Impact of Scaffolding ‘Making’ Assignments within Mechatronics on the Three Student Learning Outcomes of KEEN’s Entrepreneurial Mindset: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value

Vinayak Vijayan; Shanpu Fang; Skyler Miller; Megan Reissman; Timothy Reissman

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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: Joint Session: Entrepreneurially-Minded Learning in the Classroom
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40850
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40850
Download Count: 355

Paper Authors

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Timothy Reissman University of Dayton

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Timothy Reissman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Dayton. He teaches courses related to mechatronics, robotics, and controls for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Within engineering education research, Dr. Reissman is interested in the development of hands-on experiences to enhance students' entrepreneurial mindsets.

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Abstract

Scaffolding learning has been a proven technique within education. Hands-on activities that involve ‘making’ have also been shown to increase student engagement. Here we present a scaffolding ‘making’ approach used within a required, second-year mechanical engineering course that aims to advance our students’ entrepreneurial mindset. Notably, time spent ‘making’ is integrated into every course meeting so that theoretical and ‘making’ skills are both developed consistently across the course timeline. The ultimate goal of the work presented here is to extract the impact that scaffold ‘making’ exercises have on developing the three student learning outcomes associated with KEEN’s entrepreneurial mindset: curiosity, connections, and creating value. To do this assessment, we divided the students (N=73) into 2 groups based on their participation / performance in the ‘making' assignments. The High Participation (HP) group (N=52) was defined as those students achieving or exceeding a mean of 96% on ‘making’ assignments, while the remainder (N=21) were defined as the Low Participation (LP) group. By creating this distinction, the impact of ‘making’ can be compared within the same course based on student relative engagement in the learning process. Beyond summative results from the students, additional data was collected via pre- and post- surveys. The pre-survey gathered information at the start of the semester on prior experiences related to the course and on student perception of self-efficacy in engineering design related to the course. The post-survey gathered information in the final week of the semester on time spent performing the assignments and again on the same student perception of self-efficacy questionnaire as the pre-survey. Using Pearson correlations, the results show that prior experiences such as number of programming courses or making / robotics / STEM activities had no statistical influence on summative scores within any of the assignments given in the course. However, comparing the two groups of students within the course, the HP group scored ~10% higher on ‘non-making’ assignments (p<0.001), ~18% higher on the final (‘making’) project (p<0.001), and ~4% higher on exams (p=0.07). While the latter was not statistically different, the trends were consistent. From the self-efficacy pre- and post- questionnaire, specific questions were grouped together to infer development in each of the 3 student learning outcomes. Using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank statistical analysis, the HP group was found to increase across all three components (p<0.001 for each) while the LP group showed no statistical differences. The conclusion of this assessment is that there exist multiple benefits to student learning via integration of ‘making’ activities, ranging from demonstrated improvements in their learning to progressing their entrepreneurial mindsets. Further, if such activities are completely new to students, it does not necessarily mean that such advantages are lost if introduced via scaffolding techniques.

Citation
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Reissman, T., & Vijayan, V., & Fang, S., & Reissman, M., & Miller, S. (2022, August), Impact of Scaffolding ‘Making’ Assignments within Mechatronics on the Three Student Learning Outcomes of KEEN’s Entrepreneurial Mindset: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40850

TY - CPAPER
AB - Scaffolding learning has been a proven technique within education. Hands-on activities that involve ‘making’ have also been shown to increase student engagement. Here we present a scaffolding ‘making’ approach used within a required, second-year mechanical engineering course that aims to advance our students’ entrepreneurial mindset. Notably, time spent ‘making’ is integrated into every course meeting so that theoretical and ‘making’ skills are both developed consistently across the course timeline. The ultimate goal of the work presented here is to extract the impact that scaffold ‘making’ exercises have on developing the three student learning outcomes associated with KEEN’s entrepreneurial mindset: curiosity, connections, and creating value. To do this assessment, we divided the students (N=73) into 2 groups based on their participation / performance in the ‘making' assignments. The High Participation (HP) group (N=52) was defined as those students achieving or exceeding a mean of 96% on ‘making’ assignments, while the remainder (N=21) were defined as the Low Participation (LP) group. By creating this distinction, the impact of ‘making’ can be compared within the same course based on student relative engagement in the learning process. Beyond summative results from the students, additional data was collected via pre- and post- surveys. The pre-survey gathered information at the start of the semester on prior experiences related to the course and on student perception of self-efficacy in engineering design related to the course. The post-survey gathered information in the final week of the semester on time spent performing the assignments and again on the same student perception of self-efficacy questionnaire as the pre-survey. Using Pearson correlations, the results show that prior experiences such as number of programming courses or making / robotics / STEM activities had no statistical influence on summative scores within any of the assignments given in the course. However, comparing the two groups of students within the course, the HP group scored ~10% higher on ‘non-making’ assignments (p<0.001), ~18% higher on the final (‘making’) project (p<0.001), and ~4% higher on exams (p=0.07). While the latter was not statistically different, the trends were consistent. From the self-efficacy pre- and post- questionnaire, specific questions were grouped together to infer development in each of the 3 student learning outcomes. Using a Wilcoxon Signed Rank statistical analysis, the HP group was found to increase across all three components (p<0.001 for each) while the LP group showed no statistical differences. The conclusion of this assessment is that there exist multiple benefits to student learning via integration of ‘making’ activities, ranging from demonstrated improvements in their learning to progressing their entrepreneurial mindsets. Further, if such activities are completely new to students, it does not necessarily mean that such advantages are lost if introduced via scaffolding techniques.
AU - Timothy Reissman
AU - Vinayak Vijayan
AU - Shanpu Fang
AU - Megan Reissman
AU - Skyler Miller
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Impact of Scaffolding ‘Making’ Assignments within Mechatronics on the Three Student Learning Outcomes of KEEN’s Entrepreneurial Mindset: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40850
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40850
ER -