Hu, M., & Shealy, T. (2018, June), Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability  Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30807

\bibitem{asee_peer_30807}
  Hu, M., \& Shealy, T. (2018, June), \emph{Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability}
  Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah.
  10.18260/1-2--30807

Mo Hu and Tripp Shealy.  "Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability".  2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2018.  https://peer.asee.org/30807 Internet.  26 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_30807}
  Mo Hu and Tripp Shealy.
  "Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability".
  \emph{2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah, 2018, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2018.
  https://peer.asee.org/30807 Internet.  26 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_30807
author = "Mo Hu and Tripp Shealy"
title = "Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability"
booktitle = "2018 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2018"
month = "June"
address = "Salt Lake City, Utah"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/30807}
number = {10.18260/1-2--30807}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Systems thinking is a necessary skill towards solving complex civil engineering problems with interconnected environmental, social, and economic inputs and outputs. The dynamic relationship between systems components can act as a barrier for sustainability if decision makers work to reduce rather than understand complexities. To help advance methods for assessing and measuring students’ ability to think in systems, multiple methods were used and compared, including: a previously developed 15-item self-report survey named Systems Thinking Scale Revised (STSR), three scoring approaches to concept mapping and advanced cognitive neuro-imaging methods to measure physical changes in cognition. Engineering students (n=28) completed the STSR survey to report their capacity of systems thinking. They were outfitted to wear a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system and asked to draw a concept map related to sustainability topics about energy, food, climate, and water. Their concept maps were scored using three approaches: the traditional, holistic, and categorical scoring method. The result shows that students’ self-evaluated systems thinking tendency is negatively (Spearman’s r = -0.50, p = 0.016) correlated with their concept map performance graded with the traditional scoring method, while positively (r = 0.39, p = 0.038) correlated to the sub-scores on the environment concepts using the categorical scoring method. Efficiency in brain connectivity, which is calculated using fNIRS data, is positively correlated with the complexity index using the categorical scoring approach (r = 0.45, p = 0.016) and the sub-scores of comprehensiveness in holistic scores (r = 0.42, p = 0.025). The results suggest students with higher performance of systems thinking were also more cognitively efficient. This study contributes to engineering education by demonstrating a new measurement tool to understand systems thinking and students’ cognitive abilities. The results also demonstrate possible discrepancies in previously developed surveys, concept map scoring techniques and cognition measured through changes in cortical activation. This trans-disciplinary approach bridges engineering education, sustainability, and neuroscience and begins to open new avenues of research helping measure the effectiveness of assessment techniques with physical responses of cognitive activation. 
AU  - Mo Hu
AU  - Tripp Shealy
CY  - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA  - 2018/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Methods for Measuring Systems Thinking: Differences Between Student Self-assessment, Concept Map Scores, and Cortical Activation During Tasks About Sustainability
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/30807
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--30807
ER  -