Assessing Awareness and Competency of Engineering Freshmen on Ethical and Responsible Research and Practices

Bimal Nepal; Michael Johnson; Amarnath Banerjee; Glen Miller

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41958
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41958
Download Count: 446

Paper Authors

biography

Bimal Nepal Texas A&M University

visit author page

Dr Bimal Nepal is Professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. His research interests are in manufacturing, distribution, supply chain management, and engineering education.

visit author page

biography

Michael Johnson Texas A&M University

visit author page

Dr. Michael D. Johnson is a professor in the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Faculty Success in the College of Engineering. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M, he was a senior product development engineer at the 3M Corporate Research Laboratory in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University. Dr. Johnson received his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on engineering education, production economics, and design tools. Dr. Johnson has over 80 peer reviewed publications and several patents. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and industry.

Dr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, SME, and a senior member of IEEE. He served as the president of the Tau Alpha Pi Engineering Technology Honor Society national board from 2014-2018. He is past chair of the Mechanical Engineering Technology Leadership Committee. He is also a member of the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET. Dr. Johnson has won several departmental and college-level awards for teaching, research, and service. He is also an ASEE National Engineering Technology Teaching Award and Fredrick J. Berger Award winner.

visit author page

author page

Amarnath Banerjee Texas A&M University

author page

Glen Miller

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

This paper presents the initial work of a recently funded NSF project on ethical and responsible research and practices in science and engineering. The objective of this research is to improve instructor training, interventions, and student outcomes in high schools and universities to improve awareness and commitment to ethical practices in STEM coursework. The project will generate a robust snapshot of the ethical knowledge, reasoning skills, attitudes, and practices of several thousand undergraduate engineering students. This snapshot will inform the development of a three-week enrichment opportunity for high school STEM teachers. Working with university faculty and graduate students, these teachers will develop learning modules on ethical issues related to their courses. The snapshot will also identify gaps and guide the creation of targeted interventions that will be used in second-, third-, and fourth-year engineering courses.

This data-driven project uses a mixed-methods approach to generate a better understanding of the impact of ethics interventions at various points in a student's academic development by developing and using a set of instruments to measure cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of ethical competency and self-efficacy. To that end, a second snapshot will be taken by testing and surveying engineering students in their capstone courses to provide a broad overview of the competence and self-confidence that engineering students have in dealing with ethical STEM issues, to determine the efficacy of various interventions, and to improve future interventions. Utilizing repeated measures and possessing a longitudinal dimension, the project will generate extensive data about the development of ethical competency, ethical self-efficacy, and their relationship. The interventions designed for secondary and tertiary classrooms will build on best practices for micro-insertion of ethics content that are practical and help students understand how technical competencies fit within broader social, economic, and environmental contexts. The capstone snapshot will also provide some measure of the impact of other experiences (e.g., undergraduate research, internships, service learning) and courses (e.g., humanities, social science, and business courses) on development of ethical practices. This is the start of a five-year project; therefore, the results presented in this paper represent findings from the engineering ethics literature and baseline results from survey of engineering freshmen at a large public university in the southwestern United States. The findings from the survey are being utilized in developing intervention modules that will be integrated in upper-level engineering courses and training materials for high school teachers.

Citation
Format

Nepal, B., & Johnson, M., & Banerjee, A., & Miller, G. (2022, August), Assessing Awareness and Competency of Engineering Freshmen on Ethical and Responsible Research and Practices Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41958

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper presents the initial work of a recently funded NSF project on ethical and responsible research and practices in science and engineering. The objective of this research is to improve instructor training, interventions, and student outcomes in high schools and universities to improve awareness and commitment to ethical practices in STEM coursework. The project will generate a robust snapshot of the ethical knowledge, reasoning skills, attitudes, and practices of several thousand undergraduate engineering students. This snapshot will inform the development of a three-week enrichment opportunity for high school STEM teachers. Working with university faculty and graduate students, these teachers will develop learning modules on ethical issues related to their courses. The snapshot will also identify gaps and guide the creation of targeted interventions that will be used in second-, third-, and fourth-year engineering courses. 

This data-driven project uses a mixed-methods approach to generate a better understanding of the impact of ethics interventions at various points in a student's academic development by developing and using a set of instruments to measure cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of ethical competency and self-efficacy. To that end, a second snapshot will be taken by testing and surveying engineering students in their capstone courses to provide a broad overview of the competence and self-confidence that engineering students have in dealing with ethical STEM issues, to determine the efficacy of various interventions, and to improve future interventions. Utilizing repeated measures and possessing a longitudinal dimension, the project will generate extensive data about the development of ethical competency, ethical self-efficacy, and their relationship. The interventions designed for secondary and tertiary classrooms will build on best practices for micro-insertion of ethics content that are practical and help students understand how technical competencies fit within broader social, economic, and environmental contexts. The capstone snapshot will also provide some measure of the impact of other experiences (e.g., undergraduate research, internships, service learning) and courses (e.g., humanities, social science, and business courses) on development of ethical practices. This is the start of a five-year project; therefore, the results presented in this paper represent findings from the engineering ethics literature and baseline results from survey of engineering freshmen at a large public university in the southwestern United States. The findings from the survey are being utilized in developing intervention modules that will be integrated in upper-level engineering courses and training materials for high school teachers.

AU  - Bimal Nepal
AU  - Michael Johnson
AU  - Amarnath Banerjee
AU  - Glen Miller
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Assessing Awareness and Competency of Engineering Freshmen on Ethical and Responsible Research and Practices
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41958
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41958
ER  -