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BOARD # 427: Preliminary Results of Understanding and Scaffolding the Productive Beginnings of Engineering Judgment in Undergraduate Students (RFE)

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Conference

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Publication Date

June 22, 2025

Start Date

June 22, 2025

End Date

August 15, 2025

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session II

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

6

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/55805

Paper Authors

biography

Leah Maykish University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Leah Maykish is a PhD student in Engineering Education at University at Buffalo. She works as a research assistant under the advisement of Dr. Jessica Swenson on projects including engineering judgment of undergraduate engineers when solving open-ended modeling problems (OEMPs) and the affect and identity of first and second year engineering students. Her dissertation work studies mentorship and the developmental networks of early career engineers working in industry inspired by her time working in industry as a mechanical design and analysis engineer.

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Oluwakemi Johnson University of Michigan

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Oluwakemi (Oh-LOO-wah-keh-me) Johnson is a second-year PhD student in the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. She is advised by Dr. Aaron Johnson and works as a research assistant on projects focusing on engineering judgment and open-ended modeling problems.

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Katelyn Churakos University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Katelyn Churakos is an undergraduate research assistant in the Department of Engineering Education at the University at Buffalo. She is majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Law and is expected to graduate in December 2025. After graduation, Katelyn plans to pursue employment in the mechanical engineering field, preferably in project management.

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Jessica E S Swenson University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

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Jessica Swenson is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo. She was awarded her doctorate and masters from Tufts University in mechanical engineering and STEM education respectively, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Michigan. Her research examines emotions within engineering problem solving and the student experience, engineering judgment, and elementary school teachers learning to teach engineering.

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Aaron W. Johnson University of Michigan

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Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. His design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Current projects include studying and designing classroom interventions around macroethical issues in aerospace engineering and the productive beginnings of engineering judgment as students create and use mathematical models. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to re-joining Michigan, he was an instructor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Abstract

Engineers take various engineering science courses over the span of their undergraduate degree to learn the theories and mathematical models needed to solve common engineering problems. These courses, such as statics, dynamics, and fluids, are typically taught in a lecture and recitation format using close-ended “textbook” problems. However, ethnographic studies have shown that engineering professionals solve open-ended problems that involve not just performing calculations, but making decisions to develop an appropriate model. This can involve identifying relevant and important concepts, choosing a course of action, and assessing reasonableness. Engineering professionals must use their engineering judgment to make these decisions, and we pose that it is therefore critical that undergraduate engineering students have the opportunity to practice solving ill-defined problems throughout their degree program in order to develop their own engineering judgment.

Our study of undergraduate engineering students focuses on the productive beginnings of engineering modeling judgment when provided with the opportunities to practice within open-ended modeling problems (OEMPs) presented in engineering science courses. Our multi-institution collaborative team, funded by the NSF Research in the Formation of Engineers program, aims to address the following questions: (RQ1) In what ways do undergraduate engineering students display the productive beginnings of engineering judgment? (RQ2) What assignment scaffolding supports students in developing the productive beginnings of engineering judgment? (RQ3) What assignment scaffolding makes students’ productive beginnings of engineering judgment (or lack thereof) visible to instructors?

Since last year’s poster session, we have refined our analysis and discussion of 34 student interviews (RQ1) resulting in the Emerging Engineering Modeling Judgment (EMJ) taxonomy of four types and fifteen sub-types of engineering judgment. The four types consist of 1) Making assumptions, 2) Assessing reasonableness, 3) Overriding a calculated answer, and 4) Using technology tools. To begin answering RQ2, we have completed interviews with two instructors about their intentions behind OEMP design. We are currently conducting more intense, in depth research on scaffolding support of engineering judgment development (RQ2) through closely analyzing each interaction that one instructor has with students as they work on a specific OEMP in two sections of a statics class at purple university. We collected this data during observations of one-on-one meetings after lecture, group work during lecture, office hours, and project submission check-ins. To address RQ3, we are also currently using the EMJ Framework to interview instructors who assign OEMPs in their classes about occasions that they have noticed their students demonstrating the emerging engineering judgment types during OEMPs. We intend to share preliminary findings toward scaffolding (RQ2) and instructor noticing (RQ3) that can show the role of instructors in developing and supporting OEMPs that promote the productive beginnings of engineering judgment. Implications of this work include showing how to incorporate engineering modeling judgment practice for students throughout the degree program using well-scaffolded open-ended modeling problems in their engineering science courses. These results will be used to design faculty professional development that supports instructors in designing and implementing OEMPs and noticing and responding to students’ emerging engineering judgment.

Maykish, L., & Johnson, O., & Churakos, K., & Swenson, J. E. S., & Johnson, A. W. (2025, June), BOARD # 427: Preliminary Results of Understanding and Scaffolding the Productive Beginnings of Engineering Judgment in Undergraduate Students (RFE) Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55805

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