Integrating Ethics Into a Research Experience for Undergraduates

A Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) is an extra-curricular opportunity for science or engineering students in the sophomore, junior, or senior year to participate in academic research in much the way graduate students do. It is a way to introduce undergraduates to the excitement of real research. Because it also seems an easy and attractive way to integrate ethics into undergraduate education, working out how professors of engineering or science might actually incorporate professional ethics into an REU seems desirable. This paper describes one effort to do that with engineering students.     

An Engineering Major Does Not (Necessarily) an Engineer Make: Career Decision Making Among Undergraduate Engineering Majors

This study uses a mixed‐methods design to investigate students' career decision making at two U.S. undergraduate institutions. The research question was, “To what extent do students who complete undergraduate programs in engineering intend to pursue engineering careers?” We surveyed senior engineering majors about their post‐graduate intentions, and later interviewed a subset of the seniors about their career intentions. Only 42 percent of students surveyed reported that they definitely intended to pursue a career in engineering, 44 percent were unsure, and 14 percent were definitely not pursuing engineering. We observed significant institutional differences. Interview data reveal the quixotic nature of many students' decisions about their careers; strikingly, students were vacillating between multiple post‐graduate options late into the senior year, even into summer. Implications are discussed for further research and ways engineering departments can influence students' career decisions.     

A K‐12/University Partnership: Creating Tomorrow's Engineers*

Supported by the National Science Foundation, the GK‐12 Fellows program at the University of Colorado at Boulder explores innovative ways for engineering graduate students to use engineering as the vehicle to provide K‐12 classroom instruction and hands‐on experiences that integrate physical sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology. Engineering “Fellows” fill a crucial gap in the two‐way exchange of content and pedagogy between the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the K‐12 community of learners. The active presence of real world, engineering role models in K‐12 classrooms improves the quality of math and science content, and introduces engineering to teachers and young students as a potential career path. Working through the University's graduate program legitimizes K‐12 outreach as a valid, and satisfying, academic endeavor for graduate students.     

Applied Aerodynamics Experience for Secondary Science Teachers and Students

The Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mechanics & Engineering Science at the University of Florida in conjunction with the School Board of Alachua County, Florida has embarked on a four-year project of university-secondary school collaboration designed to enhance mathematics and science instruction in secondary school classrooms. The goals are to provide teachers with a fundamental knowledge of flight sciences as well as stimulate interest among students, particularly women and minorities, toward careers in engineering, mathematics, and science. In the first year, all thirteen of the county's eighth grade physical science teachers and their 1200 students participated. The activities included a three-day college level seminar for the teachers, several weeks of classroom instruction for all the students, and an airport field trip for a subgroup of about 400 students that included an orientation flight in a Cessna 172 aircraft. The project brought together large numbers of middle school students, teachers, undergraduate and graduate engineering students, school administrators, and university engineering faculty. In Year 2, we are expanding our coverage and improving our minority outreach by offering the program to additional counties and the Florida Comprehensive State Center for Minorities. We are also introducing a program to recruit undergraduate minority engineering students for teaching careers by teaming these students with middle school teacher “mentors”, and having them work with teachers in the classroom.     

Sloan Foundation Scholarship Program: Mentoring Undergraduates toward Doctoral Degrees

In the last decade rapid advances and complex nature of new and improved technologies and fierce competition are demanding a more profound expertise at all professional levels in Chemical Engineering related industries. Graduate programs are an attractive option to fill this need. This and other factors led the chemical engineering department at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez campus to implement several programs and initiatives in order to encourage students to pursue doctoral degrees. A key component of this strategy is the Sloan Foundation Undergraduate Scholarship Program. During the first three years a significant increase (from 2 to 10% of the graduating BS class) resulted in those continuing to graduate school. The main components of the program are mentoring, undergraduate research, summer internships, and graduate school orientation seminars.     

Annual Progress Reports: An Effective Way to Improve Graduate Student Communication Skills

A perennial problem in engineering education is the development of communication skills that allow students to present their ideas clearly and effectively. At Iowa State University, a cooperative program has been set up to provide one-on-one mentoring in communication skills for graduate students participating in the Power Affiliates Program. Graduate student research is funded on an annual basis by a consortium of utility companies. A system comprising a seminar and individual consultation assists students in preparing their required annual progress reports for their spring symposium. Students in the program for several years show improvement in their writing skills and their understanding of communication processes.     

Integrating Undergraduate Research into Engineering: A Communications Approach to Holistic Education

This paper describes the Research Communications Studio (RCS), a structured approach for teaching undergraduate researchers to do authentic written, oral, and graphical communications tasks while they are learning to do research. In the RCS, small groups of undergraduate researchers meet weekly with a communications faculty member, an engineering graduate student mentor, and a communications graduate research assistant. The project is built upon social constructivist theory that recognizes the interdependence between communication, cognitive development, and metacognition. It investigates knowledge construction within a small‐group context of distributed cognition, the concept that each group member's expertise is available to other group members. Data from surveys indicate that engineering faculty members, graduate student mentors, and undergraduate participants were very positive about the progress participants made in cognitive development and communications abilities. Analysis of participants' reflective writings shows the development of metacognitive abilities necessary for self‐directed, life‐long learning.     

An Evaluation of the Georgia Tech Summer Undergraduate Program of Research in Electrical Engineering for Minorities

This paper describes and evaluates the effectiveness of a summer undergraduate research program designed to attract qualified minority students into graduate school in electrical engineering. This eight-week program recruits students of at least junior-level undergraduate standing on a nationwide basis and pairs them with faculty members and graduate student mentors to undertake research. The research activities are conducted in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and National Science Foundation Engineering (NSF) Research Center in Low-Cost Electronic Packaging at the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1992–1995, a total of 47 students participated in this program. Thirty-six of these participants were interviewed by phone to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about the program's impact. The findings indicate that 92% of the program participants are either currently enrolled in a graduate program, plan to attend graduate school in the next two years, or have completed a graduate degree. In comparison to a control group of individuals drawn from the membership of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) alumni, it is found that program participants are more likely to pursue advanced degrees and more likely than non-participants to continue their studies in engineering. In addition, participants report higher starting salaries than non-participants. Overall, attitudes toward the program are positive, and the data suggests that GT-SUPREEM does have a significant impact on the student participants.     

The Use of Discriminant Analysis to Investigate the Influence of Non‐Cognitive Factors on Engineering School Persistence

This study identified post‐enrollment attitudes and perceptions that influence students' decisions to remain in an engineering curriculum. Non‐cognitive factors including expectations and perception of the engineering profession, assessment of personal attributes, and subject‐matter confidence were investigated. Discriminant analysis functions were developed to distinguish among three mutually exclusive groups: those who remained in the engineering school, those who remained at the university in a different school, and those who left the university altogether. Self‐reported confidence in college‐level math/science ability and the belief that an engineering degree enhances career security at a respectable salary were found to be significant predictors of both short‐term and long‐term persistence in engineering.     

From the Earth to the Moon: A Freshman Seminar

The seminar course for first‐year undergraduate students, From the Earth to the Moon, deals with both technical and non‐technical aspects of space flight, with particular reference to lunar voyages. The goals of the course are to establish a framework for understanding technology and its applications, to present fundamental principles of science and program management, and to motivate students to learn more about the many facets of engineering. As such, the course introduces numerous issues of systems engineering in a broad context, presenting not only science, technology, and mathematics but also the reasons that these subjects are important. Typically, all of the students in the course have studied physics and/or calculus in high school, though half plan to major in the humanities. Thus, the course has dual roles in exposing liberal arts students to details of technology and engineering students to societal impacts of technology.     

ASEE Student Chapters: Perspectives on and Preparation for Higher Education

The objective of this paper is to introduce an American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Student Chapter, highlighting the purpose of developing a student chapter and the activities one can provide. The Purdue University Student Chapter, formed in the spring of 1993 as the first student ASEE chapter, has a threefold mission in providing relevant information to graduate students, undergraduate students, and underrepresented groups. The principal goal is to encourage mentorship among undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. To accomplish this goal, the student chapter provides seminars and workshops to educate graduate students about the various aspects of an academic career. Similarly, a seminar series on graduate study in engineering has been developed to educate undergraduates about graduate school. The Purdue University Student Chapter of ASEE currently has a membership base of more than 60 graduate students. The initial success of the Purdue Chapter has helped encourage formation of six student chapters at other universities.     

Beliefs and Expectations about Engineering Preparation Exhibited by High School STEM Teachers

Background If we are to effect change in teacher practices and decision making regarding instruction, college preparation, and career success in engineering, then knowledge of teachers' beliefs and expectations about engineering needs to be understood. Purpose (Hypothesis ) The primary purpose was to develop a statistically reliable survey instrument to document teachers' beliefs and expectations about pre‐college engineering instruction, college preparation, and career success in engineering, called the Engineering Education Beliefs and Expectations Instrument (EEBEI), and to compare teachers' views. Design /Method Using two samples of teachers, EEBEI was established as a statistically reliable survey and was used to examine the beliefs and expectations of Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and non‐PLTW teachers. The results were used to further examine teachers' decisions in advising fictional students (described in vignettes) with varying academic and socioeconomic profiles. Results High school STEM teachers report their instruction was influenced by students' interests, family background, and prior academic achievement. Comparisons between PLTW and non‐PLTW teachers revealed that non‐PLTW teachers agreed more strongly that an engineer must demonstrate high scholastic achievement in math and science whereas PLTW teachers were more likely to report that science and math content was integrated into engineering activities. Although teachers report that students' socioeconomic status was not influential when asked explicitly, it did influence situated decision‐making tasks using fictional student vignettes. Conclusions Findings address challenges of STEM integration and reveal conflicting purposes of K‐12 engineering education as being for a select few or to promote technological literacy for all students, which affects recruitment, instruction, and assessment practices.     

Engineering Accreditation and Standards for Technological Literacy

This article provides an overview of how the International Technology Education Association's Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology's Engineering Criteria 2000's Criterion 3 Program Outcomes and Assessment focus on producing secondary school and engineering graduates with an enhanced level of technological literacy and competency. These documents, providing guidelines for pre‐college through undergraduate education, are intended to promote improvement in the quality and quantity of engineering students and to enhance the level of technological literacy of pre‐college teachers and their students.     

The Relations of Ethnicity to Female Engineering Students' Educational Experiences and College and Career Plans in an Ethnically Diverse Learning Environment

This paper describes a mixed‐methods study employing a social cognitive theoretical framework that emphasizes the interplay of person factors, environment, and behavior to explore the educational experiences of female students in an ethnically diverse learning environment. Specifically, we investigate the relations of ethnicity to female students' perceptions and experiences related to engineering, as well as their selection of and persistence in undergraduate engineering majors. An ethnically diverse sample of female engineering undergraduates at an urban research university completed an online survey and participated in semi‐structured interviews. Results revealed that participants of all ethnicities perceived strong institutional and peer supports in this diverse learning environment. Additionally, differences in participants' perceived barriers for achieving engineering educational and career plans were found based on ethnicity and parental level of education.     

The Graduate Record Examination and Success in an Engineering Management Program: A Case Study

Abstract:

The authors consider the empirical validity of the graduate record examination (GRE) as a predictor of various measures of performance in a graduate engineering management program. The performance criteria include first-quarter graduate school grades, first-year graduate school grades, cumulative graduate school grades, and faculty committees' ratings of students' theses. Tests indicated that the GRE verbal and quantitative test scores were useful in predicting first-year and cumulative grade point averages (GPAs). The implications of these findings are discussed to include the idea of a theory-based test and measures of graduate student performance.     

Formative and Summative Assessment of the IGERT Program in Optical Molecular Bio‐Engineering at UT Austin

Recent studies of graduate education in science and engineering recommend a new pathway for graduate education, emphasizing interdisciplinary interactions, to prepare a versatile workforce that will be able to contribute in a global environment. The National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (NSF IGERT) has funded over 100 projects addressing this need. As these projects progress it is important to assess their successes, best practices and common difficulties. This paper describes one NSF IGERT project, “Graduate Training in Optical Molecular Bio‐Engineering,” at the University of Texas at Austin, the integrated approach used to carry out its assessment, and how results of the assessment have been used to help achieve the goals of the program. We find that the total number of interdisciplinary scholarly activities (presentations, publications, funded research proposals and patent applications) reported by IGERT faculty and students rose steadily throughout the period of the IGERT award.     

Gender Differences in Elements of the Undergraduate Experience that Influence Satisfaction with the Engineering Major and the Intent to Pursue Engineering as a Career

Background Groups within and outside of educational institutions are interested in factors that influence satisfaction among students enrolled in the engineering major as well as elements within the college environment that shape students' intentions to work in engineering in the future and whether these elements differ by gender. Purpose (Hypothesis ) This study identified gender differences on indicators of the undergraduate experience including faculty‐related and student‐related variables as well as measures of satisfaction with the institutional environment that are related to satisfaction with the engineering major and intent to pursue a career in engineering ten years from now. Design /Method The mixed methods approach used for this investigation involved nine institutions with engineering undergraduate degree programs. An online questionnaire was administered to undergraduate students enrolled in engineering. Qualitative data was collected through focus group interviews with students at each of the nine participating institutions. Results Findings reveal that satisfaction with the engineering major does not translate directly to pursuing a career in engineering, particularly among women. In terms of elements of the undergraduate experience, some types of interactions with faculty and peers have both short‐ and long‐term impacts on interest in engineering as a major and as a career. Conclusions Creating learning environments that emphasize care and respect for students as well as overseeing student interaction during group work can make a difference in students' satisfaction in the engineering major and in interest in engineering as a career, particularly for women.     

Exploring Engineering Graduate Student Research Proficiency with Student Surveys

Background Research is considered the essence of graduate engineering education, but knowledge about the engineering graduate student research experience is scarce in literature. Some studies that examine graduate engineering education suggest that students are experiencing educational deficiencies that can affect the research experience. Thus, exploring engineering graduate student research proficiency is warranted. Purpose (Hypothesis ) This work begins to earnestly answer the research questions “How proficient are engineering graduate students in research?” and “What factors affect the research proficiency of these students?” Design /Method In order to answer the two research questions specifically for the Georgia Institute of Technology Environmental Engineering graduate program, current students in the program participated in two surveys. Survey questions were designed to measure students' perceptions of their research proficiency and to aid in determining student academic motivations tied to proficiency. Results Many students indicated that they lacked research preparation upon beginning graduate study and during the first year of study, lacked development in important research skills like statistics and communicating in writing, and were somewhat hindered in research organization and progress. Regarding academic motivations, students generally valued personal advancement and enrichment over paper publication. Doctoral students overall indicated more preparation with respect to several aspects of research and more value placed on paper publication than did master's students. Conclusions The surveys provided important findings regarding student research proficiency for the engineering graduate program in question. These findings encourage the exploration of engineering graduate student research proficiency on a broader scale in future studies.     

Leaving Engineering: Lessons from Rowan University's College of Engineering

The paper focuses on retention in the Rowan University undergraduate engineering program with many “female‐friendly” features despite its design as best practices for all students. Both male and female “stayers” in the program are compared to “leavers” on a variety of characteristics, including pre‐college and family background, grades, satisfaction with the Rowan program, engineering self‐confidence, and future expectations about their engineering major and career. Data come from a special survey of all Rowan engineering students.