on the EWRAS andURRSA were observed. Data on the post-survey measures were obtained from 11 REUparticipants, reflecting an 85% post-survey completion rate.Table 4. Descriptive Statistics for Post-Survey Measures Standard Minimum-Measure Mean Median Range α Deviation MaximumURSSA 180.42 176.50 18.27 60.00 153.00-213.00 .91EWRAS 15.83 16.00 2.44 7.00 13.00-20.00 .86Openness to collaborating 4.67 5.00 0.65 2.00 3.00
educators.In addition to the struggles of engineering students to achieve conceptual understanding, recentengineering graduates’ grasp of written communication and associated skills is often below thatexpected by their anticipated positions in the modern workplace8. Pedagogical research hasfound that writing assignments effectively facilitate learning by forcing students to exploreconnections and patterns in the studied material9,10. These benefits of writing assignments areenhanced in fields such as engineering, since students are rarely assigned reflective writing tasksand thus have few opportunities to develop associated abilities11,12. Current conceptual testinginstruments in the chemical engineering field generally involve multiple choice
. Thelab members all have experience conducting qualitative analysis. Members reviewed 25 samplesof student work on the DST, placing sticky notes on the tests where they noted a particular codeor saw something of interest. These initial ideas were turned into a coding scheme and applied tothe dataset, omitting codes that were not relevant to the research focus (e.g., design aesthetics) orthat were found to be redundant. This coding scheme was refined further at another research labmeeting; per recommendations for qualitative researchers, disagreements in coding werediscussed.66 The chemical engineers involved in the project reviewed the scheme and confirmedthat it was ecologically valid,67 meaning it authentically reflected their understanding of
CurtisShannon, Christopher Easley, William Josephson, and Joni Lakin; and current or formerstudents Alex Kelly, Shannon McGee, Alexander Haywood, Amber Hubbard, Rachel Bostic,Shannon Bales, the officers in Auburn University’s SHPE chapter, and Jessica Cooper. BrennenReece is acknowledged for producing the Youtube videos related to MSP outreach. Outreachcoordinators Mary Lou Ewald and Jessica Taylor are acknowledged for their ongoing efforts.The specific modules and activities highlighted in this paper were funded by NSF EPS-1158862and DRL-1102997. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed inthis paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National ScienceFoundation.References:1. Nguyen