Conference Session

Computing -- Increasing Participation of Women and Underrepresented Minorities

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Laura K. Dillon, Michigan State University; Maureen Doyle, Northern Kentucky University; Linda Ott, Michigan Technological University; Wendy Powley, Queen's University; Andrea E Johnson, Spelman College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Minorities in Engineering, Pre-College Engineering Education, Women in Engineering

voices in computing ensures oursociety grows and develops accordingly.My participation in BPC efforts has benefited me in many ways. It has strengthened myemotional intelligence; developed my capacity for mentoring; and increased my knowledge ofresources available to students, curriculum development, and new technologies for CS education.It encouraged me to reflect on how my career might best align with my passions. I reasoned thatI could have a bigger impact training the voices of the future than being a singular voice that wasnot reflective of a larger community. My participation in BPC efforts expanded my professionalnetwork; it gave me access to many mentors who helped facilitate my transition from industryand into academia as a tenure-track

Conference Session

Before the Capstone: Project-based Experiences Early in the Curriculum

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Nicholas Andres Brake, Lamar University; Thinesh Selvaratnam

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

-2020 - -Surveys were deployed in Fall 2019 to students at every academic level in the civil engineeringundergraduate program (Seniors: 2016-2017 cohort, Juniors: 2017-2018 cohort, Sophomores:2018-2019 cohort, and Freshman: 2019-2020 cohort) to better understand their attitudes andperceptions (STEM confidence, Major Desirability and Reward, and Student Community) to seeif the retention data reflects their perceptions in these dimensions.Table 7 shows the synthesis summary of the students’ favorite and least favorite parts of thecourse. In aggregate, the peer mentored project-based engineering design activity was rated asthe students’ favorite part of the course (53%). The CAD Fusion 360, EXCEL, and MATLABmodules were rated

Conference Session

Are You Experienced? Approaches and Tools for Experiential Learning

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

J Chris Carroll P.E., Saint Louis University, Parks College of Engineering; Matthew D. Lovell P.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Kyle Kershaw P.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Shannon M. Sipes, Indiana University; Ronaldo Luna, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Engineering; John Aidoo, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; James H. Hanson P.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

of their learning experience [4]. The primary objectives of activelearning are to promote student activity and to engage them in the learning process [5], with themost extreme version being project-based or experiential learning. Project-based learningprovides an open-ended project with a variety of problems to solve over the course of anextended period of time. The primary advantage of project-based learning is the opportunity forstudents to experience the activity. However, to classify as experiential learning, students mustalso have an opportunity to reflect and apply what they learn. A survey [6] was sent to approximately 240 civil engineering programs to determine theextent of active learning use in upper-level courses and to

Conference Session

Pre-college Engineering Education Division Technical Session 16

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Katherine Leigh Boice, Georgia Institute of Technology; Christopher J. Cappelli, Georgia Institute of Technology; Meltem Alemdar, Georgia Institute of Technology; Jasmine N. Patel, Georgia Institute of Technology; Roxanne A. Moore, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Pre-College Engineering Education

Thinking Process, teamwork skills, andcommunication skills.One limitation of this evaluation is that the findings reflect only the perspective of studentparticipants. This was done deliberately in 2019 to allow the evaluation to focus on gatheringself-reported data from students. However, future evaluations of the Summer Accelerator shouldinclude data collected from multiple sources, including students, program instructors, andparents. This will provide richer information from multiple perspectives on the outcomes forstudents participating in the Summer Accelerator. Additionally, program instructors cancontribute information on the experience of implementing the K-12 IP program over the courseof one week. This information will provide further

Conference Session

ECCD Technical Session 4: Energy and Analysis

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Hitesh D. Vora, Oklahoma State University; Pragya Niraula, Oklahoma State University; Amrit Sunil Chugani, Oklahoma State University; Nilesh Anil Baraskar, Oklahoma State University; Anusha Sunil Saraf, Oklahoma State University; Michael L. McCombs, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

officially began in Guthrie on Christmas Eve 1890 in the McKennon Opera House whenTerritorial Governor George W. Steele signed legislation providing for the establishment of anagricultural and mechanical college as well as an agricultural experiment station in PayneCounty, Oklahoma Territory, effective December 25, 1890 [5]. At long last, Stillwater wasdesignated as the location for the college by the designated commission. On May 15, 1957,Oklahoma A&M changed its name Oklahoma State University of Agricultural and AppliedSciences to reflect the broadening scope of curriculum offered. However, the name was quicklyshortened to Oklahoma State University for most purposes, and the "Agricultural & AppliedSciences" name was formally dropped in

Conference Session

First-Year Programs: Metacognition, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation #2

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Racheida S. Lewis, University of Georgia; Holly M. Matusovich, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

fifty or something that’s not reflective of the effort, put in, that would just be discouraging and I think it would probably make me try less, because if I know a hundred percent effort is gonna give me fifty percent of the grade, then I can scale it down, right? I can do less and get about the same. [135_Interview_Lam_M4_2010]But, another found these negative experiences served as fuel to fire their desires to do better inthe course: And for someone to tell you, 'I feel like you didn't—you weren't really as—as on point with the situation as you should have been.' So now that kind of helps me to sit back and think outside of the box and analyze every problem that I'm faced with

Collection

2019 ASEE Zone I Conference & Workshop

Authors

Stephen Wilkerson; Joe Cerreta; Andrew D Gadsden

method thatrequires students to gain knowledge to solve real world problems. Ram et. al. 2007 points outthat student lack of interest is often attributable to the lack of real-world relevance found in atypical course. Ram further points out that using PBL successfully helps develop skills inlifelong learning that are not always present in the classroom. PBL helps students develop self-assessment independent of a teacher directing them. Mills et. al. 2003 poses the question “doesproblem-based learning work in engineering?” Mills concludes that “chalk and talk” pedagogyalone, is not the answer to teaching. Rather a mixture of traditional coursework and PBL islikely to be more successful. This is true here too, and after some reflection, some

Conference Session

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Best Paper Finalists

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

H. Ronald Clements III, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Brianna Benedict McIntyre, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Allison Godwin, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jacqueline Ann Rohde, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Sherry Chen

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

engineering knowledge and contribute in a classroom setting.In recalling negative interactions with faculty, students reversed the professor’s role in the struggleagainst the content of the course, positioning faculty as an obstacle rather than a support.Participants described their instructors as making their courses difficult, meticulous, or unfair. Incertain circumstances, students simply described their instructors as being bad teachers. Forexample, Charlie described how the faculty who were adversaries were professors, not teachers.This finding reflects the tension faculty experience between research and teaching, as Alpaya andVerschoorb identified how teaching accomplishments are not perceived as high as other aspectsof their role as faculty

Conference Session

Online and Professional Graduate Programs

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Michael J. Dyrenfurth, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Mitchell L. Springer, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Kathryne Newton, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Carmen Torres-Sánchez , Loughborough University; Timothy J. Jacobs, Texas A&M University; Charles M. Wolf, Texas A&M University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

differentiating featureto this PhD degree versus the traditional PhD advertised at University, the Transition Zone™,this degree’s bespoke training program supporting the researchers’ development as the leadersand entrepreneurs of the future, positioned the degree as an attractive option for those pursuing aHigher Education degree. Amongst the non-PhD topic-related skills sought when consideringthis degree, the top three sought-after skills were: • Self-management skills: being able to set SMART objectives for themselves, reflective and reflection on the task (i.e., a past experience) and in the task (i.e., during an experience), record-keeping, sense of ownership as a motivator, leading and motivating oneself. • Business acumen: how to

Conference Session

Perspectives for Women Faculty

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nicole Hawkes, WiSE / University of Southern California; Jean Morrison, University of Southern California; Cauligi Raghavendra, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

USC in hiring and promoting women faculty is significant, relative to where it started.With approximately 16,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate and professional students, USCprides itself on the diversity of its student body. In 2005, undergraduates students were 50.9%female to 49.1% male (graduate students 46.2% female to 53.8% male), 44.2% identify as non-white/caucasian (graduate students 42.4%) and international students comprise 8.6% ofundergraduates and 25.3% of graduate students, representing 108 countries. To better reflect thediversity of its students and to meet a standard of excellence in education that is tied to diversity,USC has embraced an aggressive faculty diversity program, influenced in part by the success ofthe WiSE

Conference Session

Knowing our Students, Part 1

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heidi Loshbaugh, Colorado School of Mines; Brittany Claar, Regis University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

general). ID.professional Any instance when the informant If engineering specific, identifies specific characteristics of a also double-code as profession or of a person practicing a engineering definition Page 12.775.3 particular profession. [ED] (general or practice) ID.self Any instance when the informant reflects upon his or her intellectual dispositions, personality, habits of

Conference Session

Our Future in Manufacturing

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott Danielson, Arizona State University; Trian Georgeou, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

. Page 12.1472.4Spring 2005 Manufacturing Engineering Technology Survey ResultsThe following data reflects the status of ABET-accredited manufacturing engineering technology(MET) programs in 2005. This information was generated from the 2005 survey, shown inAppendix A. The survey was returned, with varying levels of completeness, by twenty-twoprograms, a 57% participation rate (percentages have been rounded). Of the twenty-tworespondents, six institutions or 27%, replied that they were being, or had, shut down theirprogram. One of the six institutions implied that they no longer had a MET degree but that theystill offered some manufacturing classes. Another of the six institutions replied that they werephasing out both their MET and Industrial

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen Benitez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Juan Jimenez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Yesenia Cruz, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Marta Rosa, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Alexandra Medina-Borja, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

. Thisauthor categorizes people into four types of learners:• Divergers (Type 1 Learners), Perceive information through concrete experience, rely on feelings, need to express feelings when learning, seek personal meaning as they learn, and want personal interaction with the teacher and others.• Assimilators (Type 2 Learners). Assimilators perceive information through abstract conceptualization and process it through reflective observation.• Convergers (Type 3 Learners), Convergers perceive information through abstract conceptualization and process it actively.• Accommodators (Type 4 Learners), Accommodators perceive information through concrete experience and process it through active experimentation.Framework for choosing a strategic teaching

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wendy James, Oklahoma State University; Stacee Harmon, Oklahoma State University; Richard Bryant, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

, scientific methods in thelatter part of the nineteenth century when researchers asked subjects to reflect and report on theirown cognition. At the turn of the nineteenth century, using such subjective data for analysis was Page 12.556.7abandoned in favor of using only observable actions as appropriate objective data. This resultedin the behaviorist perspective, where learning is understood as the formation, strengthening, andadjustment of associations between ideas, stimuli, and responses. These theories “are framed bythe assumption that behavior is to be understood as the responses of an organism to stimuli in thesituation,”1 which usually can

Conference Session

FPD6 -- Early Intervention & Retention Programs

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cindy Foor, University of Oklahoma; Susan Walden, University of Oklahoma; Tyler Combrink, University of Oklahoma; Lindsey McClure, University of Oklahoma; Deborah Trytten, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

have identified peer adviceas more valued by students than advice from formal sources.7 Students are, in some sense, morequalified than formal sources to give advice to undergraduate science, technology, engineering,and mathematics (STEM) students. Many counselors and advisors were not STEM studentsduring their undergraduate program. Faculty, while more often STEM students asundergraduates, are likely to have been elite students, who underestimate the challenges facingthe average student.The advice expressed by our 185 interviewees, most of whom are upper division, derives fromtheir actual lived experiences, reflecting on the challenges they have faced in the context ofsuccessfully negotiating an engineering curriculum. Most perceptions of

Conference Session

Approaches to K -12 Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carolyn Vallas, University of Virginia; Larry Richards, University of Virginia; Anaïs Miodek, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

School of Engineeringand Applied Science. Initially, the MITE program was intended to serve as a preparation andrecruitment program for first-generation college students and minority groups in engineering,defined as: women, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. In 2002, the programwas renamed the Introduction to Engineering, reflecting a conscious decision to make theprogram more overtly inclusive of all demographic groups. The OMP continued to run theprogram and was officially renamed the Center for Diversity in Engineering (CDE) in 2004. Inaddition, in 2003, a new emphasis on hands-on engineering was introduced and material frominteractive engineering teaching kits was incorporated into the ITE program. This included theadoption

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Mary Cordova-Wentling, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; Steven Thomas, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

4(Information Technology Association of America, 2003). Prior employment research on genderstratification demonstrates that this under representation is a reflection of organizational andsocial structures, rather than essentialist generalizations about gender group characteristics(Trauth, Quesenberry, & Morgan, 2004). As a result, it is necessary to understand thecharacteristics of the IT workplace environment, and in particular, the workplace environmentalfactors that hinder and assist the career progression of women in IT. A study by Wardell,Sawyer, Reagor, and Mitory (2005), found that women are nearly three times as likely as men toleave the IT workforce. Their findings showed that although women are able to gain thenecessary skills

Conference Session

Outstanding Contributions to ME

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Rhoads, Michigan State University; Craig Somerton, Michigan State University; Brian Olson, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; Terry Ballinger, Lansing Catholic High School

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

with the students as it once was. As this isbelieved to be reflective of the product being assembled by the students, rather than the unit conceptitself, product changes are being considered for future sessions. With regard to the lecture portionof the unit, the instructors are still concerned that the students are being introduced to modernmanufacturing via multimedia sources rather than industrial tours. While this approach does freeup an additional day for an alternative topic (such as electromechanical systems), it comes at theexpense of a ‘real world’ engineering experience. If local factory tours were to become accessibleagain, the instructors would strongly consider resuming the old manufacturing curriculum.52.7 Lesson VII: Energy and

Conference Session

Engineering in High Schools

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sibel Uysal, Arizona State University; Sharon Kurpius-Robinson, Arizona State University; Dale Baker, Arizona State University; Stephen Krause, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

hedid not sustain the students’ interest with several hands-on design activities, such as building anairplane, a tower, a bridge, guest speakers, field trips, readings about the design process, andteam presentations, Mr. Q. was not able to pay enough attention to some aspects of the classwhich inhibited the success of the program. For example, the video presentations or activitieswere selected to reflect the interests of the students, as indicated by student questions ordiscussions. Gender and minority interests were not explicitly taken into consideration. Forexample, most videos focused on disasters resulting from engineering mishaps videos that mightshow the relevance of engineering to society. Furthermore, difficulties were encountered

Conference Session

New Concepts for Alternative and Renewable Energy Courses

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Radian G Belu, Drexel University (Tech.)

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

own pace but not so much deciding in what order to learn. It is very plausible that, while Page 23.602.15the course materials and virtual lab are available at any time, the sequential presentation of someof the scientific content of the modules limit in what order the modules could be completed. Thetasks to complete each module are clearly stated and the perceived interactivity of the course andexperiments reflects that the choices that students make are meaningful and not just not for thesake of making choices.However, in general, the responses amongst the surveyed groups (students, graduate students(TA) and instructors) showed little

Conference Session

Curriculum and Program Developments, Exchanges, Collaborations, and Partnerships

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eck Doerry, Northern Arizona University; Harvey Charles, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

International

mentors for younger GSEP cohorts.2.1.2 GSEP’s comprehensive, committed program conceptIn many ways, the broad, college-wide GSEP concept is comparable to the Honors Programconcept, in that provides no new degree programs in and of itself, but serves to optionallyaugment or “upgrade” any existing STEM degree program on campus. Even more so than anHonors program, however, GSEP is based on a “committed participation model”, meaning thatstudents explicitly apply to the program in their freshman year, and are expected to participate ina continual series of mandatory meetings and program activities throughout. This reflects ourphilosophy that true internationalization is not achieved via an isolated event or trip abroad, butinvolves the shaping of an

Conference Session

Integrating Art, Humanities, and Engineering

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy W. Simpson, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Marcus Shaffer, Penn State Architecture; Elisha Clark Halpin, Penn State University, School of Theatre, Dance Program; Amy Dupain Vashaw, Center for the Performing Arts @ Penn State; Dorothy H. Evensen, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

along with reflections from the faculty“client”. Discussions of the other two capstone design projects, which both involved “dancevehicles” that emerged in the second year of the grant, follow in subsequent sections.3.1. Spring 2011 Capstone Design Project: A Portable, Cost-Effective Motion Capture SystemThe objective in this first capstone design project was to design a portable and cost-effectivesystem to capture people’s movement through different public spaces on/near the Penn Statecampus. The intent was to design a system that could capture the gross/macro-level movementsof people through a large open space, not necessarily the fine/micro-level movements ofindividuals. The system also needed to be easy to set up, move, calibrate, and

Conference Session

Laboratory Experiences in Mechanical, Materials and Thermal Systems

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew J. Traum, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Vincent C Prantil, Milwaukee School of Engineering; William C Farrow, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Hope Leigh Weiss, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

, and reflect on the impacts their choices had on rocket performance using distincttools from the discipline of each course.Among the novel aspects of our approach is to expand beyond a two-course project sequencespanning just one academic year, a technique already used in many engineering curricula.Instead, our project is integrated into a multi-year five-required-course sequence with at least onecourse appearing in each year of the four-year mechanical engineering curriculum. We expectthis approach to engender significant benefits to student learning. First, it promotes “spacedrepetition”, wherein learners encounter the same material in briefer sessions spread over longertime periods rather than the study of information in single blocks, as

Conference Session

Programs in Entrepreneurship

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew L Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Donald D. Carpenter P.E., Lawrence Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation

and Ahad Ali EME 3023 Manufacturing Processes 3 Numerical Vernon Fernandez EME 3033 Engr. Numerical Methods 3 MethodsThe KIT training process requires a two-year commitment involving week-long workshops,ACL/PBL implementation, report-back accountability sessions, and closing-the-loop sessions.Because of the commitment, almost all of the faculty members in the KIT program are full-time,although a few trusted adjunct instructors have also been selected to participate. Currently 56faculty members have been trained in PBL and ACL techniques representing approximately 46courses. (Table 3 reflects a lower number of KIT faculty; some faculty are no longer

Conference Session

Potpouri - A Mix

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Oai Ha, Utah State University; Ning Fang, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

reflect student learning gains. Many assessment studies wereperformed with neither a control group nor random assignment of student participants, omissionswhich presented a significant threat to their validity. Based on our research findings descried inthis paper, we suggest that particular attention be paid to control students’ cognitive load at anappropriate level when designing and implementing CSA modules and programs in order tomaximize student learning outcomes.IntroductionIn learning many engineering subjects, students must develop skills to visualize the motion ofobjects over space and time. With advances in computer technology and communicationnetworks, more and more engineering educators have employed web-based computer simulation

Conference Session

Intercollegiate and Cross-disciplinary Collaboration

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Barbara Burks Fasse PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology; James William Schwoebel, Georgia Institute of Technology; Ethan James Craig, Georgia Institute of Technology; Anish Joseph, Georgia Institute of Technology; Ajit Vakharia, Georgia Institute of Technology; Steve M. Potter PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology; Kim Dooley, Texas A&M University; James DUPE Linder, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

participants to reflect on their experience in real-timebecause accuracy of memories tend to be heavily influenced by the final experiences thusintroducing three of Schacter (23 seven memory flaws: transience (decreasing accessibility ofinformation over time), absent-mindedness (inattentive or shallow processing that contributes toweak memories), and blocking (temporary inaccessibility of information that is stored inmemory). To control for this, the structured journal was designed to serve as a series of in-the-minute, real-time surveys in which students were given a prompt as a topic for focusing eachweek’s reflection as well as to report their engagement as it developed over time. Its utility as atool is to increase the validity of the data by

Conference Session

K-12 Professional Development I

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jed S. Lyons, University of South Carolina; Erica Pfister-Altschul, University of South Carolina

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

results of the second survey constitute thebulk of this study, and are discussed below.Second Survey ParticipantsFifty five survey responses were complete enough to be used. The distribution of participants byyear of participation, gender, and major field is shown in Table 2. These reflect the changingnature of the participant pool. Science Fellows began participating in 2005 and the largestcohorts occurred in years 2005-2010. We compared the demographics of all original GK-12Fellows to those who participated in the second survey, and found that the percentages of thesurvey participants were approximately the same (see Table 3). Therefore, the survey sample isconsidered to be representative of participants in our GK-12 program. Table 2

Conference Session

The Climate for Women In Engineering

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey Jarosz; Ilene Busch-Vishniac

what steps must now be taken to increase thenumber of women in engineering beyond the current level.While the answers to the question of how to increase the number of women will undoubtedly bemany and varied, reflecting the complexity of the problem, we believe that there is a simple truththat must form the framework for appropriate discussion, namely, that marginal approaches willalways produce marginal gains at best. Here we define as marginal approaches which either treatsymptoms rather than root causes, or which focus on actions outside of the central core defining aproblem. Our analysis of the work to enhance the success of women in engineering finds much ofit to be marginal on both accounts. A large fraction of the work focuses on

Conference Session

Improving Teaching and Learning

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Steven Beyerlein; Donald Elger

concepts” objective would be togive students an unfamiliar problem and then interview them. For example, one can ask studentshow they would figure out the rotation rate of a yo-yo that is dropped and allowed to spin freely(i.e. to “sleep”). Students who are far along (i.e. a high performance level, meaning they solveproblems like engineers) will likely apply scientific concepts—e.g., they might balance thechange in gravitational potential energy with the change in rotational kinetic energy and theninclude work done by the human hand at the start of the motion. Students who are not far along(low performance level) will give trite answers, usually not involving scientific concepts. Each objective is written in language that reflects the idea of

Conference Session

Technology, Communication, & Ethics

Collection

2003 Annual Conference

Authors

Sageev Pneena; Kathy Bernard; Carol Romanowski

teams or in interdisciplinarygroups. They spend most of their time preparing and communicating technicalinformation—discussing, listening, writing, and reading.Moreover, through the span of a career, most move through a variety of “functions”, rangingfrom entry-level engineers, to product designers, to customer representatives, to high-levelmanagers. Our 1999 surveys show that engineering graduates, working three-to-five years,typically fill a wide range of functions. They reported spending 64 % of their timecommunicating—32 % on writing; 10 % on oral presentations; and 22 % on discussions andmeetings. This high percentage among young engineers may reflect the current emphasis onteamwork: respondents reported spending an average of 32 % of