Freshman Engineering Research Articles

Kaizen teaching and the learning habits of engineering students in a freshman mathematics course

Which are the teaching methods that actually contribute to the learning of mathematics? The answer to this certainly is the holy grail of didactic and pedagogy, and should be supported by large scale statistical evidence. Our article aims at providing an initial step into this direction by first illustrating a teaching paradigm that is suited for the generation of large scale data sets: based on industry best practice quality assurance standards we introduce the Kaizen teaching paradigm which enforces Kolb’s reflective learning cycle on the students’ side. Second, we present and analyze the data we obtained through our pilot implementation at a engineering freshman mathematics course in the Sultanate of Oman. These emphasize the effectiveness of Kaizen teaching and once again show the necessity of continuous learning. A practice that seems to be forgotten in traditional university engineering courses due to the mere size of the audience. In particular it seems that a Markovian estimator for students’ performance may have to be considered.

Measuring Mathematical Competences of Engineering Students at the Beginning of Their Studies

This article reports about our efforts to determine engineering students' competence in mathematics. Our research is embedded in a larger project, KoM@ING–Modeling and developing competence: Integrated IRT based and qualitative studies with a focus on mathematics and its usage in engineering studies, within the program Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHS). KoKoHS provides the umbrella organization of several research projects addressing the modeling and measuring of competences at the college level. KoM@ING aims to model the role of engineering students' mathematical competences for their studies from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective.Here, we report the development of a large-scale instrument assessing engineering freshmen's competence in mathematics by applying Rasch analysis to determine measures for item difficulties and student abilities. Several analyses were performed to provide insights into the measures' reliability and validity. In particular, to examine cognitive validity, we scrutinized students' think-aloud protocols when solving the items to investigate their problem solving abilities as a proxy for item difficulty. Overall, we found first evidence that our instrument is suitable to assess engineering freshmen's competence in mathematics. This instrument may be helpful to conduct further research and to inform those concerned with collegeorganization and policy.

The Use of an Innovative Jig to Stimulate Awareness of Sustainable Technologies among Freshman Engineering Students

Renewable energy systems, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, still require a great deal of research and development in order to improve efficiency, reduce overall manufacturing costs, and to become more sustainable in the future. Solar power production using PV modules has increased and is currently one of the fastest growing energy technologies worldwide, leading to speculation that it will be the main source of electrical power in future. This on-going research and implementation of PV modules and systems necessitates the effective training of technicians, technologists and engineers required to install, maintain or interface with these systems. The Department for Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT) in South Africa has implemented a Higher Certificate in Renewable Energy Technologies (HCRET) in January 2014. The purpose of this article is to outline a practical innovative jig that was used to stimulate awareness and understanding of the fundamental operating principles of one specific sustainable technology, namely PV modules. Electronic measurements from this innovative jig are obtained by using an ARDUINO UNO board which interfaces with LabVIEW. Student perceptions of using this innovative jig are further presented, which indicate that the practical experiments were satisfying, challenging, relevant and applicable to PV module operation.

Persistence Factors Associated With First-Year Engineering Technology Learners

Engineering technology learners are understudied group that comprise the T of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Attrition from engineering technology majors is a profound and complex challenge, as substantially less than half of students who begin an engineering technology major persist through the first year. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and document the authentic lived experiences of retained freshman engineering technology students at a Midwestern urban university in order to explore the factors associated with first-year persistence in the discipline, with particular emphasis on the student's relationship with the institution. Using NVivo 10, seven themes emerged from the interviews of successful first-year learners including personal goals, classmate collaboration, faculty relationships, uneasy beginning, work effort, adaptability, and campus involvement. The study results suggested that social activities outside the classroom may not play a specific role in learner persistence and that engineering technology students possessed strong goal clarity and degree commitment.

No Budget, No Experience, No Problem: Creating a Library Orientation Game for Freshman Engineering Majors

“Mystery at the Library” is a simple, inexpensive game developed as a library orientation activity for freshman engineering students. Players searched the library building and online to find clues and solve the mystery of a stolen book. Feedback from players and library desk staff was used to improve the game over time. A straightforward narrative with puzzles focused on learning objectives kept players engaged and avoided unnecessary confusion. A post-game survey indicated that the game was both helpful and fun for a majority of respondents.

新入社員の特徴と新入社員向け技術研修の効果

新入社員の特徴と新入社員向け技術研修の効果

How do generic cognitive strategies affect proceeding in freshmen's engineering design? Results of a pilot study in engineering design education

The innovative impact of technical products strongly depends on the ways of proceeding in the early phases of engineering design. Within a quasi–experimental randomised control group design including 95 engineering design students forming 21 groups, we analysed whether offering a system of generic cognitive strategies in addition to the regular curriculum in engineering design methodology may significantly improve engineering students' knowledge, ways of proceeding, and performance. The additionally provided strategies are associated with a significantly larger increase of reported knowledge on generic cognitive techniques and strategies utilised by a greater proportion of teams assigned to the experimental group. These results suggest integrating generic cognitive strategies into the regular engineering design curriculum.

Comparing Career Awareness Opportunities Of Academically At-Risk And Non At-Risk Freshman Engineering Students

This study explored how freshman engineering students utilized career awareness developmental opportunities prior to entry into post-secondary academics. Specifically, the study delved into separations and distinctions among students at-risk of non-continuation due to matriculation concerns and students non at-risk. Founded on the amended arrangement of Nasta’s (2007) Career Exploration Survey-Revised instrument, singular factors were studied through hypotheses targeting career awareness behaviors among at-risk and non at-risk subgroups. The results show there are possible contradictions to commonly accepted beliefs about career awareness between at-risk and non at-risk students. Several deductions, considerations, and implications are highlighted based upon the findings of the study.

Assessment of Interest as Subjective Personal Data of Engineering Freshmen towards their Enrolled Degree Program

This study aimed to determine the level of interest of the Engineering Freshmen towards engineering program. Descriptive type of research was utilized in the study. Results showed that engineering is still dominated by male students from private schools; chose engineering as their personal choice, and find engineering moderately to highly difficult course. Engineering students have high interest in the engineering program specifically in terms of affective and cognitive learning. They find personal factor as high influence in their interest towards engineering program. Students who personally decided to take engineering have higher sense of inner growth that influenced their interest towards the engineering program. Personal and environmental factors have greater influence in the interest of the engineering students towards their enrolled degree program. The proposed action plan may be implemented to enhance the interest of engineering students towards their studies and surpass the challenges of higher engineering courses.

Involving Parents at Step One in the Freshman Engineering Experience

The transition from high school to college can be very difficult for many students. The authors believe that parents can advocate on behalf of their children by educating themselves on particular transitional challenges their children potentially face, as well as by helping these freshmen daughters and sons establish realistic educational and social goals. Parents can assist their children by helping them to anticipate the significant transitions that occur during the freshman year. This paper will acquaint the reader with three key transitional challenges new college students face, and offer an approach to productive interactions between the Swanson Schoolâ??s orientation facilitators/freshmen faculty and the parents to ease these challenges. The paper will demonstrate the importance of making parents part of the first year orientation and educational process. Steadily improving persistence rates at the University of Pittsburghâ??s Swanson School of Engineering indicate that educating new students and parents in realistically anticipating first year challenges allows first year to successfully work through key freshman year challenges.

Birinci sınıf mühendislik öğrencileri ile öğretim görevlilerinin yaşam boyu öğrenme yönelimleri

Bilimdeki hızlı gelişmeler ve mühendislik alanında bunları izleyen teknolojik değişiklikler, mühendislerin kendi beceri ve bilgilerini güncellemelerini gerektirmektedir. Bu da, mühendislik fakültelerinin yaşam boyu öğrenme (YBÖ) becerilerini müfredatlarına dâhil etmelerini ve öğrencilerinin YBÖ için hazır oluş düzeylerini belirlemelerini gerektirir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda bu çalışma, Abu Dabi'deki Petrol Enstitüsü'nde 2012-2013 akademik dönemi boyunca birinci sınıf mühendislik öğrencilerinin ve öğretim görevlilerinin YBÖ yönelimlerini tespit etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Çalışmaya, ortalama 19 yaşındaki 196 öğrenci ve ortalama 42 yaşındaki 31 öğretim üyesi katılmıştır. Çalışmaya katılan öğrencilerin yaklaşık %75.5'i yabancı ülkelerden gelen öğrencilerdir. Yaşam Boyu Öğrenim Eğilim Skalası kullanılarak toplanan veriler, cinsiyet ve etnik köken arasındaki kıyaslamalarla analiz edilmiştir. Öğrencilerin YBÖ yönelimleri ayrıca öğretim görevlilerinin yönelimleriyle de karşılaştırılmıştır. Veri analizi için SPSS istatistik yazılımı sürüm 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, ABD) kullanılmıştır. Verileri yorumlamak için, sıklık ve yüzde gibi tanımlayıcı istatistikler kullanılmıştır. Grup karşılaştırmaları için Mann-Whitney U testi kullanılmıştır. Bulunan sonuçlar, sebat ve öz-düzenleme becerileri için nispeten düşük puanlarla birlikte öğrencilerin genel puanının ortalama olduğunu göstermiştir. Ancak öğretim görevlilerinin genel puanlarının yüksek olduğu ve merak becerileri için nispeten daha da yüksek puanlara sahip olduğu görülmüştür. Kız öğrencilerin puanlarının, öz-düzenleme ve merak konularında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılıklarla birlikte daha yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Ayrıca farklı ülkelerden gelen öğrencilerin tüm alt-beceri puanları, istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir derecede daha yüksek bulunmuştur. Bu çalışmayla, mühendislik öğrencilerinin YBÖ becerileri konusunda farkındalıklarının artmasından fayda görecekleri ve mühendislik müfredatının, bu becerilerin öğretimini de bünyesine dâhil etmesi gerektiği sonucuna varılmıştır. Öğrencilerin yaşam boyu öğrenen özelliklerini üstlenmelerini sağlamak amacıyla bazı pratik öneriler sunulmuştur.

Bringing Biology to Freshmen Engineering Students: The Approach Implemented at Notre Dame

The growing relevance of biology to diverse engineering problems has led to the suggestion that training in biological sciences should be incorporated into the core engineering curriculum. While there is growing interest in this idea, challenges to including biology in the engineering curriculum include fitting this new material into an already crowded schedule (i.e., deciding what other core topics to cut), determining what biological topics should be covered, and agreeing upon which part of the university should teach the course. This “methods” article describes Notre Dame’s approach to solving these problems, in which the second semester of general chemistry has been replaced by a semester of “biological chemistry” that is designed specifically to bring key concepts of biology to the first year engineering students while also teaching some core aspects of typical second semester chemistry. This course is now approaching its 10th year, and it has expanded to include not only all first year engineering students, but also a sizable fraction of physics and mathematics majors. We discuss some of the challenges that we faced in designing and implementing the course, and provide both a summary of the present curriculum and pointers about how to make the course run smoothly. We suggest that our approach be considered as a general solution to the problem of how to introduce biology to students in engineering as well as in mathematics and the physical sciences.

Women Engineering Students: Competence Perceptions and Achievement Goals in the Freshman Engineering Course

Research suggests that women engineering students in the United States typically have lower competence perceptions than their male classmates. According to achievement goal theory, low competence perceptions are associated with avoidance achievement goals which involve a preoccupation with avoiding failure rather than a focus on approaching success. The current study was conducted to see if women in a freshmen engineering course would rate their competence lower than their male classmates and if they would be more likely to adopt avoidance achievement goals. Further, would lower competence perceptions (i.e., perceived ability, self-efficacy) and avoidance goals have negative effects on grades and interest in the freshman engineering course? A sample of 117 first-semester engineering students from a U.S. Midwestern University completed surveys several times during the semester. Data were also collected from a sample of 82 first-semester students enrolled in an introductory psychology course for comparison purposes. Women in the freshman engineering course reported lower competence perceptions and higher levels of avoidance achievement goals than did men in the engineering course and than men and women in the psychology course. However, there were no significant gender differences in course grades or interest in the engineering course. Further analyses revealed indirect effects of gender on grades and interest in the engineering course through the competence perceptions. The indirect effects were negative suggesting lower values for women in engineering. The avoidance achievement goals were not influential in the indirect effects. The implications of these finding for the persistence of women in engineering are discussed.

Virtual Blocks: a serious game for spatial ability improvement on mobile devices

This paper presents a novel spatial instruction system for improving spatial abilities of engineering students. A 3D mobile game application called Virtual Blocks has been designed to provide a 3D virtual environment to build models with cubes that help students to perform visualization tasks to promote the development of their spatial ability during a short remedial course. A validation study with 26 freshman engineering students at La Laguna University (Spain) has concluded that the training had a measurable and positive impact on students’ spatial ability. In addition, the results obtained using a satisfaction questionnaire show that Virtual Blocks is considered an easy to use and stimulating application.

Life in Science

Armin Dale Kaiser, Professor of Biochemistry and of Developmental Biology, Emeritus, Stanford University Medical School My love for experimental biology has grown over the years. My father was a YMCA secretary who ran the Y’s summer camp, Camp Wakonda. It was on the Miami and Erie Canal, which at the time was wild and was reminiscent of going back to nature. At camp, Dad taught me to love nature’s world, which is why I became an experimental biologist. While I studied at Piqua High School, I worked on Saturdays at Ruble’s radio repair shop. Radio sets in those days used vacuum tubes, transformers, resistors and capacitors. It was fun trying to figure out which part was “bad” from the set’s symptoms, then trying to fix it. These attempts were my first brush with experimental science. I attended Purdue University, paid for by the GI Bill, since I had served in the US Army in 1946–47. Freshman year at Purdue provided my first struggle with experimental errors. The freshman engineering course in surveying consisted of tracing a “Dumpy” level circuit around campus from the top of one fire-plug to the next. Somehow, the plug on which we had started the circuit seemed to have changed its elevation significantly 3 days later when we closed the circuit. I liked all my college teachers, notably my math, physics and chemistry teachers. Humanities classes were also interesting, particularly the discussions of moral and political philosophy. In my sophomore year I realized that I preferred science to engineering, and I shifted from engineering to a science curriculum so that I could study biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. I applied to several graduate schools in biophysics, which seemed to include all of my interests.

High-Achieving High School Students and Not So High-Achieving College Students

This study investigated the relationship among lack of self-control, academic ability, and academic performance for a cohort of freshman engineering students who were, with a few exceptions, extremely high achievers in high school. Structural equation modeling analysis led to the conclusion that lack of self-control in high school, as measured by the frequency of illegal and irresponsible behaviors, had an inverse relationship with first semester grade point average (GPA), whereas academic ability, as measured by ACT scores, had a positive relationship with college GPA. The correlation between the residual error for one of the indicators of self-control, homework behaviors in high school, and the residual error for first semester GPA was also significant. Research on the relationships between self-control, homework behaviors in high school, and performance in college should continue; meanwhile, parents and teachers would be advised to emphasize the importance of developing self-control and positive homework behaviors in academically advanced high school students.

An analysis of writer’s performance, resources, and idea generation processes: the case of Filipino engineering students

The purpose of the pilot study, which is a part of a larger project on ESL writing involving freshmen college students in the Philippines, is to explore the relationship between writer’s performance, writer’s resources, and writer’s idea generation process. To measure the writer’s performance, diagnostic essays of 85 Filipino freshmen engineering students were evaluated based on Gustilo’s (2011) modified holistic scoring guide. To measure writer’s resources, tests on linguistic knowledge and topic familiarity and a survey questionnaire on writing background were administered to the same students. To measure writer’s idea generation process while composing, a Likert Scale questionnaire based on Chenoweth and Hayes 2001 and 2003 models was designed and administered to the students after their diagnostic essay task. Pearson product moment correlation was used to test for significant relationships. Discourse completion task (DCT) was administered to confirm the results gathered through quantitative method. Findings partly confirm the findings of previous studies. Writer’s performance is correlated with all the variables under study except for spelling test.

Designing Service Learning Projects for Freshman Engineering Students

Abstract —Within the Department of Freshman Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, a study was conducted to assess the value of a service learning course for freshman honor’s engineering students. This venture was based on the success of using service learning as an educational tool for undergraduate engineering students at many universities world wide. At the University of Pittsburgh, all students entering the school of engineering are required to enroll in a two-semester course in introductory engineering analysis and programming. The student population chosen for the service learning course experience included the honors’ students. A different freshman experience was created that included a fall course which covered the material contained in the traditional two-semester introductory course at an accelerated rate, and then a spring semester service learning course. This paper will focus on the challenges in developing a service learning specifically for freshman engineering students.

New Global Awards Launched for Petroleum Engineering Faculty

Talent & Technology At the 2010 SPE Colloquium on Petroleum Engineering Education, discussion focused on the challenges that petroleum engineering faculty face. Fig. 1 illustrates the trend of the increasing ratio of student to faculty in US petroleum engineering schools over the past two decades. Although the data are not available, we believe that similar trends exist internationally. A survey of US petroleum engineering faculty demographics (Fig. 2) shows that 30% are over age 60, 38% are age 50-59, and 32% are under age 50. While some professors may continue to teach past the traditional retirement age of 65, this data indicates that about 30% or more of current petroleum engineering faculty may retire in the next five years. As a result of the colloquium’s findings, a task force was commissioned by the SPE Board of Directors Subcommittee on Educational and Professional Activities to look into the recommendations on attracting, developing, and retaining faculty worldwide. The task force used survey methods and focus groups to determine root causes for the petroleum engineering faculty shortage and to make recommendations in three areas: What universities can do What the industry can do What SPE can do Based on survey results, some of the root causes of the problem appear to be: Competition with the industry with respect to compensation Lack of a pathway for petroleum engineering PhD candidates Insufficient research funding/sources to support new faculty The industry and petroleum engineering departments share a symbiotic relationship as students with petroleum engineering degrees are uniquely qualified for work in the energy industry. Unlike other disciplines, petroleum engineering graduates work primarily in the petroleum industry. The industry also expects them to be able to contribute immediately upon employment. Without good instruction, new graduates may not be adequately trained. Fig. 3 illustrates the cyclical nature of the number of bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in petroleum engineering granted in the most recent 40 years in the United States. Although there is a concern that history will repeat itself in that the steep rise in undergraduate enrollment will be followed by an equally steep decline, a comparison of the trend of petroleum engineering freshmen enrollment between the 1973–1992 period and the 2001–2020 period shows striking differences in the influx of freshmen (Fig. 4).

An Experimental Investigation of the Innovation Capabilities of Undergraduate Engineering Students

BackgroundOne of the goals of most undergraduate engineering curricula is to prepare students to solve openended design problems. Solving design problems requires applying technical knowledge to create original ideas and turn those into practical applications. However, the impact of engineering curricula on the innovation capabilities of undergraduate engineers is not well understood.Purpose (Hypothesis)This study seeks to provide insights into the research question of whether freshman undergraduate engineering students can be more innovative than seniors. Innovation is measured in terms of the originality of the solutions they propose for an open‐ended design problem, as well as the technical feasibility of those solutions for practical application.Design/MethodFreshman‐ and senior‐level undergraduate engineering students were tasked with developing solutions to a specific design problem (a next‐generation alarm clock). Both levels of students used a modified 6‐3‐5/C‐sketch method for generating concepts. A fraction of both the freshman and the senior students also received innovation enhancement. Resulting concepts were analyzed for originality and technical feasibility.ResultsFreshman students generated concepts that were significantly more original than those of seniors, with no significant difference in quality or technical feasibility of the concepts generated by the two levels of students.ConclusionsWithin the limitations of the study, the findings suggest that freshman engineering students can be more innovative than their senior‐level counterparts. This motivates the need for additional studies to investigate the effect of factors such as skill acquisition and design curricula on the innovation capabilities of students.