demonstrations and received similar coaching tosuccessfully complete their in-person tool competencies. After completing all training, studentswere given two weeks to complete the IDE project. Two consecutive laboratory sections werededicated to the project, and teaching assistants supervised additional open laboratory hours toprovide students with more time to complete the IDE project.MethodsStudy Context. The setting for this study was the first mechanical engineering design coursetaken by all mechanical engineering majors at a mid-sized (ca. 160 students/year), ABET-accredited program at a land grant university in the mid-Atlantic United States. The timing ofthis study was such that it coincided with a pre-planned change in the undergraduate
. Sheppard, E. McGrath, and B. Gallois, “Promoting Systems Thinking inEngineering and Pre-Engineering Students,” in American Society for Engineering EducationSpring 2008 Mid-Atlantic Section Proceeding. 2008.[2] J.E. Mills, and D.F. Treagust, “Engineering Education—Is Problem-Based or Project-BasedLearning the Answer,” Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 3, pp. 2-16 2003.[3] D. J. Cappelleri and N. Vitoroulis, "The Robotic Decathlon: Project-Based Learning Labsand Curriculum Design for an Introductory Robotics Course," IEEE Transactions on Education,vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 73-81, Feb. 2013.[4] M. Yim, et al. "AC 2008-2230: A Practice-Integrated Undergraduate Curriculum inMechanical Engineering," ASEE PEER, pp. 13.81.1 - 13.81.15 Jun
belief surveys. One of the most commonly used measures is Fisherand Peterson’s Adaptive Expertise Beliefs survey [1]. As part of a larger post-semester survey,researchers at a mid-Atlantic university administered Fisher and Peterson's Adaptive ExpertiseBeliefs survey [1] to students enrolled in two sections of a senior design capstone course.Instructors taught one section of the course using methods based on the principles of adaptiveexpertise, while the other course section involved the use of the traditional lecture-based methodof instruction. Results indicated a significant difference in overall adaptive expertise beliefscores. However, researchers did not find significant differences between the two groups on anyof the individual Fisher and
domain,ME offers a useful study focus. The sites range in size from a small program graduating 30-50students annually to larger programs with over 350 graduates per year. All include at least a full-year of senior design; one has a four-semester design sequence that begins in students’ junioryear. All include industry-sponsored projects, with some having options that include faculty-sponsored projects, competition teams, and service projects. Finally, all use a course coordinatorcoupled with individual faculty and/or industry mentors for each team. Team sizes are generally4-6 students. The sites are also geographically diverse (northeast, mid-Atlantic, mountain west,and southwest).SamplingBeginning in late spring 2017, we recruited participants
courses.While LA programs were initially developed for science and math courses, many LA programssupport LAs in a wide range of disciplines. This paper describes a pilot adaptation of the LAprogram for engineering design courses that we have developed at the University of Maryland,College Park Campus. All LAs assist in 14 separate sections of University of Maryland’sengineering design course for first-year undergraduate students. Our seminar integrates topicsfrom the discipline-general LA pedagogy seminar (cognitive science of learning, facilitation ofclassroom discourse, collaboration, metacognition) with topics especially relevant to engineeringdesign (design reviews, design thinking, expert-novice practices in engineering design,engineering
-institutional study of students’ transitions fromtheir capstone (senior) design experiences into engineering work [21-24]. The sections belowdescribe the sites, participants, data collection, and data analysis.Site DescriptionsThe research study involves four different universities: two large public comprehensiveuniversities (one in the mountain west and one in the mid-Atlantic), one small public technicaluniversity in the southeast, and one small private college in the northeast. Three have a year-longcapstone design program and one has a four-semester design sequence that spans the junior andsenior years. All focus heavily on industry-sponsored projects; three also include faculty-sponsored and national-competition projects. All emphasize