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Work In Progress Research Opportunities For Educator Who Don’t Do Research

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Conference

FYEE 2025 Conference

Location

University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland

Publication Date

July 27, 2025

Start Date

July 27, 2025

End Date

July 29, 2025

Conference Session

WIP I

Tagged Topic

FYEE 2025

Page Count

6

DOI

10.18260/1-2--55282

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/55282

Download Count

28

Paper Authors

biography

Todd R Hamrick West Virginia University

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Dr. Todd Hamrick, Ph.D. is aTeaching Professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program at West Virginia University Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, a position he has held since 2011.

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Robin A.M. Hensel West Virginia University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1858-6452

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Robin A. M. Hensel, Ed.D., is a Teaching Professor in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University and an ASEE Fellow Member. Prior to joining academia, she served as a mathematician and computer systems analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she managed technical projects and collaborated with engineering teams to support energy research. With over 30 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Hensel has taught courses in mathematics, statistics, computer science, engineering, and engineering technology. She has secured more than $6.5 million in funding to advance STEM education research, led major program development initiatives, and held multiple administrative leadership positions. Her contributions have been recognized through numerous awards for excellence in teaching, advising, research, and service.

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Atheer Almasri West Virginia University

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Dr. Almasri is currently a teaching assistant professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program (FEP) at the Statler College of Engineering, West Virginia University. He has been serving in this position since 2020. Before joining West Virginia University, he worked as an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering at Imam University for 10 years. Dr. Almasri holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, as well as master's and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Engineering.

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Carter Hulcher West Virginia University

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Dr. Hulcher is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV. He has been in his current role at WVU since 2020. Dr. Hulcher holds degrees in Civil Engineering, as well as Mathematics.

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Lizzie Santiago West Virginia University

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Lizzie Y. Santiago, Ph.D., is a Teaching Associate Professor for the Fundamentals of Engineering Program in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and has postdoctoral training in ne

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Susie Huggins West Virginia University

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Huggins currently works for the Fundamentals of Engineering program at West Virginia University. She is working on her PhD in Education, a lifelong dream. Huggins is an advocate of STEM learning in the K-12 arena as well as a proponent of after school programing to help build the workforce of the Technological Revolution. She is particularly interested in Appalachian kindergarten teachers' perceptions of STEM.

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Akua B. Oppong-Anane West Virginia University

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Akua Oppong-Anane is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program at West Virginia University. She has a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, a Master's degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences. Her research areas are in engineering education, retention and persistence of first-year engineering students, mentoring, advising and environmental engineering.

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WenJuan Mo West Virginia University

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Mo, Wen Juan (Helen) currently serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Fundamentals of Engineering Program at Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Educational Theory and Practice Program at the School of Education, College of Applied Human Sciences, West Virginia University (WVU). She holds two M.A.s in Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from WVU and a B.A. in Education with an emphasis in English literature from Central South University in China. She brings a wealth of diverse working experience to her role in Statler. She has extensive teaching experience and has taught ENGR140, ENGR191, C&I 311, Chinese 101, 102, 203, and 304 courses. She worked as a schoolteacher in the United States and China for 17 years. This diverse experience has honed her adaptability and versatility in different educational settings. Her research interests include critical engineering education, place-based education, and curriculum design.

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Abstract

Many teaching and non-tenure track positions have no research component in the workload, with annual and promotional evaluations based solely on teaching and service. A natural question might be why one would want to conduct research without an obligation. This full paper explores the reasons why faculty without a research component in their assigned workload might want to conduct educational research. It also provides advice on how to become engaged in educational research. Based on a brief survey of engineering teaching faculty in a large, R1, land-grant institution in the mid-Atlantic region, this work will provide many reasons why these faculty started their educational research programs, the benefits they have experienced, and how they got started. There are several reasons why conducting educational research is valuable beyond the workload component. Conducting research on teaching effectiveness helps improve it. Travel expenses for highly valuable conferences are often tied to presenting at them. Funded research can supplement salaries for 9-month appointees. It enhances the CV in the event of a change of position is needed. Educational research opportunities can be found in many areas. A simple place is in one’s own classroom by testing and evaluating teaching methods using surveys or grade comparisons. Funded technical research frequently has an educational component that the PI needs to fulfill. These can be found by collaborating with researchers and the college’s research office. NSF and other organizations offer educational research funding that can apply to engineering education. Teaching track faculty can apply for such grants to further their own development and the profession as a whole. Many non-tenure track faculty find that engineering educational research is highly rewarding personally, professionally, and financially. This work offers guidance on getting started in conducting or participating in educational research and will help new researchers get started.

Hamrick, T. R., & Hensel, R. A., & Almasri, A., & Hulcher, C., & Santiago, L., & Huggins, S., & Oppong-Anane, A. B., & Mo, W. (2025, July), Work In Progress Research Opportunities For Educator Who Don’t Do Research Paper presented at FYEE 2025 Conference, University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--55282

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: © 2025 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