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Surprises along the Path toward Equity in Engineering and Computer Science Education

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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

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41957

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41957

Download Count

386

Paper Authors

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Rebecca Atadero Colorado State University

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Becki Atadero is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. She earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from CSU in 2002, and her Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2006. Dr. Atadero conducts collaborative research in the field of engineering education with particular emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion in engineering. She has served as PI on three education related grants funded by the National Science Foundation, and a prior paper by the P4E research team was awarded Best Diversity Paper at the ASEE Annual Conference in 2015. She also conducts technical research with civil engineering and construction management graduate students. She and her students study ways to extend the safe and useful life of existing structures, particularly concrete bridges, through enhanced inspection, management and repair techniques. This research has been funded by the Mountain Plains Consortium, a USDOT University Transportation Center, and the Colorado Department of Transportation. She teaches courses in structural engineering such as reinforced and prestressed concrete design and civil engineering materials to upper division undergraduates and graduate students. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Colorado.

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Jody Paul Metropolitan State University of Denver

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Karen Rambo-Hernandez Texas A&M University

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Dr. Karen E. Rambo-Hernandez is an associate professor at Texas A&M University in the College of Education and Human Development. Her research focuses on the assessment of educational interventions to improve STEM education, and access for all students— particularly high achieving and underrepresented students— to high quality education. Along with her research teams, she has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and received over $3.4 million in grant funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education Javits Grants. Dr. Rambo-Hernandez was the District Teacher of the Year in Coppell, Texas, in 2006 and received the National Association of Gifted Children’s Early Scholar Award in 2019.

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Melissa Morris University of Nevada - Las Vegas

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Christopher Griffin West Virginia University

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Dr. Griffin has over 10 years of experimental and computational aerodynamics research experience. His primary area of expertise is unsteady aerodynamics, with a focus on active flow control techniques and UAS aerodynamics. Dr. Griffin has experience in both supersonic and subsonic wind tunnel testing using a variety of measurement techniques, including strain gage based force and moment quantification and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). He is also well versed in the use of computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamic analysis. While at West Virginia University Dr. Griffin has taught a variety of classes, including Fluid Mechanics, Aerodynamics, and Computational Fluid Dynamics.

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Christina Paguyo University of Denver

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Scott Leutenegger

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Ronald Delyser

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Robin Hensel West Virginia University

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Robin A.M. Hensel, Assistant Dean for Freshman Experience in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University, leads a team of passionate faculty in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program who provide first-year students with high-quality, challenging, and engaging educational experiences to facilitate the transition to university life and prepare for success in their engineering majors and future careers.

Hensel holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction, focusing on STEM teaching in higher education, and B.S. and M.A. degrees in Mathematics. Prior to joining academia, she worked with engineering teams and in project management and administration as a Mathematician and Computer Systems Analyst for the U. S. Department of Energy. She has over 30 years of experience teaching mathematics, statistics, computer science, and fundamental engineering courses as well as serving in several administrative roles within higher education. Throughout her career, Hensel has created a childcare facility at a federal research lab, coached middle school MATHCOUNTS students, facilitated STEM K-12 teacher training, built an undergraduate first-year engineering program at a large R1 research institution and a Molecular Biology/Biotechnology masters’ degree program at a small internationally-focused teaching institution, lived on-campus as a Resident Faculty Leader for an engineering-focused residence hall, and secured over $5 million in funding and support for STEM education research, focusing on student success, inclusion, and retention, and including funds for summer bridge programs and scholarships for underrepresented students. She has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, advising, and service, and as an Exemplary Faculty Member for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

An active ASEE member since 2005, Hensel has reviewed and presented papers, moderated sessions, planned division social events and regional conferences, and served for 10 years on the First-year Programs Division Executive Board, including as program and division chair.

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Anne Marie Casper

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Aramati Casper is a Research Scientist II in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. Their research focuses on social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in STEM.

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Abstract

The Partnership for Equity: STEM (P4E) is a collaborative project funded by the NSF IUSE program. Four partner institutions have been working together for the past five years to develop, implement, and assess curriculum activities to enlighten students attending required undergraduate engineering and computer science courses about the relevance and importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion to the fields of engineering and computer science. As the P4E project nears completion, we use this poster session and accompanying paper to reflect on what we have learned during the past five years. We focus on the surprises we encountered during the course of the project in the hopes that the pleasant surprises can be replicated with intention and the unpleasant surprises avoided by others who travel a similar path.

"Surprise" is a personal emotion in response to something unexpected, thus this reaction varies with a priori held beliefs. For this paper we decided to present verbatim reflections from project team members. This unique format allows us to enact some of the diversity and inclusion lessons we have tried to teach students over the past five years. The format also acknowledges that while none of the surprises documented here were in fact surprising to all the authors, individually we each had experiences that violated our expectations.

Atadero, R., & Paul, J., & Rambo-Hernandez, K., & Morris, M., & Griffin, C., & Paguyo, C., & Leutenegger, S., & Delyser, R., & Hensel, R., & Casper, A. M. (2022, August), Surprises along the Path toward Equity in Engineering and Computer Science Education Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41957

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