Reflections of Undergraduate Engineering Students Completing a Cross-Disciplinary Robotics Project with Preservice Teachers and Fifth Graders in an Electromechanical Systems Course

Krishnanand Kaipa; Jennifer Jill Kidd; Isaac Koduah Kumi; Stacie I Ringleb; Orlando M Ayala; Kristie Gutierrez; Pilar Pazos; Francisco Cima; Danielle Marie Rhemer

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: MECH - Technical Session 8: Sustainability and Interdisciplinary Learning
Tagged Division: Mechanical Engineering Division (MECH)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--47929
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47929
Download Count: 128

Paper Authors

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Krishnanand Kaipa Old Dominion University orcid.org/0000-0002-8095-938X

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Dr. Krishnanand Kaipa is an Associate Professor and director of the Collaborative Robotics and Adaptive Machines (CRAM) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Old Dominion University. Dr. Kaipa received his BE (Hons.)

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Jennifer Jill Kidd Old Dominion University orcid.org/0000-0001-9800-1690

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Dr. Jennifer Kidd is a Master Lecturer in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Old Dominion University. Her research interests include engineering education and educational technology.

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Isaac Koduah Kumi Old Dominion University

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Isaac K. Kumi is a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student at Old Dominion University. He has a B.Sc in Biomedical Engineering and an M.E. in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are in biomechanics and biomechanical modeling and simulation.

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Stacie I Ringleb Old Dominion University

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Stacie Ringleb is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Old Dominion University and a fellow of the American Society of Biomechanics. Dr. Ringleb received a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve Univer

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Orlando M Ayala Old Dominion University orcid.org/0000-0003-0604-8606

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Dr. Ayala received his BS in Mechanical Engineering with honors (Cum Laude) from Universidad de Oriente (Venezuela) in 1995, MS in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2005, both from University of Delaware (USA). Dr. Ayala is currently serving as Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology Department, Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA.

Prior to joining ODU in 2013, Dr. Ayala spent three years as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Delaware where he expanded his knowledge on simulation of multiphase flows while acquiring skills in high-performance parallel computing and scientific computation. Before that, Dr. Ayala held a faculty position at Universidad de Oriente at Mechanical Engineering Department where he taught and developed graduate and undergraduate courses for a number of subjects such as Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Thermodynamics, Multiphase Flows, Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machinery, as well as Mechanical Engineering Laboratory courses.

In addition, Dr. Ayala has had the opportunity to work for a number of engineering consulting companies, which have given him an important perspective and exposure to the industry. He has been directly involved in at least 20 different engineering projects related to a wide range of industries from the petroleum and natural gas industry to brewing and newspaper industries. Dr. Ayala has provided service to professional organizations such as ASME. Since 2008 he has been a member of the Committee of Spanish Translation of ASME Codes and the ASME Subcommittee on Piping and Pipelines in Spanish. Under both memberships, the following Codes have been translated: ASME B31.3, ASME B31.8S, ASME B31Q and ASME BPV Sections I.

While maintaining his industrial work active, his research activities have also been very active; Dr. Ayala has published 90 journal and peer-reviewed conference papers. His work has been presented in several international forums in Austria, the USA, Venezuela, Japan, France, Mexico, and Argentina. Dr. Ayala has an average citation per year of all his published work of 44.78.

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Kristie Gutierrez Old Dominion University orcid.org/0000-0002-9339-7574

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Dr. Gutierrez received her B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001, M.Ed. in Secondary Science Education in 2005 from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Ph.D. in Science Education in 2016 from North Ca

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Pilar Pazos Old Dominion University orcid.org/0000-0003-4348-7798

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Pilar Pazos is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA. Her main areas of research interest in Engineering Education include team learning, virtual teams, and team decision-making.

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Francisco Cima

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Francisco Cima is a PhD student of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at Old Dominion University. He obtained his Masters in Business Planning and Regional Development from the Technological Institute of Merida. His areas of interest are innov

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Danielle Marie Rhemer Old Dominion University

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Abstract

Engineering is becoming increasingly cross-disciplinary, requiring students to develop skills in multiple engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering students having to learn the basics of electronics, instrumentation, and coding) and interprofessional skills to integrate perspectives from people outside their field. In the workplace, engineering teams are frequently multidisciplinary, and often, people from outside of engineering are part of the team that brings a product to market. Additionally, teams are often diverse in age, race, gender, and in other areas. Teams that creatively utilize the contrasting perspectives and ideas arising from these differences can positively affect team performance and generate solutions effective for a broader range of users. These trends suggest that engineering education can benefit from having engineering students work on team projects that involve a blend of cross-disciplinary and mixed-aged collaborations. An NSF-funded project set out to explore this idea by partnering undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a 300-level electromechanical systems course with preservice teachers enrolled in a 400-level educational technology course to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth graders at a local school. Working in small teams, students designed, built, and coded bio-inspired robots. The collaborative activities included: (1) training with Hummingbird Bit hardware (Birdbrain Technologies, Pittsburgh, PA) (e.g. sensors, servo motors) and coding platform, (2) preparing robotics lessons for fifth graders that explained the engineering design process, and (3) guiding the fifth graders in the design of their robots. Additionally, each engineering student designed a robot following the theme developed with their education student and fifth-grade partners.

This paper reports on the reflections of the engineering students after completing a cross-disciplinary robotics project with preservice teachers and fifth graders with the goals of (1) assessing the suitability of the project to the specific course, (2) analyzing the nature of the balance between course and project workload/objectives, (3) benefits and challenges of participating in the project, and (4) evaluating the overall effectiveness of the intervention. Student reflections collected at the conclusion of the semester from implementations in Spring 2022 and Spring 2023 were analyzed for this study. Findings from a thematic qualitative analysis of the reflections revealed benefits such as students’ perceived gains in coding skills, reinforcement of engineering concepts learned in class, acquisition of interprofessional skills (e.g., communication with technical and non-technical audiences, cross-disciplinary collaboration), and engineering-pedagogical skills such as lesson planning and classroom management. Students also reflected on opportunities to incorporate creative design insights when brainstorming with non-engineers. Students’ perceived challenges were mainly related to workload, time management, course organization, and teaching/interacting with the fifth graders. These findings provide insightful suggestions for future interventions in undergraduate engineering courses.

Citation
Format

Kaipa, K., & Kidd, J. J., & Kumi, I. K., & Ringleb, S. I., & Ayala, O. M., & Gutierrez, K., & Pazos, P., & Cima, F., & Rhemer, D. M. (2024, June), Reflections of Undergraduate Engineering Students Completing a Cross-Disciplinary Robotics Project with Preservice Teachers and Fifth Graders in an Electromechanical Systems Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47929

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Engineering is becoming increasingly cross-disciplinary, requiring students to develop skills in multiple engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical engineering students having to learn the basics of electronics, instrumentation, and coding) and interprofessional skills to integrate perspectives from people outside their field. In the workplace, engineering teams are frequently multidisciplinary, and often, people from outside of engineering are part of the team that brings a product to market. Additionally, teams are often diverse in age, race, gender, and in other areas. Teams that creatively utilize the contrasting perspectives and ideas arising from these differences can positively affect team performance and generate solutions effective for a broader range of users. These trends suggest that engineering education can benefit from having engineering students work on team projects that involve a blend of cross-disciplinary and mixed-aged collaborations. An NSF-funded project set out to explore this idea by partnering undergraduate engineering students enrolled in a 300-level electromechanical systems course with preservice teachers enrolled in a 400-level educational technology course to plan and deliver robotics lessons to fifth graders at a local school. Working in small teams, students designed, built, and coded bio-inspired robots. The collaborative activities included: (1) training with Hummingbird Bit hardware (Birdbrain Technologies, Pittsburgh, PA) (e.g. sensors, servo motors) and coding platform, (2) preparing robotics lessons for fifth graders that explained the engineering design process, and (3) guiding the fifth graders in the design of their robots. Additionally, each engineering student designed a robot following the theme developed with their education student and fifth-grade partners. 

This paper reports on the reflections of the engineering students after completing a cross-disciplinary robotics project with preservice teachers and fifth graders with the goals of (1) assessing the suitability of the project to the specific course, (2) analyzing the nature of the balance between course and project workload/objectives, (3) benefits and challenges of participating in the project, and (4) evaluating the overall effectiveness of the intervention. Student reflections collected at the conclusion of the semester from implementations in Spring 2022 and Spring 2023 were analyzed for this study. Findings from a thematic qualitative analysis of the reflections revealed benefits such as students’ perceived gains in coding skills, reinforcement of engineering concepts learned in class, acquisition of interprofessional skills (e.g., communication with technical and non-technical audiences, cross-disciplinary collaboration), and engineering-pedagogical skills such as lesson planning and classroom management. Students also reflected on opportunities to incorporate creative design insights when brainstorming with non-engineers. Students’ perceived challenges were mainly related to workload, time management, course organization, and teaching/interacting with the fifth graders. These findings provide insightful suggestions for  future interventions in undergraduate engineering courses.  


AU  - Krishnanand Kaipa
AU  - Jennifer Jill Kidd
AU  - Isaac Koduah Kumi
AU  - Stacie I Ringleb
AU  - Orlando M Ayala
AU  - Kristie Gutierrez
AU  - Pilar Pazos
AU  - Francisco Cima
AU  - Danielle Marie Rhemer
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Reflections of Undergraduate Engineering Students Completing a Cross-Disciplinary Robotics Project with Preservice Teachers and Fifth Graders in an Electromechanical Systems Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/47929
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--47929
ER  -