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Board 105: Exploring Enculturation in the First-year Engineering Program (Year III)

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32174

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/32174

Download Count

423

Paper Authors

biography

Noemi V. Mendoza Diaz Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1215-1554

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Dr. Mendoza Diaz is Assistant Professor at the College of Education and Human Development with a courtesy appointment in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in Educational Administration and Human Resource Development and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning-INSPIRE at the School of Engineering Education-Purdue University. She was a recipient of the Apprentice Faculty Grant from the Educational Research Methods ASEE Division in 2009. She also has been an Electrical Engineering Professor for two Mexican universities. Dr. Mendoza is interested in sTEm education, socioeconomically disadvantaged students, Latino studies in engineering and computer aided/instructional technology in sTEm.

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biography

So Yoon Yoon Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1868-1054

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So Yoon Yoon, Ph.D., is an associate research scientist at Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation (IEEI) in College of Engineering at Texas A&M University and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). She received a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with specialties in Gifted Education and a M.S.Ed. in Educational Psychology with specialties in Research Methods and Measurement both from Purdue University. She also holds a M.S. in Astronomy and Astrophysics and a B.S. in Astronomy and Meteorology both from Kyungpook National University in South Korea. Her work centers on engineering education research, as a psychometrician, program evaluator, and institutional data analyst. She has research interests on spatial ability, creativity, gifted education, STEM education, and meta-analyses. She has authored/co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings and served as a journal reviewer in engineering education, STEM education, and educational psychology, as well as a co-PI, an external evaluator or advisory board member on several NSF-funded projects (CAREER, iCorps, REU, RIEF, etc.).

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Jacques C. Richard Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-1358-2025

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Dr. Richard got his Ph. D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1989 & a B. S. at Boston University, 1984. He was at NASA Glenn, 1989-1995, worked at Argonne National Lab, 1996-1997, taught at Chicago State University, 1997-2002. Dr. Richard is a Sr. Lecturer & Research Associate in Aerospace Engineering @ Texas A&M since 1/03. His research is focused on computational plasma modeling using spectral and lattice Boltzmann methods for studying plasma turbulence and plasma jets. His research has also included fluid physics and electric propulsion using Lattice-Boltzmann methods, spectral element methods, Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO), etc.
Past research includes modeling single and multi-species plasma flows through ion thruster optics and the discharge cathode assembly; computer simulations of blood flow interacting with blood vessels; modeling ocean-air interaction; reacting flow systems; modeling jet engine turbomachinery going unstable at NASA for 6 years (received NASA Performance Cash awards). Dr. Richard is involved in many outreach activities: e.g., tutoring, mentoring, directing related grants (for example, a grant for an NSF REU site). Dr, Richard is active in professional societies (American Physical Society (APS), American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), etc.), ASEE, ASME. Dr. Richard has authored or co-authored about 35 technical articles (about 30 of which are refereed publications). Dr. Richard teaches courses ranging from first-year introductory engineering design, fluid mechanics, to space plasma propulsion.

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Abstract

For the last two academic years, data has been collected to illustrate the enculturation process to engineering during the first year engineering program at a Southwestern Institution. Enculturation understood as the process of acquiring knowledge, practices and values to the profession is a new perspective, closely related to identity development. During the Academic Years of 2016, 2017, almost two thousand students in the first engineering program were asked about their understanding of engineering and enculturation to engineering via an online survey. The specific questions in the survey were: 1. Why do you want to be an engineer? 2. What is your understanding of being an engineer? 3. Define in your own words Engineering Culture. In addition, approximately 50 students have participated in focus groups attempting to triangulate results. Preliminary results show that students' first understanding of engineering as a culture aligns to the way the question is presented (same terms and concepts) but change over time. They look similar to the engineering taxonomies concept of Identities. ‘Identities’ however does not capture the perceptions of students of engineering as a culture (external to them) neither it approaches the engineering college program as the process of assimilation to such culture. This poster shows the results of the process of engineering education theory building for the specific case of enculturation in the first year program.

Mendoza Diaz, N. V., & Yoon, S. Y., & Richard, J. C. (2019, June), Board 105: Exploring Enculturation in the First-year Engineering Program (Year III) Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32174

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