Building Skills in Engineering: Hand and Power Tool Workshops for Confidence and Retention

This work examines a pilot program open to all undergraduate students in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida on the use of common hand and power tools through a series of 7 weekly hands-on workshops led by a female faculty member as an open opportunity to gain building skills. The goals of the program include: a) Creating a safe environment for engineering students to learn, build, fail & redesign, without pressure of grades or deliverables; b) Increasing individual student tool knowledge, basic making skills, and confidence, so when in group projects later they do not shy away from the design and building portion of team based engineering projects; c) Improving student skills for increased participation in engineering societies, internships, hands-on outreach projects, and student build teams; and d) Promoting a culture of making within all engineering students. Two groups of students were included in this study to examine female-only versus co-ed environment; a 20-person group of female students (Building Women in Engineering), and a 20person group of co-ed students (Building Skills in Engineering). Students from 10 different engineering majors, and all years of undergraduate studies were represented. Both groups had the same female faculty member and female undergraduate peer mentor leading the hands-on tool workshops with them each week. Students were surveyed before, at the mid-point, and following the 7 weeks of workshops to examine the impact of participation on their selfconfidence and interest in the hands-on aspects of engineering studies. Both qualitative (opened ended questions) and quantitative (likert questions) about impressions are included in this work. Additionally, outlines of the tools, build space, and individual workshop projects are included for peer universities interested in developing their own hand & power tool build groups. Student Demographics The Building Women in Engineering and Building Skills in Engineering groups were advertised via email to the general undergraduate engineering population, and spots were filled on a firstcome, first-served basis. Both sections were limited to 20 students, with the Building Women in Engineering section being limited to female-only participants, and the Building Skills in Engineering section being open to all students for a co-ed group. Two different groups, one female only and one co-ed were selected to ensure all student demographics had the ability to participate, as well as giving female students opportunity to work in a female-only environment to build confidence learning within a group of gender peers. Spots for the build groups in this pilot were filled on a first-come first-served basis, so ethnic and year of study demographics represent the first 40 students to sign up for the build groups, they were not selected for any specific ethnic or year of study analysis in this pilot. Out of the total 40 students, 31 were female, 8 were male, and 1 student chose ‘other or prefer not to answer’. The one student who chose ‘other’ approached the professor prior to the build group registration for advice on registration. The student at the time of the build group registration was in gender transition, and was unsure of which section to register for. Given the student self-identified as a male at the time of registration, the student chose to register for the co-ed section. The student decided if they participate in future semesters and feel they then self-identified as female, they might choose the female only section in future semesters. This information is included because part of the goal of this work is creating a working environment welcoming to all students, and this student voiced their input on the gender environment relating specifically to their personal transition in the ‘Gender Environment Feedback’ portion near the end of this work. Combined student gender and year of study demographics from both build groups. Combined student self-reported ethnic background demographics. Active Learning Building Classroom The build groups were held in a designated build space classroom, which was a space marked for future renovation with a locking door, wall outlets, and a hard-surface floor, and little else. The student work spaces were set up in a modular format for future transition to a more permanent space or for easy room re-arrangement if needed for other learning applications. Five work stations were constructed, for seating groups of four students per table. Each 4 student station consisted of two mobile wooden-top student work tables (two students facing two students at each station) and a wooden-top rolling tool chest at the end of each four student station. The five work stations were distributed evenly around the perimeter of the room, with the tool chests facing the inner open space in the room. Wall mounted magnetic marker boards and pin-cushion boards were added for posting project-specific information and for student collaboration. Building Skills Active Learning Reconfigurable Classroom The first week of build group began with general safety procedures for the room (safety glasses required, long hair tied back, denim aprons provided for clothing protection, closed-toed shoes required, etc.) Each student was given an engineering laboratory notebook to use with a brief tutorial about good practice for engineering documentation in building. Equipment in the rolling tool chests that were used during the builds included: hammers, various pliers, multiple types of screw drivers, ratcheting socket wrenches, adjustable wrench, a level, hex wrenches, measuring tape, calipers, hand saw, miter box, clamping vise, sanding sponges, cordless power drills, drill bits, corded and cordless Dremel rotary tools, various Dremel tool accessories and tips, wire strippers, soldering iron station, soldering helping-hand magnifying stand, tap and die set, and various types of small common hardware items (nuts, bolts, screws, nails, wire, shrink tubing, solder, staples, etc.). Items were selected for the tool boxes to balance beginning level concepts, specific project use, affordability, ease of use by students of all sizes, and common applicability to future self-building projects. Students were provided web links to all the tool specifics through the course management system page in case of interest in future individual purchase. Projects & Skills The projects in the build groups were designed to introduce uses of basic hand and power tools, increase confidence, expand making skills, and have students take home their individually made creations. The projects and skills in the build group were discussed informally each week by the faculty member in context of working in laboratories, internships, or student organizations across a variety of engineering majors, but also through personal building experience stories from the faculty member related to basic household maintenance skills. Students sat in groups of 4 each week, and they discussed & collaborated together, but when it came time to build students each individually used the tools to complete projects and were able to each keep projects they made during the build sessions. Student seating in groups of 4 was primarily used based of the combination of space and workbenches available in the maker-space classroom. Each weekly meeting was a 2-hour block of time in the makerspace classroom, which either involved one large project, or two mid-sized projects to take up the time. Projects were structured to last approximately 90 minutes, so if some students took a little longer they did not run out of time to complete their projects. If a student finished early, they were given the option of leaving early each week, or completing a second version of the project from that week or one of the earlier weeks if they had a hands-on item they wanted to create again. Projects (and related tools included): wooden coasters (measuring, Dremel tools), string art (pattern planning, pliers, hammers, nails), wooden swiss-cheese (power drill, drill bits, vise), ratcheting wrench mini-practice (ratcheting wrench, hex keys, adjustable wrench), lighting up the LED (wire stripping, soldering iron, shrink tubing), Simon-Says learn to solder kits (soldering iron, solder, helping hands), threading a hole (tap and die set, nuts and bolts), building picture frames (measuring tapes, miter boxes, hand saws, sanding blocks, screwdrivers, framing staplers, wood filler, paint), and power drill medley (practice different settings on drill with various hardware to know when to use which settings). Self-reported student previous build experience. Prior to participation in the build group, students were asked an open ended question about a skill they hoped to learn, some typical student responses are included here. If you could learn one new technical skill from this group what would it be? “Soldering. I've never soldered, and quite a lot of simple things that I can otherwise assemble require it. ” “I want to have a solid foundation on how to use power tools. ” “I would love to learn how to use a hand saw. ” “I would love to learn how to use a Dremel, I got one as a present but have no idea where to get started with it. ” “I just want to learn how to handle tools properly and the safety that goes along with them. ” “How to remove a screw with a manual screwdriver without stripping the screw. ” “Being able to do more fixing around the house. ” “I want to learn to use power tools. I want to stop being afraid of them. And I definitely want to improve my soldering skills. ” Art and Engineering Skills The first two projects students completed were creating wooden coasters and string art creations while learning to use tools. Both of these projects used wooden log slices as a base for the projects, and students were given instruction on the use of tools for each project, some practice time on scrap materials, and shown s