Pre‐College Engineering Studies: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Pre‐college Engineering Studies and Student Achievement in Science and Mathematics

Background The U.S. has experienced a shift from a manufacturing‐based economy to one that overwhelmingly provides services and information. This shift demands that technological skills be more fully integrated with one's academic knowledge of science and mathematics so that the next generation of engineers can reason adaptively, think critically, and be prepared to learn how to learn. Purpose (Hypothesis ) Project Lead the Way (PLTW) provides a pre‐college curriculum that focuses on the integration of engineering with science and mathematics. We documented the impact that enrollment in PLTW had on student science and math achievement. We consider the enriched integration hypothesis, which states that students taking PLTW courses will show achievement benefits, after controlling for prior achievement and other student and teacher characteristics. We contrast this with alternative hypotheses that propose little or no impact of the engineering coursework on students' math and science achievement (the insufficient integration hypothesis), or that PLTW enrollment might be negatively associated with student achievement (the adverse integration hypothesis). Design/ Method Using multilevel statistical modeling with students (N = 140) nested within teachers, we report findings from a quantitative analysis of the relationship between PLTW enrollment and student achievement on state standardized tests of math and science. Results While students gained in math and science achievement overall from eighth to tenth grade, students enrolled in PLTW foundation courses showed significantly smaller math assessment gains than those in a matched group that did not enroll, and no measurable advantages on science assessments, when controlling for prior achievement and teacher experience. The findings do not support the enriched integration hypothesis. Conclusions Engineering education programs like PLTW face both challenges and opportunities to effectively integrate academic content as they strive to prepare students for college engineering programs and careers.     

中国工程科技的进展与展望

回顾了2007年中国在能源与环境、航天航空、信息产业、制造业、科学仪器和实验装置等工程科技领域所取得的成就,展望了未来工程科技的几大发展趋势.     

The Achievements of Advanced Manufacturing Techniques in Aviation and Aerospace Industries

In this paper, the recent achievements in the advanced manufacturing technology are presented. The laser forming of sheet metals, rapid forming, precision casting, precision forging, inertia friction welding are developed for aviation and aerospace industries. The main topics including the advantages, principle of manufacturing, processing parameters and control, typical processing applied in practice and typical work-pieces for those advanced manufacturing technologies are summarized.     

Cycles of optimism in design

This paper attempts a synthesis of the concept of 55 year economic cycles with ideas on achievement motivation to suggest that design also undergoes cyclical changes. In these cycles design based on optimism and faith in the future is replaced by design drawing its inspiration from the past. A content analysis of adverts in the Journal of Decorative Art demonstrates a cycle of optimism.     

成功企业经理人员成就取向的个案研究

研究选择了一家中国名的成功企业开展典型个案研究。通过结构化访谈、行为事件访谈等方法，较为全面、深入地考察了企业各层次经理人员的成就取向及特点。在对访谈材料综合分析的基础上，提出了经理人员成就取向的自我—社会取向和过程—结果取向的二维度结构，并由此组合成成就取向的四种成分：工作行为表现、工作目标超越、自我利益获取和团体利益贡献。总结提炼了每种成分在更一般意义上的关键特征。研究还发现了经理人员的成就取向与企业的组织化有密切的关系。     

企业经营决策中的行业选择与评价的研究

从选择行业的理论出发，提出了在实际操作过程币应注意的几点问题，最后利用多层次模糊综合评判法建模，从四个层面论证了行业选择的业绩考评，加深了行业选择的可信度。     

微纳米检测技术的研究进展

纳米检测是纳米技术的重要方面之一，本文介绍了近年来研究人员为获得几何量纳米测量精度所作的努力的取得的进展，主要包括实物基准测量系统的标准溯源，扫描隧道显微技术的新应用，微纳米驱动定位技术的应用，三坐标测量机不确定度的正确评价的纳米三坐标测量机的研制等，阐述了误差分离技术和自校正技术的原理及其在提高测量和加工精度方面的有效性。     

应用工业工程的又一新成果

石家庄碳素有限公司与河北科技大学运用工业工程方法，明确陈述了生产岗位作业标准的设计，取得了居大成功。     

An interdisciplinary course in engineering synthesis

The interdisciplinary courseSynthesis of Engineering Systems has been offered by the Engineering Design Research Center over the last 3 years. Students are exposed to two major paradigms for design synthesis: mathematical programming and knowledge-based expert systems. The former emphasizes the mathematical formulation of optimization problems that involve discrete and continuous variables for the selection of topologies and parameters in engineering systems. The latter emphasizes representations and search techniques for processing qualitative knowledge for synthesis of designs by heuristic classification and hierarchical decomposition.An integral part of the course is a term project in which the students apply both synthesis approaches to a design problem in their domain. The projects deal with different engineering problems, reflecting the disciplinary background of the students. The projects explore a number of different schemes for combining mathematical optimization and knowledge-based approaches. Some use knowledge-based techniques for preliminary screening or as critics of mathematical optimization, while others show a direct comparison between the two approaches. This paper summarizes the experience gained in the course, illustrates representative student projects, discusses major results and conclusions, and provides a perspective for future research needs and educational approaches in this area.     

The Effects of Engineering Modules on Student Learning in Middle School Science Classrooms

The Teachers Integrating Engineering into Science (TIES) Program is a collaborative project among faculty from the College of Education and the College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. The TIES project paired university faculty with middle school science teachers to create three units that included engineering design using a variety of interactive learning activities in order to engage a wide range of students. The units included a Web‐based simulation activity, lesson plans, a design project, and three types of assessments that were standardized across schools. Results of assessments were disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, special education, and socio‐economic level. Mean scores for these student population groups were compared to mean scores for the same groups on the 2004 Nevada eighth grade science criterion referenced test. These results indicate that engaging students in engineering curriculum activities may diminish achievement gaps in science for some student populations.     

自尊对成就动机和生活满意度的预测作用

目的探讨自尊对成就动机和生活满意度的预测作用。方法随机追踪调查了北京市3所高校124名(男52名,女72名)研一学生,采用自尊量表(SES)对其自尊水平进行初测,在0.5a后测量其成就动机(AG)和生活满意度(SWL)。结果自尊对0.5a后的成就动机(β进取=0.24,P<0.05;β规避=-0.23,P<0.05)和生活满意度(β=0.44,P<0.01)均有显著的预测作用。结论通过个体的自尊水平可以在一定程度上预计其未来的成就动机,通过提高自尊水平可以促进成就动机和生活满意度的提高,此结果对管理和教育领域有一定的影响。