Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - Engaging Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; Kate Disney, Mission College

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

theimportance of a high quality first year engineering experience. Both of these changes have beenmotivated by several factors including calls for improved undergraduate education and increasedtechnological literacy for all students. Another unfamiliar challenge is the increasing need forengineering departments to maintain stable levels of enrollment. Two year or communitycolleges are faced with additional demands to maintain an affordable and academicallyappropriate gateway into higher education and a viable means of transferring into four yearprograms. In achieving an effective engineering course, laboratory projects are universallyidentified as a key component. However creating and operating laboratories for large enrollmentclasses is a demanding

Conference Session

Hands-on Activities for Technological Literacy

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

build an electrodynamic loudspeaker from simple components thatcan produce clear and loud sound. Other classroom-tested mechanical dissection andsimple construction projects will be explained and demonstrated. Workshop participantswill learn strategies and techniques for successful implementation of hands-on howthings work activities.Cost $40Limited to 20 participants Page 11.676.2

Conference Session

Installing & Assessing Technology Literacy Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Voss, Smith College; Borjana Mikic, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

auditory system. Page 11.567.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Engineering for Everyone: Charging Students with the Task of Designing Creative Solutions to the Problem of Technology LiteracyIntroductionThe first year Introduction to Engineering course at Smith College, “EGR100: Engineering forEveryone,” is designed to be accessible to all students, regardless of background, yet it alsoserves as the foundation for students who choose to major in Engineering Science. In this course,students are introduced to the engineering design process via “mini-projects” that

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - College Courses and Minors

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Roy McGrann, State University of New York, Binghamton

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

wereDartmouth, Lehigh and University of Minnesota. Other minor programs within the university(management, computer science, and liberal arts) were reviewed. It was decided that the minorwould require a minimum of 17 credit hours (or five courses) to be comparable to other minorsat Binghamton University.It was also decided that students wishing to earn a minor in general engineering must firstcomplete a set of prerequisite math and science courses. Following completion of theprerequisite courses, students would take the required engineering courses. The engineeringcourses that would be required would include courses from three categories: (1) engineeringfundamentals, (2) advanced engineering, and (3) project work. With this mixture, studentswould be

Conference Session

Improving Technical Understanding of All Americans

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Engstrom, ITEA/Cal U

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

focus on the NSF funded project entitled Invention, Innovation & Inquiry(I3). It will highlight how the project was formulated, the materials developed, results of fieldtesting and implementation, and future activities. Special attention will be given to how the I3project emphasizes the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in eachunit as student follow an engineering design process to solve a technological challenge. The I3program has developed 10 units of instruction that focus on the development of technologicalliteracy traits for students in grades 4-6. Page 13.811.2The study of engineering has increasingly

Conference Session

Installing & Assessing Technology Literacy Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Camille George, University of St. Thomas; Elise Amel, University of St. Thomas; Karl Mueller, University of St. Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

2006-655: A SOLAR-POWERED DECORATIVE WATER FOUNTAIN HANDS-ONBUILD TO EXPOSE ENGINEERING CONCEPTS TO NON-MAJORSCamille George, University of St. Thomas Camille George is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. She teaches thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and a fuel cell technology class. She is interested in technology literacy, engineering ethics and the internationalization of the engineering program. She has been instrumental in adding a humanitarian service-oriented engineering project option to the senior design curriculum and also in exploring ways of adding engineering content into classes for non-science and

Conference Session

Technology Literacy for Non-Engineers

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

AnnMarie Thomas, University of Saint Thomas; Mark Breitenberg, Art Center College of Design

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

Literature from the University of California, San Diego. As the Chair of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Art Center (2000-2004), he created a new curriculum uniquely designed to lead and support the studio programs based on the transdisciplinary fusion of liberal arts and sciences and studio practices. He is a member of the Executive Board of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). As Chair of Education, he has led the creation of ICSID’s new Global Education Network, which allows design schools around the world to share ideas, projects, design competitions and teaching methods, as well as providing links to employment opportunities with design companies

Conference Session

Installing & Assessing Technology Literacy Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Ohland, Clemson University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

graduate students to K-12 curriculum development, hosting K-12 science andengineering competitions.19Each year at the University of Missouri Rolla, 300-400 first-year engineering students engage ina team design-build activity as a part of Engineering Design with Computer Applications, arequired Basic Engineering course. Five-person teams receive some funding support incompleting projects like a human-powered water pump, a portable bridge, a disc launcher, abubble machine, and a hands-free pencil sharpener. In spring 2003, the course objectives wereextended to develop educational materials for the K-4 classroom including designing andbuilding a device and an accompanying educational game or activity. The extension of the BasicEngineering course was

Conference Session

Engineering Courses for Non-engineers

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bradley Bishop, United States Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

aforementioned three fundamentalquestions: Page 14.1132.2Question 1: What is possible, based on our current understanding of the laws of the universe?This is projection, and is important in that it prevents the students from discussing their favoriteFaster-Than-Light travel methods and techniques for perpetual motion as part of the class, andalso makes them question closely the science behind current projects aimed at extremely esotericobjectives. Projection is rarely a negative, in that it is very difficult to say with certainty thatsomething is not possible. Rather, projection typically results in either a positive (a thing ispossible) or a neutral (it

Conference Session

Engineering Courses for Non-engineers

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Loendorf, Eastern Washington University; Terence Geyer, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

progressed in steps over timeto where we are today. Perhaps even early technologies were misunderstood by the people of thetime and today’s lack of understanding is just a continuance of that tendency. This may even bethe case for today’s engineering students. For the most part, current technologies are included inthe engineering and engineering technology curriculum. However, technologies from the past arenot. To remedy the situation, a project was initiated to enhance the engineering student’sknowledge of how past technologies were developed. The objective was to improve theirawareness of technology’s historical heritage and foundation. In order to accomplish this anactive learning hands-on component was added to a traditional lecture based course

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - Engaging Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Walk, Old Dominion University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

perspectives on acceptance criteria and adoption rates of newtechnology. Quantitative technology forecasting studies have proven reliable in projecting intime technological and social change using relatively simple models such as logistic growth andsubstitution patterns, precursor relationships, constant performance improvement rates of change,and the identification of anthropologically invariant behaviors. In addition, extensive studies ofthe evolution of patents have uncovered not a series of breakthrough discoveries or creations, butpredictable trends of incremental technological innovation, governed by a short list of parametricvariations.This paper presents an overview of the major processes describing technological changeindentified through

Conference Session

Improving Technical Understanding of All Americans

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Kasarda, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Brenda Brand, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Michael Collver, Montgomery County Public Schools; Gabriel Goldman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

successfully with the high-school population. Kasarda [3,4] described servicelearning and outreach aspects associated with the pilot year of the new capstone design course.Now in its second year, the authors have recognized, and have enhanced, aspects of the capstone Page 13.1282.2design project that facilitate the self-efficacy of both the undergraduates and the high-schoolstudents in technological and STEM literacy.Of all of the ITEA Standards of Technological Literacy [3] Standard 8: Students will develop anunderstanding of the attributes of design; Standard 9: Students will develop an understanding ofengineering design; and Standard 10: Students

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - Engaging Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Loendorf, Eastern Washington University; Terence Geyer, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

. Ironically, we struggle with many of the same problems today thatwere actually solved in the past. It is the understanding of past technologies and connecting themto current ones, that is important. To address this issue, a junior level interdisciplinary course hasbeen created that explores a historical perspective of the development of technology and itsimpact on society in a global context. Within this framework lies the dilemma of how to make thesubject interesting. Just offering lectures and discussion sessions does not do the subject justice.There had to be a better way to engage and capture the student's interest and curiosity. With thisobjective in mind, a project was initiated to accumulate or recreate technological artifactsfrom the past

Conference Session

Installing & Assessing Technology Literacy Courses

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering; David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

as the responsible staff officer for the Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy, a joint project of the NAE and the National Research Council. He also oversaw an earlier project that resulted in publication of the report, Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology.David Ollis, North Carolina State University David Ollis is Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University. He has created a device dissection laboratory with NSF support, and used it to instruct new engineering students, collaborate with other departments in design, technology education, and foreign language instruction, and develop a course in

Conference Session

Technological Literacy and the Educated Person

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michele Dischino, Central Connecticut State University; James DeLaura, Central Connecticut State University; Patrick Foster, Central Connecticut State University; David Sianez, CCSU

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

increase at nearlydouble the overall growth rate for all occupations by 2014, growing by 26% from 2004 to 2014,while employment in all occupations is projected to grow 13% over the same period 7. Yet inspite of such promising job prospects, the National Science Foundation recently reported that theUnited States is experiencing a chronic decline in homegrown science, technology, engineeringand math (STEM) talent and is increasingly dependent upon foreign scholars to fill workforceand leadership voids.8 Results from a recent survey by the American Society for Quality (ASQ)revealed that more than 85% of students today are not considering technical careers and thatmore parents encourage their daughters to become actresses than engineers.9 This is one

Conference Session

Technology Literacy for Non-Engineers

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

variousengineering labs across the campus.Science, technology, society projectsAll students completed two science, technology, and society projects. Working in teamsof three and imitating the work in the “take-apart” lab, they studied an artifact of theHispanic world. Their task was to research and describe the historical significance andengineering importance of the artifact and then to explain how the artifact reflects theculture which produced it. The fruits of these activities were two group presentations inthe course of the semester –practicing the final methodology of the end project—and agroup paper in English to summarize their project in Sevilla, Spain, and inMilwaukee,Wisconsin, two cities seemingly disparate in culture.Evaluation and assessment

Conference Session

Technology Literacy for Non-Engineers

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lawrence Whitman, Wichita State University; James Steck, Wichita State University; David Koert, Wichita State University; Larry Paarmann, Wichita State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

all undergraduate students.Modules were developed for each engineering discipline represented at Wichita State University:aerospace, computer, electrical, industrial, manufacturing, and mechanical engineering. Amodule was also developed covering the engineering design process. The adaptation of existingmodules from various sources was used to achieve the pedagogical objectives. For example, atthe end of one module students will be able to describe the use of gears and how gear ratios canincrease torque and the environments in which increased torque would be beneficial.The second task was to develop the actual course. The WSU project team and the collaboratorsplanned to teach the course in the Summer of 2005. Example learning objectives for

Conference Session

Service Courses for Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Suchan, United States Military Academy; Susan Schwartz, United States Military Academy; Edward Sobiesk, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

studentswho embrace and believe in IT, and who are confident from their current experiences that theywill have the ability to successfully employ future, not-yet-developed IT tools throughout theirprofessional career. We accomplish this goal by emphasizing hands-on learning, with studentscompleting numerous in-class exercises and labs as well as several team projects, all of whichare designed to help them learn how to learn IT.Even though this course is for non-engineers, we receive an abundance of anecdotal evidencefrom our former students that the technological literacy gained in this course has made asignificant difference in their chosen fields.A Foundation Based on CyberspaceThe concepts of the World Wide Web (WWW) and electronic media permeate

Conference Session

Engineering and Technology for Everyone

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

.................................Engines of our Ingenuity [32-34] Oakley ....................................Everyday Engineering [41] Ollis........................................How Things Work [42-45]2 Technology Focus or Topics CoursesThese courses tend to address a single technological topic or issue. The subject matter isintentionally focused and selective rather than intentionally broad. These courses may have asubstantial quantitative component. The focus courses may include laboratories or projects. Insome cases, social and historical aspects of the topic are included.In developing and teaching these courses, instructors are often working from their area ofresearch expertise. The instructors can then rely on their extensive often life-long experience inthe

Conference Session

Technological Literacy - Courses, Educational and Accreditation Standards

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yung-Hsiang Lu, Purdue University; Guangwei Zhu, Purdue; Cheng-Kok Koh, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

it isNP-complete [8]. Many problems related to Tetris are also NP-complete, even for off-line games when thesequences are known in advance [8]. It is computationally expensive to find the minimum height or themaximum number of cleared rows. Some researchers consider Tetris as an optimization problem [9]. Someeducators use Tetris for teaching game development [10–15]. In the fall semester of 2009, we used Tetris as a semester-long project in a course of object-orientedprogramming. This course teaches both Java and C++; the Qt library is used to create graphical userinterfaces for C++ programs. The students had taken at least two programming courses (C Programming andAdvanced C Programming) as prerequisites. Many students had taken or were

Conference Session

Technological Literacy and the Educated Person

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

creation of an ‘A’ level in engineering science. As anexamination it was highly successful, as a source of supply of future engineers it wasa failure. But several of its supporters argued that it should be seen as a component ofliberal education. Many engineering professors objected to this examination andargued that all students should be able to pursue projects through which they wouldlearn the pleasure of technology, and so government through its agencies sponsored“project technology”. It apparently had no effect on the supply of students totechnology programmes even though it was very successful at providing effectivelearning experiences3.In the last twenty or more years the term ‘literacy’ has developed to imply “anacquaintance with the basic

Conference Session

Service Courses for Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

Focus or Topics Courses ‚ These courses tend to address a single technological topic or issue. ‚ Subject matter is intentionally focused rather than intentionally broad. ‚ May have a substantial technical or quantitative component. ‚ May include laboratories or projects. ‚ May include some social and historical aspects of the topic.Examples: Klein and Balmer: .............................Converging Technologies at Union [7,22] Billington, Littman et. al ...................Civil Infrastructure. [8] George ...............................................Fuel Cells [17] Mechtel ,Korzeniowksi et al. ............Electrical Engineering for Non-Engineers [23] Kuc

Conference Session

Defining Technological Literacy

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Greg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering; David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

2006-695: WHAT IS TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY AND WHY DOES ITMATTER?David Ollis, North Carolina State UniversityGreg Pearson, National Academy of Engineering Greg Pearson is a Program Officer with the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, D.C. In that role, he develops and manages new areas of activity within the NAE Program Office related to technological literacy, public understanding of engineering, and engineering ethics. He currently serves as the responsible staff officer for the NSF-funded study, Assessing Technological Literacy in the United States, and the State Educators’ Symposium on Technological Literacy project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. He previously

Conference Session

Improving Technical Understanding of All Americans

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kara Harris, College of Technology - Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

technology to a larger group, the secret is to make the environment one that the larger group wishes to join. (p. 22) 10 Shanahan (2006) further stated that having role models that females could identify with,such as other females, could also be a factor in recruitment. With very few females in theprofession there are few role models with whom young women can identify. 10 One must remember that the key to effective recruitment is to understand whatinfluences the individuals one is trying to motivate. In a recent National ScienceFoundation (NSF) funded project, Extraordinary Women Engineers (2005) stated that: Professional interests for high school girls hinge upon relevance. Relevance incorporates that a job is rewarding

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - Engaging Students

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Loendorf, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

similarinventions appear in different parts of the world almost simultaneously? How did informationand technology spread from one place to another and why did they fade away in one place onlyto resurface later in a different place? How and why were inventions or innovations diffused orborrowed from one culture adapted to suit the needs of another?Teaching methods include lectures, discussions, videos, and written essay projects. The lecturesand discussions are designed and intended to be very interactive and engaging for the students.The selected videos show how past technologies were developed and used. The essays requirestudents to identify and apply the knowledge obtained from the course to both historical andtoday’s technologies. The students are

Conference Session

Engineering Courses for Non-engineers

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Blake, Austin Peay State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

system work. The story includesmany examples where engineers, operating under constraints, identify and solve problems.October Sky tells an autobiographical story of a group of young men who, after a long learningcurve with many failures, develops the technology to make very successful small rockets. Whilethis is a story about high school students, it reflects the perspective of an author who went on toan engineering career with NASA, and the story is a useful study for technological projects atany level. Moving to fiction and a setting in the distant future, Forbidden Planet tells a story ofthe enticing benefits of new technological marvels. It also explores the risks of unintended andunanticipated consequences. While these movies illustrate

Conference Session

Defining Technological Literacy

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Krupczak, Hope College; David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

have beensuccessful across a wide range of undergraduate institutions types. “Designing People,” James Baish, Bucknell University4. In this foundation seminar, students explore the design process. They study theelements of past designs and engage in design themselves. They work as individualdesigners and as part of a design team. They ill undertake a design project to address animportant human need in today’s society. A major segment of the course focuses uponthe evolution of the automobile as an example of human design. Questions about the realversus created needs are asked. The interaction of design with economics, socialstructure, politics and engineering capabilities is studied. The elements of style andaesthetics are assessed

Conference Session

Technological Literacy and the Educated Person

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

R. William Graff, LeTourneau University; Paul Leiffer, LeTouneau University; Martin Batts, Le Tourneau University; Maria J. Leiffer, LeTouneau University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

. Theyhave not experienced the laws of probability, because very improbable things havebecome commonplace to them. When I first saw “Mission Impossible”, having beentrained as an engineer, I had to laugh out loud, as a complicated device, built withouthaving been tested, functioned perfectly the first time! My sophomore students have tobe retrained in the way they build projects, so that they test each part of the deviceindividually before incorporating it in the overall project. This is now necessary in orderto overcome their expectation that everything will work perfectly the first time they tryit. In other words, they need to learn, by experience, “Murphy’s Law”. One of theprojects I assign in lab is to build a Rube Goldberg machine, which is a

Conference Session

Teaching Technological Literacy - College Courses and Minors

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Austin Talley, University of Texas, Austin; Christina White, Columbia University; Kristin Wood, University of Texas, Austin; Richard Crawford, University of Texas at Austin

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

University and is the senior coordinator for Design, Technology, & Engineering for All Children. Her research is in engineering education with a focus on humanitarian engineering, design, diversity, and the NAE's 21st century grand challenges. She has earned her M. Ed from The University of Texas at Austin. Contact: ckw.columbia@gmail.comKristin Wood, University of Texas, AustinRichard Crawford, University of Texas at Austin Dr. RICHARD H. CRAWFORD is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow No. 3. He is also Director of the Design Projects Program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his

Conference Session

Technology Literacy for Non-Engineers

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Blake, Austin Peay State University

Tagged Divisions

Technological Literacy Constituent Committee

have to be emphasized, and the discussion issuch that it can be used to introduce non-majors to calculations and analysis in engineering.Case studies in engineering and technology can come from a variety of books on engineering andtechnology. For our needs, a case study written for a general audience may be better for studentsthan a more detailed and rigorous, but less readable, scholarly account. Books by Henry Petroskiand John Lienhard are very useful sources. The author has gotten very positive comments fromstudents on Tobin, Great Projects,23 which led to a documentary series on PBS. The bookpresents selected engineering projects in the United States, ranging in time from improvementsin navigation and flood control on the Mississippi River