Workshop A: Thursday 8:30 - 10:00 am
Implementing the "Design Your Process of Becoming a World Class Engineering Student"
Project
Room: 319 Benedum Hall
Steffen Peuker, University of Alaska Anchorage
Raymond B. Landis, California State University, Los Angeles
Many students come into an engineering program lacking a strong commitment to stay
in an engineering program and to graduate with an engineering degree. For students
to accomplish the challenging goal of graduating in engineering requires a strong
commitment, and behaviors and attitudes to follow through that commitment. To strengthen
the commitment of the freshman engineering students an innovative project has been
developed. The project challenges students to develop their process to become a
"World-Class Engineering Student". Having freshman engineering students design their
individually tailored learning process as part of a semester long project in the
setting of a student success focused introduction to engineering course or any freshman
engineering course will have a significant impact on their academic success by improving
the students' confidence and motivation to succeed in engineering. This workshop
will show participants how to implement the "Design your Process to become a World-Class
Engineering Student" into their own introduction to engineering courses.
Top of Page
Workshop B: Thursday 8:30 - 10:00 am
Strategies to Enhance Engineering Education at Small Colleges
Room: 309 Benedum Hall
Benjamin R. Campbell, Robert Morris University
Engineering programs at small teaching colleges have challenges not faced by large
research institutions. The strategies used by a school that has several hundred
in a freshman class and dozens of engineering faculty don't necessarily translate
well to a smaller program due to economies of scale and scarcity of resources. Likewise,
there may be education methods that work better in a small program because of the
inherent intimacy of a small class size and more direct contact with faculty. At
the 2012 FYEE conference many of the presentations were from schools that had such
large programs that even if the topic was of interest to a smaller school, the approach
would difficult to implement.
This proposed workshop will provide a forum for small engineering program to share
the challenges they face and methods for success they have developed. Topics could
include:
- How to involve students in research at a teaching university that lacks research
funding and labs
- Using small class sizes to build an engineering community
- How to efficiently teach heavy course loads without teaching assistants
- How to successfully partner with larger schools in mutually beneficial ways
- How to develop niche offerings to build your school's reputation for recruitment
and job placement
- Where to find shared teaching resources and grants for smaller schools
- How to encourage adjuncts to take a more active role with students
- Developing low-cost lab activities to teach engineering skills
- How the First Year Engineering Experience differs on a commuter or branch campus
Additional topics would be generated by the group based on specific concerns or
best practices they want to share. A vote can be conducted to determine which topics
will be discussed. The participants would then be broken into discussion groups
and given one of the topics. They would be directed to better define the problem
and propose solutions. After some time to work in small groups, everyone will come
back together to present their problems and solutions to the large group.
Top of Page
Workshop C: Thursday 8:30 - 10:00 am
Developing a Classification Scheme for "Introduction to Engineering" Courses
Room: 320 Benedum Hall
Kenneth Reid, Ohio Northern University
Tamara Knott, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Many Universities and Community Colleges offer a course entitled "Introduction to
Engineering" or similar. These are often designed from scratch and tend to be "personal
courses" - designed by instructors to cover what they feel is important. Therefore,
while they may be prerequisites to second-year courses, first-year engineering programs
are not necessarily integrated into the curriculum. Further, since they are often
designed with little consideration for existing models, overall outcomes and content
vary widely.
This leads to three issues: first, course developers often "reinvent the wheel"
by failing to disseminate successful models. The problem is exacerbated by a lack
of definition of first year models: a developer may know what they want in a course,
but how do they find a course with similar outcomes with nothing more than "first-year
engineering" as a description?
Second, with little focus on specification of models for these courses, many become
a grab bag of unrelated topics.
Finally, there are issues preventing community colleges from offering "Introduction
to Engineering" courses, leading to disadvantages for students who could transfer
into 4-year programs. Without standard outcomes for a first-year course, students
may receive credit for material that is much different than material they covered,
and community colleges may not be able to design an introductory engineering course
that is applicable to multiple institutions.
This session will invite those interested in developing a classification scheme
for "Introduction to Engineering" courses. The goal of the session will be to catalog
efforts underway toward the overall goal of developing a classification scheme and
to create a community of practice to facilitate this development.
Top of Page
Workshop D: Thursday 8:30 - 10:00 am
Planting the SEED for Success: Easing Transitions through Living & Learning Communities
Room: 318 Benedum Hall
Tamara Fuller, The University of Maryland- College Park
The object of this presentation is to inform the audience of practices used by the
Successful Engineering Education and Development Support (SEEDS) Program at the
Clark School of Engineering. Funded through the National Science Foundation, the
SEEDS program offers several opportunities to impact success and create community
for engineering students. Of these programs Flexus: The Dr. Marilyn Berman Pollans
Women in Engineering Living & Learning Community and Virtus: A Living and Learning
Community for Success in Engineering have proved particularly helpful in easing
the transition for students into their first year of engineering course work. Flexus
and Virtus provide 117 first and second year students access to engineering, gender
based, living and learning environments. There are many components of Flexus and
Virtus including: Summer Orientation, New Resident Orientation, Common Resident
Hall, Mid-semester Advising, 1-credit Seminar & Course Clusters, and Summer Orientation.
During the session the presenter will outline the program components, shared current
data and participants will discuss best practices and ways to establish/improve
LLC efforts at any institution. The workshop will discuss the: New Resident Orientation
(NRO), Common Resident Hall, Mid-semester Advising, Flexus & Virtus Early Warning
Grades, 1-credit Seminar & Course Clusters. In addition to the aforementioned aspects,
Flexus and Virtus also offers leadership experience through a student led executive
counsel, research fellowships, and exposure to a variety of engineering related
opportunities.
Finally the impact of these programs on student performance and retention will be
discussed.
Top of Page
Focus Worshop: Thursday 10:30 - Noon
What Makes a Successful First-Year Engineering Program
Room: University Club Ballroom B
Matt Ohland, Purdue University
Kerry Meyers, Youngstown State University
This workshop will present the elements of multiple successful but different First-Year
Engineering programs including:
- program structures / program types
- content areas (computer programming, design, discipline specific projects, technical
communication)
- administration and logistics (teaching, grading, etc.)
- advising
Workshop participants will be asked to share the aspects of First-Year Engineering
programs that have been particularly successful (or unsuccessful) at their institutions.
Finally, participants will have the opportunity to draft and present a First-Year
Engineering Program Structure that would be possible at their institution.
Top of Page
Small Group Workshops: Thursday 2:00 - 3:30 pm
RoundTable Small Group Discussion Workshops
Rooms: Benedum Hall Rooms 318, 319, 309, 320
Various discussion leaders
We anticipate that the attendees at this years conference will have job describations
such as: Engineering student services staff; Minority engineering program staff;
High school teachers and administrators; Community college engineering instructors;
Communication skills specialists; Engineering faculty - Small 4-year institutions;
Engineering faculty - Large 4-year institutions; Engineering education academic
administrators; Intro to Engineering course instructors - Technical content-focus;
Intro to Engineering course instructors - Team-based engineering design project
focus; Intro to Engineering course instructors - Student development/student success
focus; and Department of Engineering Education - Faculty and administrators. This
interactive session is designed to allow all these attendees to share their insights
into the following topics on First Year Engineering.
Best practices for FYE courses/programs
Transitioning students from high school to engineering study
Sharing FYE successes
Academic advising for FYE students
FYE courses having "student development/student success" focus
Challenges of implementing FYE courses/programs in community colleges
Designing a FYE course
Retention strategies for underrepresented FYE students
Strategies for strengthening students' commitment to engineering
Engineering education research
Implementation of team-based engineering design projects in FYE courses
Teaching communication skills to FYE students
Top of Page
|