Enabling Engineering Student Success

Enabling Engineering Student Success

Author: Cynthia J. Atman

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13:

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Today's engineering graduates will solve tomorrow's problems in a world that is advancing faster and facing more critical challenges than ever before. This situation creates significant demand for engineering education to evolve in order to effectively prepare a diverse community of engineers for these challenges. Such concerns have led to the publication of visionary reports that help orient the work of those committed to the success of engineering education. Research in engineering education is central to "all" of these visions. Research on the student experience is fundamental to informing the evolution of engineering education. A broad understanding of the engineering student experience involves thinking about diverse academic pathways, navigation of these pathways, and decision points--how students choose engineering programs, navigate through their programs, and then move on to jobs and careers. Further, looking at students' experiences broadly entails not just thinking about their learning (i.e., skill and knowledge development in both technical and professional areas) but also their motivation, their identification with engineering, their confidence, and their choices after graduation. However, an understanding of the engineering student experience is clearly not enough to create innovation in engineering education. Educators who are capable of using the research on the student experience are needed. This involves not only preparing tomorrow's educators with conceptions of teaching that enable innovation but also understanding how today's educators make teaching decisions. The nation also needs to be concerned about creating the capacity to do such research--in short, more researchers are needed. One promising approach is to work with educators who are interested in engaging in research, supporting them as they negotiate the space between their current activities and their new work in engineering education research. To fully support this process, the nation must also investigate what is required for educators to engage in such a path. The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) began research in January 2003 as one of two national higher-education Centers for Teaching and Learning funded by the National Science Foundation that year. Originally funded for 2003-2007, supplementary funds from the Engineering Directorate allowed additional analysis and dissemination to continue through 2010. This report describes the work of CAEE. The authors summarize CAEE's findings and outcomes, followed by highlights from their efforts to disseminate the results, including a set of research instruments and other materials that are available for use by others. The authors conclude with a look ahead at next steps and some questions for future research. Appended are: (1) References and Cumulative Bibliography; (2) Cumulative Team List and Advisory Board Members; (3) APS Headlines; (4) Local Inquiry Questions; (5) Looking Ahead: Ideas for Future Research. (Contains 26 figures and 10 tables.).


Minority Serving Institutions

Minority Serving Institutions

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-02-05

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0309484448

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There are over 20 million young people of color in the United States whose representation in STEM education pathways and in the STEM workforce is still far below their numbers in the general population. Their participation could help re-establish the United States' preeminence in STEM innovation and productivity, while also increasing the number of well-educated STEM workers. There are nearly 700 minority-serving institutions (MSIs) that provide pathways to STEM educational success and workforce readiness for millions of students of colorâ€"and do so in a mission-driven and intentional manner. They vary substantially in their origins, missions, student demographics, and levels of institutional selectivity. But in general, their service to the nation provides a gateway to higher education and the workforce, particularly for underrepresented students of color and those from low-income and first-generation to college backgrounds. The challenge for the nation is how to capitalize on the unique strengths and attributes of these institutions and to equip them with the resources, exceptional faculty talent, and vital infrastructure needed to educate and train an increasingly critical portion of current and future generations of scientists, engineers, and health professionals. Minority Serving Institutions examines the nation's MSIs and identifies promising programs and effective strategies that have the highest potential return on investment for the nation by increasing the quantity and quality MSI STEM graduates. This study also provides critical information and perspective about the importance of MSIs to other stakeholders in the nation's system of higher education and the organizations that support them.


Understanding the Educational and Career Pathways of Engineers

Understanding the Educational and Career Pathways of Engineers

Author: National Academy of Engineering

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-01-26

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0309485606

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Engineering skills and knowledge are foundational to technological innovation and development that drive long-term economic growth and help solve societal challenges. Therefore, to ensure national competitiveness and quality of life it is important to understand and to continuously adapt and improve the educational and career pathways of engineers in the United States. To gather this understanding it is necessary to study the people with the engineering skills and knowledge as well as the evolving system of institutions, policies, markets, people, and other resources that together prepare, deploy, and replenish the nation's engineering workforce. This report explores the characteristics and career choices of engineering graduates, particularly those with a BS or MS degree, who constitute the vast majority of degreed engineers, as well as the characteristics of those with non-engineering degrees who are employed as engineers in the United States. It provides insight into their educational and career pathways and related decision making, the forces that influence their decisions, and the implications for major elements of engineering education-to-workforce pathways.


Models and Modeling in Engineering Education

Models and Modeling in Engineering Education

Author:

Publisher: Brill / Sense

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789087904029

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The book describes how incorporating mathematical modeling activities and projects, that are designed to reflect authentic engineering experience, into engineering classes has the potential to enhance and tap the diverse strengths of students who come from a variety of backgrounds.


Advancing the STEM Agenda

Advancing the STEM Agenda

Author: Cindy P. Veenstra

Publisher: Quality Press

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 1636940498

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In July 2011, the ASQ Education Division held its first Advancing the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Agenda in Education, the Workplace, and Society Conference at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. This publication is a selection of papers and workshops from this groundbreaking conference. The ideas presented here will help other educators and policy makers to develop their own innovative high-impact ideas for inspiring student interest in STEM careers, improving the delivery of STEM education at their schools and colleges, and helping STEM college graduates transition to the workplace. The chapters in this book reflect research and best practices, integrating the ideas of continuous improvement in combination with a can-do attitude, to provide a valuable resource that will lead others to consider similar innovative and collaborative educational structures that will drive more interest in STEM majors in college, and provide for our next generation of scientists, technicians, and engineers. ”Prior to reviewing Advancing the STEM Agenda I had a list in my mind of topics that I hoped would be addressed. I’m very pleased with how many are covered—and covered well. This project succeeds at the challenge of providing not only beneficial breadth but also important depth. Because our public-private partnership has been committed explicitly to continuous improvement for more than a decade, I couldn’t help but notice (as the editors also point out in their conclusion) the extent to which continuous improvement is a ‘common thread’ throughout the book. That speaks to the book’s practical utility in many settings, and on a long-term basis. No less valuable is the discussion of student motivation by many of the authors, which STEM teachers in our area have identified as a major issue of interest to them in recent surveys." Richard Bogovich Executive Director Rochester Area Math Science Partnership, Minnesota. "Veenstra, Padró, and Furst-Bowe provide a huge contribution to the field of STEM education. We all know the statistics and of the huge need in the area of STEM students and education, but what has been missing are application and success stories backed by research and modeling. The editors have successfully contributed to our need by focusing on collaborative models, building the K-12 pipeline, showing what works at the collegiate level, connecting across gender issues, and illustrating workforce and innovative ideas." John J. Jasinski President Northwest Missouri State University "Advancing the STEM Agenda provides a broad set of current perspectives that will contribute in many ways to advancing the understanding and enhancement of education in science, education, and engineering. This work is packed with insights and perspectives from experienced educators and bridges the transition from education to workplace." John Dew Senior Vice Chancellor Troy University


Engineering Justice

Engineering Justice

Author: Jon A. Leydens

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-11-17

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1118757432

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Shows how the engineering curriculum can be a site for rendering social justice visible in engineering, for exploring complex socio-technical interplays inherent in engineering practice, and for enhancing teaching and learning Using social justice as a catalyst for curricular transformation, Engineering Justice presents an examination of how politics, culture, and other social issues are inherent in the practice of engineering. It aims to align engineering curricula with socially just outcomes, increase enrollment among underrepresented groups, and lessen lingering gender, class, and ethnicity gaps by showing how the power of engineering knowledge can be explicitly harnessed to serve the underserved and address social inequalities. This book is meant to transform the way educators think about engineering curricula through creating or transforming existing courses to attract, retain, and motivate engineering students to become professionals who enact engineering for social justice. Engineering Justice offers thought-provoking chapters on: why social justice is inherent yet often invisible in engineering education and practice; engineering design for social justice; social justice in the engineering sciences; social justice in humanities and social science courses for engineers; and transforming engineering education and practice. In addition, this book: Provides a transformative framework for engineering educators in service learning, professional communication, humanitarian engineering, community service, social entrepreneurship, and social responsibility Includes strategies that engineers on the job can use to advocate for social justice issues and explain their importance to employers, clients, and supervisors Discusses diversity in engineering educational contexts and how it affects the way students learn and develop Engineering Justice is an important book for today’s professors, administrators, and curriculum specialists who seek to produce the best engineers of today and tomorrow.


Engineering Identities, Epistemologies and Values

Engineering Identities, Epistemologies and Values

Author: Steen Hyldgaard Christensen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-05-30

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 3319161725

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This second companion volume on engineering studies considers engineering practice including contextual analyses of engineering identity, epistemologies and values. Key overlapping questions examine such issues as an engineering identity, engineering self-understandings enacted in the professional world, distinctive characters of engineering knowledge and how engineering science and engineering design interact in practice. Authors bring with them perspectives from their institutional homes in Europe, North America, Australia\ and Asia. The volume includes 24 contributions by more than 30 authors from engineering, the social sciences and the humanities. Additional issues the chapters scrutinize include prominent norms of engineering, how they interact with the values of efficiency or environmental sustainability. A concluding set of articles considers the meaning of context more generally by asking if engineers create their own contexts or are they created by contexts. Taken as a whole, this collection of original scholarly work is unique in its broad, multidisciplinary consideration of the changing character of engineering practice.


Engineering Practice in a Global Context

Engineering Practice in a Global Context

Author: Bill Williams

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2013-09-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0415636965

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This volume aims to provide the reader with a broad cross-section of empirical research being carried out into engineers at work. The chapters provide pointers to other relevant studies over recent decades – an important aspect, we believe, because this area has only recently begun to coalesce as a field of study and up to now relevant empirical research has tended to be published across a range of academic disciplines. This lack of readily available literature might explain why contemporary notions of engineering have drifted far from the realities of practice and are in urgent need of revision. The principal focus is on what empirical studies tell us about the social and technical aspects of engineering practice and the mutual interaction between the two. After a foreword by Gary Lee Downey, the research presented by the various chapter authors is based on empirical data from studies of engineers working in a variety of global settings that include Australia, Ireland, Portugal, South Asia, Switzerland, the UK and the US The following groups of readers are addressed: •researchers and students with an interest in engineering practice, •professional engineers, particularly those interested in research on engineering practice, •engineering educators, •people who employ, recruit or work with engineers. Providing a much clearer picture of engineering practice and its variations than has been available until now, the book is of interest to engineers and those who work with them. At the same time it provides invaluable resource material for educators who are aiming for more authentic learning experiences in their classrooms. Further information, visit the website Engineering Practice in a Global Context Online: http://epr.ist.utl.pt/EPGC/


Information Literacy for Science and Engineering Students

Information Literacy for Science and Engineering Students

Author: Mary DeJong

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2024-08-22

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1440878773

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This engaging handbook gives students and working scientists and engineers the information literacy skills they need to find, evaluate, and use information. Beginning with a strong foundation in the utility, structure, and packaging of information, this useful handbook helps students and working professionals decode real-world information literacy problems. Mary DeJong provides a compelling context and rationale for the skills scientists and engineers need to succeed in challenging careers that rely on the successful discovering and sharing of complex information. Students will appreciate the in-depth information on sources, especially those needed for research assignments, and scientists and engineers who write for publication will benefit from chapters on searching databases and organizing and citing sources. Written with science and engineering students and professionals in mind, this book is thorough, well-paced, engaging, and even funny.