ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Design of a Professional Practice Simulator for Educating and Motivating First-Year Engineering Students
Author: Chesler, Naomi C.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Engineering Education,Computer Simulation,Educational Quality,Educational Experience,Undergraduate Students,Student Motivation,Design,Student Projects,Costs,State Universities,Mentors,Outcomes of Education,Student Evaluation,Learning Theories,Internship Programs,Program Descriptions,Feedback (Response),Teamwork,Epistemology,Games,Discourse Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Qualitative Research,Student Attitudes

Increasingly, first-year engineering curricula incorporate design projects. However, the faculty and staff effort and physical resources required for the number of students enrolled can be daunting and affect the quality of instruction. To reduce these costs, ensure a high quality educational experience, and reduce variability in student outcomes that occur with individual design projects, we developed a simulation of engineering professional practice, NephroTex, in which teams of students are guided through multiple design-build-test cycles by a mentor in a virtual internship. Here we report on the design process for the virtual internship and results of testing with first-year engineering students at a large, public university. Our results demonstrate that the novel virtual internship successfully educated and motivated first-year-engineering students. Importantly, the virtual environment captures rich discourse that can be used to assess the process of student learning with tools from existing learning theory.
Development of an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Bioengineering Program at Lehigh University
Author: Herz, Lori
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Undergraduate Study,Engineering Education,Biotechnology,Program Descriptions,Program Development,Program Implementation,Interdisciplinary Approach,Experiential Learning,Entrepreneurship,Educational Innovation,Student Recruitment,Curriculum Development,Laboratory Equipment,Partnerships in Education,Industry,Specialization,Track System (Education)

The undergraduate Bioengineering Program at Lehigh University was established as part of the university's Bioscience and Biotechnology Initiative with support from the National Science Foundation through a grant from its Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC). The objective here is to describe the program development and implementation, as well as the challenges encountered. Bioengineering at Lehigh was designed as an interdisciplinary program, with an emphasis on experiential learning, entrepreneurship, and innovation. In this light, the goals established for the program implementation were focused on recruiting students, developing a rigorous curriculum, equipping laboratories, and fostering industrial partnerships. The curriculum initially had three key components: a core of basic requirements, three tracks allowing students to specialize within a field of bioengineering, and experiential learning. The key challenges faced are balancing breadth and depth of a curriculum in a diverse field, improving experiential learning opportunities, implementing changes while maintaining stability, and handling operations as a new program rather than as an established department. The effectiveness of these strategies has been assessed on an ongoing basis. For example, an integrated recruitment strategy was used to encourage student enrollment, the results of which were measured through surveys and admissions data. Requiring students to select one of the three tracks, which are Biopharmaceutical Engineering, Cell and Tissue Engineering, and Bioelectronics and Biophotonics, each with an advanced laboratory course, added depth to the curriculum. Based on several sources of feedback, numerous changes have been made to the curriculum, including the addition of more bioengineering courses, especially advanced electives. The incorporation of Integrated Product Development (IPD), which was already an established hallmark program at Lehigh, into bioengineering, was a major program change that enhanced the hands-on learning and innovation opportunities. Implementing such changes, and managing them effectively, have been necessary to maintain program stability.
Integrating Interdisciplinary Research-Based Experiences in Biotechnology Laboratories
Author: Iyer, Rupa S.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Interdisciplinary Approach,Scientific Research,Biotechnology,Undergraduate Study,Science Laboratories,Inquiry,Science Process Skills,College Science,Science Instruction,Hands on Science,Science Curriculum,Student Research,Student Projects,Environmental Education,Student Attitudes,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Student Evaluation,Skill Development

The increasingly interdisciplinary nature of today's scientific research is leading to the transformation of undergraduate education. In addressing these needs, the University of Houston's College of Technology has developed a new interdisciplinary research-based biotechnology laboratory curriculum. Using the pesticide degrading bacterium, &quot;Brevundimonas diminuta,&quot; as an anchor organism, the curriculum follows a logical progression starting with isolation and identification of pesticide degrading soil microbes, gene cloning, gene expression, bioprocessing of the gene product and commercial applications, thus demonstrating the life cycle of a typical biotechnology product. These series of laboratory protocols use a guided inquiry method to teach appropriate techniques and skills and help students build a bridge between materials presented in courses and applications in real life. Students then apply these concepts and techniques in independently designed investigations. The modular nature of this curriculum makes it flexible for integration into a variety of courses and could serve as a model for interdisciplinary education.
Where Are We Now? Statistics on Capstone Courses Nationwide
Author: Howe, Susannah
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: School Statistics,National Surveys,Engineering Education,Educational Practices,Institutional Characteristics,Interdisciplinary Approach,Educational Development,Educational Trends,Profiles,Educational Resources,Teacher Participation,Financial Support,Success,Data Analysis,College Programs,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators

Capstone design courses are an increasingly common component of engineering curricula nationwide, but how much do we really know about the current practices? How do capstone courses differ across departments and institutions? How have capstone courses changed in the past 10 years? This paper highlights data from a survey of engineering capstone design courses conducted in 2005, based on responses from 444 programs at 232 institutions. Particular focus areas include respondent profile, course/project logistics, faculty involvement, funding details, industry sponsorship, and success. The 2005 data are also compared with results from the comparable survey by Todd and Magleby et al. in 1994 (&quot;Journal of Engineering Education,&quot; April 1995), thus providing both a snapshot of recent practices plus an indication of trends over the past decade.
Engineering Design EDUCATION: When, What, and HOW
Author: Khalaf, Kinda
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Engineering,Engineering Education,Design,Interdisciplinary Approach,Educational Innovation,College Freshmen,Problem Based Learning,Problem Solving,Alignment (Education),Inquiry,Decision Making,Student Attitudes,Correlation,Course Organization,Case Studies,Student Projects,Student Surveys

This paper presents an innovative, interdisciplinary, design-and-build course created to improve placement, content, and pedagogy for introductory engineering design education. Infused at the freshman level, the course aims to promote expert design thinking by using problem-based learning (PBL) as the mode of delivery. The course is structured to actively engage the students in the various phases of a prescriptive design-and-build cycle using ill-structured, open-ended problems inspired from industry, and is supported by technological tools such as robotics kits and rapid prototyping machines. One of the main contributions is the integration of the prescriptive design cycle with PBL to promote effective inquiry and the systematic, iterative interplay between divergent and convergent questioning in the engineering design process. The inherent alignment of PBL pedagogy and the prescriptive design cycle enhances students' ability to tackle complex challenging problems and reach optimal solutions by following an iterative loop of divergent-convergent processing and decision making. In the post-analysis, the course has two significant positive impacts on students: 1) as measured by a newly developed design attitudes survey, course graduates are 20 ± 5% more likely than other engineering students to express attitudes consistent with professional engineers regarding problem-solving practices in the engineering design process, and 2) a measure of teams' adherence to the course's prescribed design cycle are moderate-to-strongly correlated (p ~ 0.66, &gt; 90% confidence) with the quality of the finished design, as measured by live, in-class demonstrations.
Multidisciplinary Capstone Design at the University of Houston
Author: Bannerot, Richard
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Universities,Interdisciplinary Approach,Engineering Education,Web Sites,Course Organization,Criticism,Student Attitudes,College Students,Communications,Professional Personnel,Cooperation,Writing (Composition),Student Projects,Laboratories,Course Descriptions

In this paper we identify some of the issues and problems that we confronted while developing a new, one-semester, interdepartmental, multidisciplinary capstone design course. We implemented the following changes to the pre-existing capstone design course: (1) Utilized a website to enhance information transfer, (2) Modularized the course and replaced lecturing with facilitating, (3) Introduced a studio/critique teaching format, (4) Integrated communications professionals into the teaching of the course, and (5) Allowed the students to be involved in establishing the final expectations for their project. The details of the implementation process, the effects of the changes, and the students' responses are discussed. Examples of some of the projects are given.
Incorporating a Systems Approach into Civil and Environmental Engineering Curricula: Effect on Course Redesign, and Student and Faculty Attitudes
Author: Hayden, Nancy J.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Systems Approach,Engineering Education,Civil Engineering,Environmental Education,College Curriculum,Curriculum Development,Student Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,College Faculty,Inquiry,Educational Change,Service Learning,Problem Solving,Sustainability,Transportation,Decision Making,Models,Student Surveys,Focus Groups,Interviews,Student Evaluation,Accreditation (Institutions),Outcomes of Education,Undergraduate Students,Undergraduate Study,Program Evaluation,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis

This paper presents a brief overview of the changes made during our department level reform (DLR) process (Grant Title: &quot;A Systems Approach for Civil and Environmental Engineering Education: Integrating Systems Thinking, Inquiry-Based Learning and Catamount Community Service-Learning Projects&quot;) and some of the effects of these changes on our students and ourselves. The overall goal of the reform has been to have students learn and apply a systems approach to engineering problem solving such that when they become practicing engineers they will develop more sustainable engineering solutions. We have integrated systems thinking into our programs in the following ways; 1) new material has been included in key courses (e.g., the first-year introductory and senior design courses), 2) a sequence of three related environmental and transportation systems courses have been included within the curricula (i.e., Introduction to Systems, Decision Making, and Modeling), and 3) service-learning (SL) projects have been integrated into key required courses as a way of practicing a systems approach. A variety of assessment methods were implemented as part of the reform including student surveys, student focus groups, faculty interviews, and assessment of student work. Student work in five classes demonstrate that students are learning the systems approach, applying it to engineering problem solving, and that this approach helps meet ABET outcomes. Initial student resistance to changing the curriculum has decreased post implementation (e.g., graduating class 2010), and many students are able to define and apply the concept of sustainability in senior design project. Student self-assessments show support of SL projects and that the program is influencing student understanding of the roles and responsibilities of engineers in society.
Assessing Graduate Engineering Programs with ePortfolios: A Comprehensive Design Process
Author: Kajfez, Rachael L.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Portfolio Assessment,Graduate Students,Engineering Education,Evaluation Methods,Electronic Publishing,Reflection,Motivation,Design,Communities of Practice,Program Development,Stakeholders,Research,Laboratories,Case Studies

ePortfolios (ePs) have been used in a variety of applications ranging from undergraduate assessment to graduate student work showcases. We hypothesize that the flexible, individualized nature of ePs makes them suitable assessment tools for graduate engineering programs, which are likewise flexible and individualized. Our investigation resulted in a systematic design process that can be used to create eP systems for graduate programmatic assessment. The process was used to develop eP assessment systems for three different engineering graduate programs. Results indicate that (1) the end products, the eP assessment systems, were directly affected by the graduate programs' culture and vision of graduate engineering assessment, and that (2) ePs are flexible based on departmental or program needs. Therefore, we conclude that ePs are appropriate for assessment in graduate engineering programs and that a systematic process of development can be used.
The Critical Incident Technique: An Effective Tool for Gathering Experience from Practicing Engineers
Author: Hanson, James H.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Critical Incidents Method,Engineering,Engineering Education,Task Analysis,Cognitive Development,Learning Experience,Program Descriptions,Needs Assessment,Behavioral Objectives,Strategic Planning,Data Collection,Data Analysis,Data Interpretation,Interviews,Instructional Effectiveness,Training Methods,Educational Practices,Higher Education

Not all knowledge and skills that educators want to pass to students exists yet in textbooks. Some still resides only in the experiences of practicing engineers (e.g., how engineers create new products, how designers identify errors in calculations). The critical incident technique, CIT, is an established method for cognitive task analysis. It is especially effective for accessing implicit knowledge which exists in a person's unconscious and is therefore not readily accessible. Such knowledge is often referred to as &quot;experience&quot;. The five steps to the critical incident technique are 1) Identify your objectives, 2) Make plans and set specifications, 3) Collect the data, 4) Analyze the data, and 5) Interpret the data and disseminate the results. This manuscript presents detailed recommendations on how to conduct a CIT study; therefore, it can serve as a &quot;how to&quot; manual for educators who want to obtain experiences from practitioners in order to provide those experiences to students as knowledge and skills useful to their professional careers. This manuscript also includes details of an example application of CIT with lessons learned.
Implementing Entrepreneurial Assignments in a Multidisciplinary, Sophomore-Level Design Course
Author: Dahm, Kevin
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Entrepreneurship,Engineering Education,Assignments,Surveys,Undergraduate Students,Design,Interdisciplinary Approach,Student Projects,Student Attitudes,Curriculum,Program Descriptions

Many engineering programs stress the importance of technological innovation by offering entrepreneurship electives and programs. Integration of entrepreneurship into the required engineering curriculum has predominantly focused on senior capstone design courses. This paper describes a strategy for integrating entrepreneurship into a multidisciplinary sophomore-level design course. This early introduction provides an opportunity for students to further pursue their entrepreneurial ideas through a junior/senior level, project-based course. The Rowan Sophomore Engineering Clinics are integrated courses in which engineering design is taught concurrently with technical communication. This paper describes two entrepreneurial assignments that have been integrated into the Sophomore Clinics: a white paper, and an open-ended semester long design experience in which students propose their own entrepreneurial projects. The projects appear to lead to increased interest in entrepreneurship among students, as indicated by survey results and by an increase in students choosing to pursue entrepreneurial projects as juniors and seniors. While the Sophomore Clinic structure is unique to Rowan University, the entrepreneurial assignments themselves are readily adaptable to other engineering programs.
A Service Learning Structural Engineering Capstone Course and the Assessment of Technical and Non-Technical Objectives
Author: Dinehart, David W.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Service Learning,Design,Curriculum,Engineering Education,Civil Engineering,Role,Course Descriptions,Outcomes of Education,School Buildings,Foreign Countries,Feedback (Response),Student Attitudes,Residential Care,Problem Based Learning,School Construction,Bilingual Schools,Elementary Schools,Reflection,Teaching Methods,Enrollment,College Students,Universities

The primary role of a civil engineer is to serve the community; thus, it is essential that students understand the impact of engineering projects on, and the context of engineering projects within, society. One goal of an engineering capstone design course should be to mesh the technical knowledge of the discipline with an encompassing engineering problem that incorporates &quot;real world&quot; issues and challenges. With all of the aforementioned criteria in mind, the objective of Villanova University's structural capstone course described herein is to integrate technical and non-technical issues through a challenging real world project. This paper presents the development, implementation, objectives, and assessment of a structural engineering capstone course that incorporates an international service project. All data indicates that the students participating on the service trip achieve significantly higher non-technical outcomes compared to those students who work solely on the design project.
Integrating the Engineering Curriculum through the Synthesis and Design Studio
Author: Kellam, Nadia
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Engineering,Engineering Education,College Curriculum,Curriculum Development,Design,Integrated Curriculum,College Students,Environmental Education,Focus Groups,Interdisciplinary Approach,Models,Holistic Approach,Qualitative Research,Art Education

Traditional curricular approaches within engineering education tend to be fragmented, with opportunities for content- and meta-level synthesis being mostly limited to freshman and senior year design courses. In this paper, we are proposing a curricular model, the Synthesis and Design Studio, to combat the tendency towards fragmented curricula. The approach proposed here attempts to negotiate the realities of fragmented curricula by providing an integrative learning component that exposes Environmental Engineering students to open-ended projects with the intent that students will develop an integrated understanding of their courses, lives, and professional futures. The pedagogical features and theoretical design of the Studios will be described. Project-led research was conducted, and results from this interpretive analysis of reflections and focus group transcripts are described to explore students' accounts of both content- and meta-level integration as they participated in a Studio.
YouTube Fridays: Student Led Development of Engineering Estimate Problems
Author: Liberatore, Matthew W.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Social Networks,Video Technology,Teaching Methods,Engineering Education,College Students,Technology Uses in Education,Thermodynamics,Energy,Student Evaluation,Multiple Choice Tests,Student Attitudes

YouTube Fridays devotes a small fraction of class time to student-selected videos related to the course topic, e.g., thermodynamics. The students then write and solve a homework-like problem based on the events in the video. Three recent pilots involving over 300 students have developed a database of videos and questions that reinforce important class concepts like energy balances and phase behavior. A set of example problems and videos are presented from a sophomore level engineering thermodynamics course and a sophomore level material and energy balances course. Student evaluations found a vast majority (79%) of the students felt better at relating real world phenomena to thermodynamics from participating in YouTube Fridays. Overall, YouTube Fridays is a student led activity that provides practice of problem solving on open-ended, course related questions.
Implementation of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) in Engineering
Author: Douglas, Elliot P.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Active Learning,Teaching Methods,Team Teaching,Engineering,Engineering Education,Inquiry,Cooperative Learning,College Faculty,Teacher Role,Facilitators (Individuals),Teamwork,Communication Skills,Critical Thinking,Qualitative Research,Student Role,Comparative Analysis

This paper describes implementation and testing of an active learning, team-based pedagogical approach to instruction in engineering. This pedagogy has been termed Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), and is based upon the learning cycle model. Rather than sitting in traditional lectures, students work in teams to complete worksheets that guide them through the process of learning. The instructor's role in this class is to act as a facilitator of learning. In this way students are actively engaged in processing the information and have the opportunity to utilize and develop important skills such as teamwork, communication, and critical thinking. Assessment of this approach was conducted using formal and informal qualitative data, which revealed important elements of implementation that are needed in order to improve student learning when using this approach.