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Engineering Rome: Assessing Outcomes from a Study Abroad Program Designed to Overcome Barriers to Participation

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

International Division Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

International

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

21

Page Numbers

26.640.1 - 26.640.21

DOI

10.18260/p.23978

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/23978

Download Count

539

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Paper Authors

biography

Steve Muench P.E. University of Washington

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Steve Muench is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His interests include sustainability, construction, roads, pavements, web tools and education. He is a licensed professional engineer in Washington State. Before his academic career, Steve spent 2 years as a transportation design engineer and 7 years as a U.S. Navy submarine officer. Steve lives in Seattle but likes neither rain nor coffee.

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biography

Ashley Ann Thompson University of Washington/PCS Structural Solutions

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Ashley is currently a design engineer with PCS Structural Solutions in Seattle, Washington. She served as the teaching assistant for the Engineering Rome study abroad program with the University of Washington.

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Sheryl Brandalik

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Abstract

Engineering Rome: Assessing Outcomes from a Study Abroad Program Designed to Overcome Barriers to Participation While the necessity for global interconnectedness and an understanding of societalcontext is critical for practicing engineers, fewer than 7% of all engineering students experiencea study abroad program while in college, and engineering students represent only 2% of all studyabroad participants - much less than participation rates in other areas like the humanities or arts.Cost, scheduling conflicts, and lack of discipline-focused topics serve as barriers to engineeringstudent participation. In an effort to address these typical deterrents, the authors of this paper developed anengineering study abroad program, titled “Engineering Rome.” The course meets betweenacademic periods to avoid schedule conflicts, focuses specifically on civil engineering topics,and overcomes the challenge of creating meaningful engineering learning in a diverse classcontaining freshmen through graduate students. This research examines the ability of this course to meet student needs, and its impacts onengineering students’ learning. Specifically, this research seeks to answer the followingquestions: 1. To what extent did the framework of this course (time frame, subject matter, location) address issues that often impede students from participating? 2. To what extent are students considering issues related to ABET learning outcomes (d), (g), and (h) while studying abroad? 3. What are best practices that can be gleaned and disseminated from this program? Preliminary findings suggest that students develop a greater appreciation for languagedifferences, see a connectedness between their engineering work and societal impacts, and drawconnections more readily between theories presented in class and practical applications on site.Not surprisingly, our findings also suggest that students are more likely to participate in a studyabroad program when their class schedules are not adversely affected and when the topic relatesto their major discipline.

Muench, S., & Thompson, A. A., & Brandalik, S. (2015, June), Engineering Rome: Assessing Outcomes from a Study Abroad Program Designed to Overcome Barriers to Participation Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.23978

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