any guess work on the part of the instructor. In addition, theindustry partner coordinated the delivery of materials and the availability of a professionalmasons.Four student hands-on experiences were created to enhance and underscore construction qualityon masonry properties and behavior. The four experiences were as follows:Student Hands-On Experience 1: A tour of a concrete block manufacturing plant to reinforce theindustry terminology. The tour gave the

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Susan Wainscott; Julie Longo

University. Proceedings of the 2015 American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Conference Copyright © 2015, American Society for Engineering Education 54018. Onwuegbuzie A.J. & Jiao Q.G. (1998). Understanding library anxious graduate students. Library Review, 47(4), 217-224. doi:10.1108/0024253981021281219. Huerta, D., & McMillan, V. E. (2000). Collaborative instruction by writing and library faculty: A two-tiered approach to the teaching of scientific writing. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 28, 1.20. Rempel, H. G., & Davidson, J. (2008). Providing

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

John T. Tester

.1 However, the required tolerances for such assemblies were not possible for theoriginal NAU equipment. The new product must be robustly designed with generous dimensionaltolerances.The generous dimensional tolerance parameter also was supported for another reason: Laboratorystudents were assumed to have little to no knowledge of how to operate any manufacturingequipment. Consequently, the products they produced from the labs would inevitably haveproduction errors. Designing a product with generous tolerances would increase the student’schance of producing a functional product with little experience on his or her part.Constrained DimensionsThis constraint is tied closely to the issue of existing equipment but also due to limited floor

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

David J. Dimas; Faryar Jabbari; John Billimek

operationalefficiency of undergraduate instruction. Transfer students in engineering have unique issuesrelated to time-to-graduation since they are often missing one or two key prerequisite courses.To increase contact between students and engineering faculty, several key technical courses havemoved to the sophomore year. Often, these courses serve as the key initial links for a sequenceof required advanced courses, but are rarely offered at the community college level. As a result,many transfer students cannot follow the normal progression of junior level courses which putsthem at high risk for taking more than 2 additional years to graduate, further increasing the debtload upon graduation. This paper describes the results of an experiment designed to help

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2015 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

, Provost Debra Bean, National University, Dr. GangaramSingh, Associate Provost, National University, and all faculty and staff of School of Engineeringand Computing at National University and sponsors for their help, support, and/or guidance. Thankyou.2015 ASEE/PSW- Conference CommitteeSan Diego, CaliforniaApril 10, 2015 ASEE-PSW-2015 Conference Organizing Committee Dr. Mohammad Amin (Chair), National University Dr. Pradip Dey (Co-chair), National University Ms. Lily Gossage (Sponsorship Chair), Cal Poly, Pomona Dr. Bhaskar Raj Sinha (Poster Chair), National UniversityDr. John Tester (Vice-Chair, Faculty Awards), Northern Arizona University Dr. Panadda Marayong (Vice Chair, Student Awards