Early Coursework Research Articles

Self-efficacy and belonging: the impact of a university makerspace

BackgroundIn recent years, makerspaces have become increasingly common venues of STEM education and are rapidly being incorporated into undergraduate programs. These spaces give students and instructors access to advanced design technology and facilitate the incorporation of a wide variety of projects into the curriculum; however, their impacts on students are not yet fully understood. Using matched survey responses (i.e., repeated measures) from undergraduate students enrolled in engineering courses that assigned a makerspace-based project, we evaluate how the use of a university makerspace impacts students’ attitudes towards design, engineering, and technology. Further, we examine whether there are differences based on students’ year in program, gender, and race.ResultsPaired t-tests were used to analyze whether and how nine factors changed within individual students over one semester. Analyses revealed that students who visited the facility showed significant gains in measures of innovation orientation, design self-efficacy, innovation self-efficacy, technology self-efficacy, belonging to the makerspace, and belonging to the engineering community. Subsequently, repeated measures analyses of variance (RMANOVAs) on the students who visited the makerspace revealed significant main effects of students’ year in program, gender, and race, as well as interactional effects of both year in program and race with time.ConclusionsThese results affirm the value of incorporating makerspace-based projects into STEM curricula, especially during early coursework. However, our analyses revealed consistent gender gaps in measures of self-efficacy before and after using the makerspace. Similarly, gains in belonging to the makerspace were not equal across racial groups. We conclude that while makerspaces are fulfilling some of their promise for educating innovative problem solvers, more attention needs to be paid to avoid reproducing disparities in STEM education that are already experienced by female students and racial minorities.

Connecting to Students Through Place

Two teaching residency programs in northern California have provided some insight into graduates’ preparation for, and inclination to pursue, teaching in a rural school. Both programs include early coursework that addresses the needs and strengths of rural communities and requires candidates to conduct an in-depth study of their placement community. This article specifically describes features of the community study assignment that aims to have preservice teachers examine their understandings about rural places, to create a connection to the place where students live, and to promote place-based pedagogy. Student feedback suggests the assignment is a promising practice for teacher preparation. A rural-focused curriculum and a strong understanding of the community creates conditions that support both the recruitment and retention of teachers in rural schools.

Students use sawmill to learn forestry concepts

Students use sawmill to learn forestry concepts

Early Coursework and College Experience Predictors of Persistence at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Utilizing survival analysis, we examined two key first year courses, mathematics and English, and tested whether they were predictive for long-term student success as measured by persistence to graduation at a Hispanic-serving research university. While first math and first English courses were significant, SAT score was not for Hispanic and Black students. High school grade point average (GPA) was significant for Hispanic students but not for White or Black students.

Study of the Kinetics of an SN1 Reaction by Conductivity Measurement

Substitution reactions, a central part of organic chemistry, provide a model system in physical chemistry to study reaction rates and mechanisms. Here, the use of inexpensive and readily available commercial conductivity probes coupled with computer data acquisition for the study of the temperature and solvent dependence of the solvolysis of 2-chloro-2-methylpropane is described. Students obtain rate constants and activation parameters for a range of solvent compositions. This experiment takes advantage of curricular reform pedagogies by utilizing modern equipment and building linkages with earlier coursework.

Creating International Community Service Learning Experiences in a Capstone Marketing-Projects Course

This article outlines the development of a project-based capstone marketing course, specifically designed to provide marketing students with an international community service learning experience. It differs significantly from previous studies, which focus on integrating service learning into existing marketing courses and on helping local nonprofit organizations. The focus of the course outlined in this article is on strengthening marketing-related competencies acquired through earlier coursework; developing broader work-related competencies, such as cross-functional thinking, teamwork, communication, and cultural sensitivity; and operating a collegiate chapter of a nonprofit engaged in international community service. The course described is well aligned with other significant trends in undergraduate business education: it is multidisciplinary, it emphasizes collaborative learning, it is founded on carefully articulated learning outcomes, and learning success is assessed. It provides a transformational experience and prepares students for a global and diverse workplace. A framework for course design is presented, and a set of pedagogical materials is provided that other marketing educators can use to develop and launch a significant international, multidisciplinary community service learning course.

Business and Industry Project-Based Capstone Courses: A Reflection on the Performance of Student Teams

This is the second of two articles in which the author shares experiences gained from the development and delivery of a business/industry project-based capstone course. The course integrates research, proposal development and design experience based on knowledge and skills acquired in earlier coursework. It also incorporates standards and realistic constraints and draws on combinations of all intended academic knowledge and skill outcomes. To succeed in this course, students must demonstrate professional competence through the accomplishment of work activities for business and industrial clients. They are required to collaborate as a team to apply their knowledge, think critically and complete activities. They face many of today's competitive challenges to industry, business and government. This second paper addresses the challenges and rewards of working in a team setting and the ways in which the capstone course structure contributes to students' enhanced learning. The first paper, also included in this issue of Industry and Higher Education, examines the processes of project selection and assessment.

Business and Industry Project-Based Capstone Courses: Selecting Projects and Assessing Learning Outcomes

This is the first of two articles in which the author shares experiences gained from the development and delivery of a business/industry project-based capstone course. The course integrates research, proposal development and design experience based on knowledge and skills acquired in earlier coursework. The course also incorporates standards and realistic constraints. Preparing students for ‘real world’ practices is an integral part of the curriculum for many engineering and technology programmes. Such preparation can involve numerous approaches to simulate realistic experiences, including engaging students with real-world external clients who might use their work. These practices offer the challenge of identifying and selecting suitable projects as well as developing the means to evaluate effectively the learning outcomes related to students' participation in such projects. This paper has two main parts. Part 1 concerns the process of project solicitation and communication with clients during different phases of the capstone project life. The difficulties encountered and the means of reducing their negative impacts are also addressed. Part 2 includes the development of the students' learning outcomes and the tools used to measure them. The second paper, also published in this issue of Industry and Higher Education, addresses some of the key factors in enhancing student learning in teams.

Promise versus reality in relation to the unitary orienting reflex: A case study examining the role of theory in psychophysiology

We commonly teach beginning science students that theory generates hypotheses which direct our research, framing our experimental observations; and that in turn, these supply the data which support or contradict theory, allowing its self-correction and further development. These propositions are explored here in the context of psychophysiology, concentrating on examples in relation to the Orienting Reflex (OR). It is demonstrated that the realist approach generally portrayed in our teaching about theory and theory testing is not the dominant ethos in this field. Indeed, we pay little more than lip-service to the ideal we teach about. One outcome described here is that the promise offered us by the OR in the 1960s has not been realised. It is argued that this failure may be symptomatic of much of science, suggesting that we need to consciously work to raise the perceived value of theory. The ideation element of theoretical activity can be fostered, and it is argued that we need to do so explicitly at a number of levels in the education of our students, beginning in the early coursework stages and continuing in their research training and development.

Mammalogy. 4th ed

T. A. Vaughan, J. M. Ryan, N. J. Czaplewski. 2000. Mammalogy. 4th ed. Saunders College Publishing, Fort Worth, Texas, 565 pp. ISBN 0-03-025034-X, price (hardcover), $86.50. This edition of a popular mammalogy textbook is attractive, the scientific illustrations are magnificent, and the print is readable with important words set in boldface type. Web sites listed at the end of each chapter suggest additional information. A mammalogy textbook is a treatise on one hand and a learning device for a student on the other. Years ago, this reviewer's class was mostly graduate students in vertebrate zoology, some had courses in paleontology, and all had comparative anatomy. In my teaching (63 semesters with 2–3 classes each), students were mostly undergraduates. I love this book, but for many students today it extends well beyond their available time and earlier coursework. Even for less-advanced mammalogy classes, certainly to be considered important, instructors will find this comprehensive work helpful. In “Classification,” within the Introduction (Chapter 1), one appreciates the quote from George Gaylord Simpson (1945) about putting all things into formal arrangement. Simpson continued further that modern taxonomy includes other sciences, and that studies on phylogeny will extend mammalian taxonomy a couple of centuries. To him, and to us, taxonomy (or what our authors call “systematics”) becomes mammalogy. This text introduces students to powerful, modern phyletics. The authors introduce early in the book terms as synapomorphies and outgroups, all part of the powerful, modern way of making phylogenetic dendrograms. This is painful initiation for field-oriented students of general biology and wildlife management. However, terms such as phylogeny, homology, and analogy ought to be introduced. Analogy and homology are not confined to interspecific comparisons (e.g., serial homology is the basis of the dental formula). The text has a drawback in hardly emphasizing the Linnaean system, and not naming Carolus Linnaeus as the starting point of our taxonomy. Nomenclature is never defined; such a technological text should mention its basic rules: priority, synonymy, …