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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Kist; Barbara Goldberg; William Lin

Session 3650 The Impact of a Problem-solving, Team-based, Team-taught, Interdisciplinary Learning Community on Nontraditional Technical Students at a Commuting Institution Barbara M. I. Goldberg, Ph.D., Thomas M. Kist, M.S, William T. Lin, Ph.D. DeVry Institute/DeVry Institute/Indiana University, Purdue University at IndianapolisAbstractThis study focused on nontraditional, commuting, full-time students at a proprietary,technical, two and four year college in a large metropolitan area in central New Jerseyand the impact of a problem-solving, team-based, team-taught, interdisciplinary

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Erlandson

Board Journal to Page 6.103.7 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2001, American Society of Engineering Education“recognize local school boards for taking bold and innovative steps to improve school districtgovernance and make a positive impact on student learning.” 23Most recently, the ETL was awarded the 2000 Michigan Campus Compact Faculty/StaffCommunity Service-Learning Award. This award is given to recognize exceptional programs atthe 31 participating Michigan colleges and universities, that “engages or influences students tobe

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Andrew Lau; Robert Pangborn

Session 2793 Engaging Engineering Students in Learning – A College-wide First Year Seminar Program Andrew S. Lau, Robert N. Pangborn College of Engineering, Penn State UniversityAbstractThis paper describes the inception, design and implementation of a First-Year Seminar Programin the College of Engineering at Penn State. Emanating from coincidental activities of a college-based colloquy and working group on the engineering curriculum, and a re-evaluation of thegeneral education program by the University Faculty Senate, the new first-year seminars

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

D. Smith; James Squire

Session 2425Role of the Community in Teaching Undergraduate Engineering Design James C. Squire, D. Todd Smith Virginia Military InstituteAbstract: The local communities surrounding universities provide a wealth of opportunities forengineering students to practice engineering design while making real contributions that affectpeople’s lives. Such design projects also directly address ABET EC2000 criteria that studentsshould understand the impact of engineering in a societal context. This article identifies severalsources within the community that supply engineering problems suited for

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Judith Waalen; Malgorzata Zywno

effect on students’ achievement2, 3. It also has a positive impact beyondquantitative measures of academic outcomes, such as changes in students’ thinking, intellectualdevelopment, and personal growth4. The course designers therefore placed emphasis not only onthe provision of a solid theoretical foundation, but also on the extension of the theory to practice,and on teamwork and communication skills. Real-time experiments in servo-motor control,demonstrations (fuzzy logic and optimal control of a 3D helicopter simulator), realistic design,testing, and implementation using advanced computer simulations (MATLAB and Simulink5)became an integral part of the course in and outside of the classroom6, 7.Non-technical skills became a larger part of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Karen Davis

a system, component or process to meet desired needs. d. an ability to function well 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 and societal context. i. a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in lifelong learning. j. a knowledge of contemporary issues. k. an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Levitt

Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Educationh) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global/societal context;i) a recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in lifelong learning;j) a knowledge of contemporary issues; and,k) the ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice"1.The first three criteria are standard engineering skills. Engineering educators realize these skillsare not sufficient for successful careers in engineering. It is important to note that several ofthese criteria directly require communication skills. From a practical standpoint, I like to pointout to students that recruiters consistently claim

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Vinay Dayal; Jerald Vogel; Rebecca Sidler Kellogg

Session 3225 Engineering Design – On-Line Rebecca Sidler Kellogg, Jerald Vogel, Vinay Dayal Iowa State UniversityIntroductionTransforming engineering curriculum to an on-line asynchronous format presents manychallenges and opportunities. Engineering design has typically been taught as a collaborativeinteractive course at Iowa State University where student involvement and engagement waspromoted in face-to-face synchronous learning environments. With the dawn of e-learning, anew opportunity to reach students on-line, faculty at Iowa State University re-examined

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Vikram Cariapa; Joseph Domblesky; James Rice

; Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education"addition to communication skills, other manufacturing related competency gaps that have beenidentified by employers include application of manufacturing processes, statistics, andmanufacturing systems. While specific reasons for manufacturing related skills deficiencies havenot been identified, it is likely that the reduction in hands-on laboratory experiences that waseffected at the same time that design content in the curricula was being reduced is one of theprimary causes.A second criticism of engineering education has been that there is little effort to integrate parts ofthe curriculum2. Students often echo this view when they complain that

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

John Chandler; A. Dean Fontenot

communication, and civic discourse. One of the most exciting aspects of thisprogram is that students are equal participants in a community of learners that includesboth their parents and their teachers. This article includes initial results of the pilot studyfor this program, conducted with 16 at-risk students from low-income families, theirparents, and seven of their teachers during the Spring 2000 semester. Because the pilotdemonstrated an extremely high degree of positive potential, a number of entities in theLubbock community have formed a consortium to significantly extend the scope of theprogram. This article describes the plan for increasing the scale of the program to make itavailable to a much larger number of participants and to make the

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Knox; Randall Kolar; Leslie Fink; Kanthasamy Muraleetharan; Gerald Miller; David Sabatini; Baxter Vieux; Michael Mooney; Kurt Gramoll

capabilities, enhance their communication skills, learn about themselves andhow to work with others, how to integrate different aspects of engineering, how to learn new mate-rial on their own, etc. The second special feature is having opportunities for in-depth reflection onone’s own learning experiences. The introduction and use of learning portfolios will accomplishthis. Learning portfolios are narrative statements written by students about their learning experi-ences, viz, what they have done, what they have learned, a honest assessment of themselves interms of the multiple competencies desired, in this case, for future work in engineering, and anidentification of what they need to learn next to further their professional development as

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Patricia Harms; Steven Mickelson; Thomas Brumm

living community. Also, we have encouraged our livingcommunity mentor to help encourage the students to incorporate other social events (bowling,going to ISU sports events, participating in intramural sports, volunteering for more campusactivities) into their routines. The department plans on continuing this program as long asfunding can be obtained for the peer mentor and the programming cost. External funds fromindustry will also be pursued in the near future.Bibliography1. Shuh, J. H. (1999). Student learning in college residence halls: What research shows. Paper presented at theACUHO-I 50th Annual Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina.2. Pascarella, E.T., Terenzini, P.T., and Blimling, G.S. (1994). The impact of residential life on students

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Alexander Crispo; Beverly Davis

taken (1).Anyone who has been involved in a manufacturing process is well aware that qualityissues will surface periodically. Although we can all accept the natural variationsinvolved in manufacturing, one has to question the responses to these variations. One hasto question the authenticity, sincerity and validity of quality initiatives with the followingclaims. Six former employees of the Firestone plant in Decatur, IL, which manufacturedmany of the 6.5 million tires recalled, claim that workers used questionable tactics tospeed production in the mid 1990’s (6). This author goes on to report that these workersallege that (6): • Decatur workers engaged in practices such as puncturing bubbles on tires to cover up flaws on products that

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Teresa Larkin-Hein

online learning activities as compared to traditional modes of discussion 5. The use of on-line discussion groups offers a relatively new avenue through which the learner can take anactive role in the learning process. Furthermore, on-line discussion groups are one form ofcomputer-assisted communication that can promote interactive engagement of the learner withthe content being studied. On-line discussion group formats may also offer some students a more“comfortable” environment in which to interact than the traditional large lecture class. Inaddition, on-line discussion groups may appeal to students with diverse learning styles. Theimportance of adopting a learning style approach in and out of the classroom has been welldocumented 6 - 15.II

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Medhat Morcos; David Soldan

© 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationform is rarely productive — and is certainly inadequate for supported distance education whichaims to engage the student in a community of learning. The value Internet technology brings todistance education lies not in direct translation from other media but in transformation ofsupport mechanisms to exploit its potential range. The Internet has the potential to meet thechanging social and educational needs of students — in particular the need to choose their owntime, place, and style of study. Universities respond to societal trends, and it is natural that theyshould follow the trend to use technology [21]. Also, universities are having to re-examine theirways of working, stimulated by

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Patricia Harms; Steven Mickelson; Thomas Brumm

1999to 1,838 in 2000” (Huba, p. 1).At large research based universities, like ISU, it is often difficult for undergraduate students tobecome engaged in the university, an issue highlighted by the Boyer Commission’s 1998 report3.Learning communities are one innovation designed to address this difficulty. Furthermore, forengineering programs in particular, engaging (and retaining) new students is extremely importantas the demand for engineering graduates is increasing, while the number of students obtainingengineering degrees is about constant4. No longer can engineering departments ignore the needfor retention programs for increasing the number of their graduates. In light of this fact,engineering college administrations are increasingly

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Maria Kreppel; Beverly Swaile

Society for Engineering Education(EET), Construction Management, and Information Engineering Technology (IET). This coursefocuses on topics related to professional responsibility. The course is presented in a way todevelop and strengthen critical thinking and communication skills. Additionally, a team-basedlearning approach expands the students’ abilities to work alongside students from otherdisciplines to strategically problem-solve. Students enrolled in the course are expected to bringwith them an understanding of science and technology. This course builds upon theirpreexisting knowledge to examine social and ethical dimensions of selected topics from theirrespective disciplines as they work through case studies centered around issues important

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Hoke; Craig Somerton

is to provide the students with a thermalengineering experience in which they design, build, test and report on their work. Feedback tostudents is provided during weekly meetings with the instructional staff, a design competition andthrough grading of the written project report. Students were given anonymous pre and post-surveys to obtain their expectations and evaluations of the thermal design experience. Thepurpose of this exercise was not to evaluate the learning objectives specifically, but to measure thestudents’ perception of the project. Three factors were targeted specifically; the students’confidence in their technical skills, group skills and leadership, and whether students found theproject engaging. Those survey results are

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Thomas Harmon; Eva Baker; Gregory Chung

significant changes, particularly in the wayengineering schools are adopting problem-based instruction to meet the changing demands ofpractice. Increasingly, engineering schools are requiring students to work on team projects that areopen-ended with loosely specified requirements, produce professional-quality reports andpresentations, consider ethics and the impact of their field on society, and develop lifelonglearning practices. While there exist numerous implementations of courses adopting these methodsto purportedly improve student learning, measuring the impact of problem-based instructionremains challenging. The existing evidence generally suffers from methodological shortcomingssuch as reliance on students’ self-reported perceptions of

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Deran Hanesian; Angelo Perna; Vladimir Briller

Engineering • Manufacturing Process and Floor PlanningMechanical Engineering • Toy Design • Slider-Crank Mechanism Application • Application Device for Photo Resistor Light • Glider AirplanesIn all modules there was a strong emphasis on “hands-on” experience, developing oral andwritten communication skills, independent group effort and teamwork. The program was wellreceived by both students and faculty.In the interest of course evaluation and assessment, the Office of Institutional Research andPlanning investigated whether quantitative student performance data would support findingsfrom surveys and questionnaires on the freshman engineering curriculum change. The studycompared the impact of the Engineering Graphics course

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ted Aanstoos; Steven Nichols

professional and ethical responsibility • An ability to communicate effectively • The broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global/societal context • A recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning • A knowledge of contemporary issuesGraded course work includes several short writing assignments, a case study report, and asemester research project. The case study, report, and the semester research project are done bystudent teams (the same team was used in a given semester for all team assignments), and eachof these was presented both in writing and orally, with equal grade weight placed on eachmethod of presentation. All students on a Team

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Youki Terada; Pam Sirivedhin; Flora McMartin; Alice Agogino; Ann McKenna

division courses. Several changes were made tospecific courses to improve students’ integrative understanding of calculus and the physicalsciences, and to emphasize applications to engineering. Various data have been collected toinvestigate the impact the reforms had on student learning, as well as to gain insight intostudents’ experiences during their undergraduate engineering career. Interviews were conductedwith engineering students and faculty to garner feedback about integration efforts and studentsperceptions of the curriculum. This paper describes the interview project and outlines theinterpretive framework we established for the analysis of the interview data. Initial analysissuggests that students have difficulty understanding lower

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Christopher Ibeh

in the student the use of consultation at the peer,supervisory, managerial and executive levels as a medium for effective communication. “Staffmeeting” is a common and standard forum for discussion of relevant and importantorganizational and industry operational activities. Staff meetings provide dynamism andimproved operation techniques as organization members exchange ideas based on experienceand knowledge. Exchange of ideas produces awareness, and the employees have better levels ofproblem anticipation. Enhanced level of problem anticipation is the foundation for operationalpreparedness. Policy decisions made at these meetings ensure strong support for such bymembers of the organization, and management does not have to devote extra time

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Larry McKenzie; Kenneth Gentili; Jr., Richard Crain; Jeffrey McCauley; Forrest Parkay; Denny Davis; Michael Trevisan

. Studentsare introduced to functional roles and eventually each student learns how to manage theteam, report team deliberations, record team activities in a team journal, become achecker of product, explorer of new ideas ("the one with crazy and wild ideas"), and topublicly reflect on team process. They are also introduced to the Herrmann FourQuadrant Learning Model. They become aware of other team member’s learning stylesand the impact that it has on creating more effective designs.Team members also develop more effective communication skills and learn to be moreinclusive. They learn how to give reflector reports, which includes team strengths, teamimprovements and insights to the process. All of these activities provide the foundationfor

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Nohemi Rubio; Lourdes Sanchez-Contreras; Connie Della-Piana

and with an understanding of the context inwhich the program is implemented and its stage of development. Dependent on the purpose orpurposes of the evaluation, an evaluation or the systematic collection of information about anundergraduate research program should provide evidence to either (1) render judgment about theoverall merit or worth of the undergraduate research experience project; (2) improve the ways inwhich students engage in the research experience; or (3) generate knowledge about the essentialelements of an undergraduate research experience than enhances the effectiveness and impact ofthese types of experiences for undergraduates.As undergraduate research experience programs proliferate to include all students, the need todesign

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Naomi Chesler; Mark Chesler

rather than competitivetask engagement. Perhaps not as obviously, it also does not fit well for many younger men whoare now being socialized in less gender-constricted ways.III. Alternative mentoring strategiesMultiple mentorshipsIn an alternative model that can be conceptualized as a Venn diagram of interconnected circles,multiple mentoring encourages the protégé to construct a mentoring community based on adiverse set of helpers instead of relying on a single mentor. Humphreys22 discusses thepossibilities of “distributed mentorship”, which includes as mentors both senior and juniorcolleagues, people inside as well as outside the academy, and electronic media as well aspersonal connections. Similarly, in a series of pamphlets recently created

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Carl White; Myra Curtis; Clifton Martin

has been theimaginative integration of design activities throughout the educational pathways of our students– including the K – 14 pipeline. Programmatic themes are “Learning by Design”, “Our Role inthe K – 14 Community”, and “Student and Faculty Development.”2Morgan State UniversityMorgan State University is an historically black institution with the unique designation asMaryland’s public urban university. Morgan’s programs reflect the commitment of theuniversity to have major impact on the underrepresentation of blacks and other minorities in theprofessional labor force within the city, state, and nation.3 Morgan State University’s variouspre-college and outreach programs reinforce this commitment. Thus, the ECSEL “Learning byDesign”, “Our

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Waleed Smari; Jon Stevens; Andrew Murray

possible.Traditional activities like face-to-face meetings are being altered and even replaced by a suite ofsynchronous and asynchronous tools that integrate communications, brainstorming, scheduling,project management, and many other aspects of the design process. The University of Dayton,with three partner schools in Ohio, is preparing students to effectively respond to the new andunique challenges of these environments. One goal of this work is a course featuringinterdisciplinary, multi-university engineering design projects with strong emphases on bothmodern internet-based collaboration tools and successful distributed design.Between the 5th and 14th of July, 2000, we executed a pilot design project implementing ageographically dispersed collaborative

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey Jones; David Niebuhr; Heather Smith; Lanny Griffin; Blair London; Linda Vanasupa; Katherine Chen

of Corroding Materials, III. The Impact of Anode/CathodeSizes. Our objectives in developing this module were to address the need for clear bridgesbetween math, science and technology in the engineering curriculum and to provide a means offaculty development primarily at community colleges. As a result, it was designed to allow theengineering student to experience the synergy of science, math and engineering technology in alaboratory setting. Recent findings in learning theory research were used in the design of themodule to reach students of diverse learning styles. Our targeted audience is sophomoreengineering majors at community colleges and institutions without Materials Science andEngineering programs. In this paper we will present the

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Upchurch; Judith Sims-Knight

. Urbana, Ill.: (ERIC Clearinghouse reading and Communication Skills.15. Chi, M. T. H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. Self-Explanations: How Students Study and Use Examples in Learning to Solve Problems. Cognitive Science, 13, 145-182 (1989).16. Chi, M. T. H., de Leeuw, N., Chiu, M. H., & LaVancher, C. Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Understanding. Cognitive Science, 18, 439-477 (1994).17. Bielaczyc, K., Pirolli, P. L., Brown, A. L. (1995). Training in self-explanation and self-regulation strategies: Page 6.1158.7 Investigating the effects of knowledge acquisition activities on problem