Asee peer logo

Toys'n More: Initial Implementation of Intervention Strategies

Download Paper |

Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Tagged Topic

NSF Grantees

Page Count

20

Page Numbers

22.1538.1 - 22.1538.20

DOI

10.18260/1-2--18988

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/18988

Download Count

333

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Janice M. Margle Pennsylvania State University, Abington

visit author page

Janice M. Margle, Associate Professor of Engineering at Penn State Abington, received her M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. She is Co-PI on the NSF-Sponsored Toys’n MORE grant and currently teaches introductory thermodynamics and introductory engineering design courses. She is a licensed Professional Engineer and has worked for NASA, the Navy, IBM, PPL, and private industry. She is active in promoting activities to increase the number of women and minorities in engineering and is a member of Penn State’s Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) executive committee.

visit author page

biography

Catherine L. Cohan Pennsylvania State University

visit author page

Dr. Cohan has 15 years of experience as a research psychologist. She has expertise in the use of longitudinal designs, various modes of data collection (e.g., questionnaires, personal interviews, observational data), and survey research methods.

visit author page

biography

Yu-Chang Hsu Boise State University

visit author page

Yu-Chang Hsu is Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Boise State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Instructional Systems with a doctoral minor in Educational Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. Before joining BSU, he served as the assessment and evaluation coordinator (post-doctoral scholar) for the Toys'n MORE project (NSF STEP grant) with the College of Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include learning and instruction innovation through emerging technologies (e.g., Web 2.0 and mobile learning), cognitive and metacognitive processes of integrating multiple external representations in STEM fields, and information and new media literacy. He has authored several refereed journal articles and has presented research findings in various national and international conferences.

visit author page

biography

Jill L. Lane Clayton State University

visit author page

Jill Lane has more than fifteen years experience working with faculty and teaching assistants on methods to enhance teaching and learning. She has conducted various workshops on teaching methods at universities and at international conferences. While at Penn State, she worked with numerous departments on course restructuring and collaborated with over 300 faculty members on the design, assessment and evaluation of their courses. She is currently the Dean of Assessment and Instructional Development at Clayton State University where she oversees faculty development and accreditation activities.

Dr. Lane holds a Doctorate of Education in Instructional Systems from Penn State, a Master's of Education in Computing in Education from Rosemont College, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics Education from Penn State. Her research centers on the sustainability of innovations in education.

visit author page

biography

Amy Freeman Pennsylvania State University, University Park

visit author page

Introductory Biography
for
Amy Freeman

Amy L. Freeman is the Assistant Dean of Engineering Diversity at The Pennsylvania State University serving as an advocate for racially underrepresented students and women in Engineering. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management from Washington State University and completed a Master of Science degree in Architectural Engineering at Penn State. In 2009, she will complete a Ph.D. in Workforce Education at Penn State with a dissertation focusing on underrepresented graduates in technical fields.

Along the way, Amy Freeman has served the interests of underrepresented students and the field of Engineering in many capacities. As an educator, she served the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education for 10 years directing retention programs for Bloomsburg University, and as Director of Human and Cultural Diversity for Lock Haven University. She has developed and taught art workshops for children, literacy programs for the elderly, and has provided direction for youths in the juvenile justice system. She has also assisted in job training for incarcerated women completing apprenticeships in the construction trades.

At Penn State, she continues to provide recruitment and retention enhancement through the long standing Multicultural Engineering Program, the Women in Engineering Program and through cultivation of partnerships with corporations, alumni, university constituents and organizational alliances. She has written, published and presented research findings at national conferences and is a member of several organizations including the GEM Consortium, The National Association of Women in Engineering Advocates Network, Society of Women Engineering, The National Society of Black Engineers, The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the American Indian Society of Engineering and Science. She is currently serving as the President of the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates.

She has spoken at schools, churches and correctional institutions, and received a commendation from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for her contribution to African Americans in the city of Williamsport and Lycoming County.

Ms. Freeman has traveled internationally including Europe, Canada, Mexico, The People’s Republic of China, Jamaica, Morocco and the Republic of Korea. As a speaker and an educator, she emphasizes the need to learn as much as possible about others and the world around us.

visit author page

biography

Javier Gomez-Calderon Penn State University

visit author page

Dr. Javier Gomez-Calderon is a Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Coordinator at Penn State New Kensington. He is the author or co-author of thirty articles, four textbooks, four in-house booklets, and the advisor of eight student publications. Dr. Gomez-Calderon served as the Head of the Mathematics Division (fourteen campuses) from 2002 to 2006 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1986 from The University of Arizona. Dr. Gomez-Calderon was the recipient of the 2007 Penn State Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 2002 Commonwealth College Outstanding Research Award, the 2001 Valley News Dispatch Coach of the Year, the 1997 New Kensington Excellence in Teaching Award, the 1996 Theresa Cohen Mathematics Service Award, and the 1989 New Kensington Excellence in Teaching Award.

visit author page

biography

Dhushy Sathianathan California State University, Long Beach

visit author page

Dr. Sathianathan is the Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the College of Engineering at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University, and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University. Prior to joining CSULB, he was the head of the School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs at Penn State. Dr. Sathianathan has been actively involved in engineering education initiatives since 1994. He led several NSF funded initiative to enhance engineering education, especially focused on retention. He is the co-founder of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program and the Center for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship at Penn State. He has received the Boeing Outstanding Educator Award and Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellow Award, and the ASEE - DOW Outstanding Faculty Award for his work in engineering education. Dr. Sathianathan currently serves on the ASEE Projects Board.

visit author page

biography

Renata S. Engel Pennsylvania State University, University Park

visit author page

Renata S. Engel is Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Professor of Engineering Design and Engineering Science & Mechanics. A member of the Penn State faculty since 1990, she served from 2000 - 2006 as the Executive Director of the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. Through various collaborative efforts, she has affected changes in the engineering curriculum at Penn State, primarily to incorporate elements of design in fundamental engineering courses. Engel earned a B.S. in engineering science at Penn State and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics at the University of South Florida. She can be contacted at rse1@psu.edu.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Toys and Mathematical Options for Retention in Engineering (Toys’n MORE) Initial Implementation of the Four Intervention StrategiesThis paper presents data resulting from the initial implementation of a project referred to as Toysand Mathematical Options for Retention in Engineering (Toys’n MORE). Its goal is to increasethe number of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors by 10%.This project is being conducted by the College of Engineering at _____ through an NSF-sponsored Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program grant(STEP grant # 0756992). The project involves the College of Engineering and 15geographically-dispersed campuses in the _____ system. These campuses are feeder schools forthe main campus and offer associate and bachelor degrees in STEM majors. The project is basedon four intervention strategies including: (a) tutoring programs that serve four mathematicscourses (three pre-calculus and one calculus); (b) a freshman toy-based design course (calledToy FUN-damentals) in which dissection and re-design of toys is used to engage students in apositive environment; (c) a new summer bridge program to assist underrepresented students, whohave expressed an interest in engineering, transition from high school to college; and (d) theassessment and evaluation of the three aforementioned intervention strategies. The strength ofthis project lies in the comprehensive scope of the interventions as well as its large sample size.To illustrate the breadth of this project, the first semester of the intervention occurred on 15 ofthe ______ campuses. It involved six STEM courses: three as part of the math tutoring strategy(algebra, trigonometry, and calculus) and three as part of the toy design strategy (freshmanengineering design, a freshman engineering seminar, and a computer engineering course). In thefirst semester of implementation, a total of 1117 STEM students were enrolled in themathematics courses, the toy-based engineering courses, and the summer bridge programs.Sixty-five math and 13 engineering faculty were involved.This paper presents the descriptive characteristics and preliminary retention information basedon Toys’n MORE data from participants enrolled in the first semester of intervention. Analysisof participant data is underway to examine the student perceptions of course interventions as wellas major preferences of participants after one year.

Margle, J. M., & Cohan, C. L., & Hsu, Y., & Lane, J. L., & Freeman, A., & Gomez-Calderon, J., & Sathianathan, D., & Engel, R. S. (2011, June), Toys'n More: Initial Implementation of Intervention Strategies Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18988

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015