Kenneth Reid

Work in progress — Modeling academic success of female and minority engineering students using the student attitudinal success instrument and pre-college factors

Female enrollment in engineering in the United States has remained at or below 20% for decades. Enrollment of students from traditionally underrepresented groups has also remained below desired level for years. A systematic understanding of important factors leading to persistence and success in undergraduate engineering programs for female and underrepresented minority students would be very valuable for recruiting, retaining and educating young engineers with diverse perspectives. This paper discusses the significant predictors for retention and academic performance of female engineering students, and reports the difference in comparison with male engineering students. Similar results on the important predictors for retention and performance of underrepresented minority engineering students will also be reported and compared with the ethnic majority students. The findings from this study suggest it is potentially advantageous to develop student success models specific for female or minority engineering student populations, rather than using the same model developed for the whole population. New knowledge obtained through this study will lead to the development of necessary strategies, interventions or programs to help improve retention and academic success of our engineering students.

Work in progress — Enhancing the entrepreneurial mindset of freshman engineers

Our research reports on an ongoing study of the impact of entrepreneurial interventions within first-year engineering courses on changes in the mindsets of engineering students. Entrepreneurial mindset in our study is operationally defined as a more growth oriented mindset versus a fixed oriented mindset. This operational definition and an accompanying mindset measurement instrument was developed and validated by Carol Dweck of Stanford University. Based on Dwecks research results we assume a growth mindset is a reasonable surrogate for a student engineers creative and innovative or entrepreneurial skills. Mindsets of student engineers are benchmarked at the beginning of the freshman year and again at the end of the freshman year, soon after completion of a team based poverty alleviation freshman capstone project. Pre- and post- control samples of freshman engineer mindsets are being collected from similar sized engineering programs at comparable colleges in our geographic vicinity. A pilot study indicated a statistically significant tilt toward a fixed mindset in freshman engineering students compared to a growth mindset observed in an opportunity sample of freshman business students. We are currently tracking engineering students both at the group and at the individual level. Our long-term research goal is to determine how and why engineering course assignments affect a student engineers entrepreneurial skill set. We hypothesize that a student engineers creative and innovation skills are in part a learned behavior that is influenced by the student engineers learning experiences and course assignments. In order to study this phenomenon we are establishing a baseline of the change in engineering student mindset over time. Once we have established this baseline of mindset data, we will then alter interventions to evaluate their differentiated impact on engineer mindset changes.

Development of a classification scheme for “introduction to engineering” courses

“Introduction to Engineering” courses are often designed from scratch and can become a grab-bag of unrelated topics. They are often 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 may vary widely. The results include an issue of course developers “reinventing the wheel” as successful models are not adequately disseminated. Results of multiple methods of investigation are presented. An analysis of syllabi for Introduction to Engineering courses identified course learning objectives, and these objectives were grouped to establish an initial classification scheme. A workshop in which objectives were discussed was held at a national conference and a separate draft classification scheme was proposed. A concurrent effort uses a Delphi procedure to define and categorize expected outcomes in first-year courses. Survey data from the Delphi study has been collected toward a single, final classification scheme. This paper will present results of the first two components of the study and the initial high level classification scheme identified as the Delphi analysis begins.

Work in progress: International teacher development: Engineering into the classroom in the Dominican Republic

The IEEE Teacher In Service Program (TISP) enables teachers to effectively introduce engineering into the K-12 environment. The program consists of training for engineers to hold in-service workshops for teachers who then take hands-on engineering projects into their classroom. Teachers are provided with lesson plans (available in English and Spanish), tied to educational standards in the United States, all accessible on the website tryengineering.org. Each activity is designed to be inexpensive (often less than

Work in progress — Putting the “E” in STEM teacher preparation: A new Bachelor of Science degree with an engineering education major

10 for a classroom). This program has been successfully implemented throughout the United States for over ten years. Additionally, workshops have been implemented in other countries, including Malaysia, South Africa and Chile. The IEEE teamed with electrical engineering and engineering education faculty and students from Ohio Northern University to implement the TISP activities in a series of schools in impoverished regions in the Dominican Republic. This project allows the team to visit five schools and directly impact over 2000 students. The team will offer the initial workshops in May 2012, then visit the teachers to interview and conduct focus groups to assess the effectiveness of the workshops. A final assessment plan will be developed that will assist in assessment of other international offerings. This work-in-progress should be of interest to anyone working with international engineering education, especially within impoverished or developing countries.

Changing perceptions: Do engineering activities make a difference in K-12 environments?

The National Academies report “Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects” gives recommendations describing the importance of a necessary, systematic change in the incorporation of engineering within the K-12 education system. Existing efforts to introduce engineering into K-12 typically consist of in-service activities for teachers and summer camp experiences and/or single day events in classrooms. The effectiveness of reaching out to teachers and students as individuals is debatable, but these methods are certainly not sustainable. Systematic change will require a new paradigm — teachers who have a fundamental understanding of engineering will provide the most effective, sustainable solution for the implementation of K-12 engineering education. Ohio Northern University (ONU) has developed and introduced a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Engineering Education. This degree provides the graduate with a foundation in engineering, mathematics and education, qualifying the graduate for licensure as a secondary math teacher in the state of Ohio. The degree is similar to a General Engineering degree offered by some other Universities, expanding potential career opportunities to general engineering (sales, training, etc.) and unique opportunities in venues such as Science and Technology museums. This paper describes the fundamental structure of the degree program and the vision for those graduating with this major.

Work in progress — Interdisciplinary international preprofessional service within the first-year engineering curriculum

K-12 educators often incorporate projects into the science curriculum. Students conduct the activity, fill out answers on a corresponding lab sheet, strive toward results, and then move on to a new topic. With such an abrupt change in pace and lack of assessment, a question emerges: do these activities have a lasting impact on student learning or are these labs extraneous additions to the general curriculum? In an effort to integrate engineering concepts into a middle school environment, sixth graders were tasked with a design lab popularly known as “the marshmallow challenge,” which requires student teams to construct a tower from uncooked spaghetti, tape, and a single marshmallow. Approximately two months after the activity, the students who participated were asked to take a survey with four components: identification, opinion, objective, and open ended. The fifteen question survey was designed to determine if students enjoyed the activity and if students retained information from the short lecture before the activity. The results for the objective portion were averaged between classes and compared; this paper presents an analysis of those scores. Also, commonalities between written student responses are examined and discussed. These results are applicable to schools wishing to evaluate the effectiveness of brief activities similar to “the marshmallow challenge.”

Algae as a biofuel: An interdisciplinary high school curriculum incorporating engineering, biology and education

The first-year engineering curriculum of Ohio Northern University culminates in a capstone design experience where students design a device to help alleviate some effects of poverty. Student teams research an assigned population to find a suitable device that could improve the lives of those living in poverty, develop a proposal, work through a complete design process and build and demonstrate a prototype. While student groups have been very proud of their excellent designs and assessment results show the experience is valuable, the devices have yet to make it past the demonstration phase. At the same time, Ohio Northern University established a program involving pharmacy, nursing and preprofessional students who travel to the Dominican Republic on medical mission trips. One engineering faculty member attended an informational meeting of a newly established student organization called “Northern Without Borders” and then accompanied the group on a trip to investigate potential projects and opportunities to implement first-year capstone designs. An international program for first-year engineering students was born: “Freshmen Without Borders”. This paper describes the creation of an international engineering service opportunity specifically for first-year engineering students, tied to the first-year engineering curriculum. This paper will describe the first year capstone project and the changes made to integrate specific device(s) which will not only be prototyped, but implemented in an impoverished population. The integration of the mission trip into the first-year engineering curriculum, including students who did and did not participate in the group, especially in consideration of ABET engineering accreditation criteria, will be discussed. Important details of teaming with an existing international service program will be demonstrated, including integrating engineering projects and engineering student teams into existing programs. Building the program, promoting it within the engineering student body and faculty, and assessing student interest will be included. While many schools have existing “without borders” programs available for their engineering students, this paper will be of particular interest to faculty members who are ready to explore the implementation of an international, interdisciplinary service component into their curriculum.

Work in progress — Initial assessment of the effectiveness of a nationwide high school extracurricular engineering program: JETS TEAMS competition

The College of Engineering, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the Center for Teacher Education at Ohio Northern University developed and implemented two parts of a four-module curriculum titled “Biomass as an Alternative Energy Source” for use in a Wind/Energy Academy within a local school district. The curriculum introduces students to the current topic of biomass, specifically algae, as a potential energy source. The modules are designed to present the science behind this energy source within a variety of contexts. This alternative energy curriculum is designed to encompass four modules, each six to nine weeks in length. The modules are designed to ideally be used in grades 9–12, one module per year. The two completed modules consist of the following topics: 1. Biology of Algae 2. Culturing of Algae Further modules to be developed for a complete curriculum include: 3. Harvesting and Processing Algae 4. Algae Capstone Design The first module introduces algae through discovery of naturally occurring algae, from the introduction of the use of microscopes through field collection and categorization of different algae. In the second module, students study design of experiments and the Taguchi method to optimize the number of tanks necessary to study the effect of variables on algal growth, and establish and study algal microcosms in the second module. The Ohio Academic Content Standards in Science are tied to each module. The curriculum is using the 5-E Learning Cycle which emphasizes an inquiry-based approach. Students work in collaborative groups and conduct research in each module. Each module is interdisciplinary (including content areas such as mathematics, language arts, and social studies) and is project-based or problem-based. The curriculum is designed to be engaging, challenging, motivating, and designed around real-world issues, and could be implemented within appropriate K-12 programs. This paper will detail the modules which have been developed, along with lessons learned and details necessary to implement this curriculum within a K-12 program. The modules remaining to be developed will be described. The relationship to state educational standards will be discussed.

Work in progress — Development of personas: Emphasizing human need in a first-year engineering capstone course

The Junior Engineering Technology Society (JETS) offers students the opportunity to explore, assess and experience engineering through the TEAMS competition; a nationwide theme-based competition which presents engineering through the practical applications of math and science alongside everyday world challenges. More than 10,000 high school students participate annually. Nationwide, this and similar large-scale efforts to attract high school students to the innovative, creative and inventive nature of engineering draw thousands of students annually. Many of these efforts fail to assess their success. While the events are popular, do they draw students to engineering? The 2009 TEAMS competitions were assessed with questionnaires prior to, at the conclusion of and far after the event. Findings presented include student assessment of the TEAMS activity itself and perceived ability to succeed in engineering, confidence in succeeding in engineering and ability to contribute to an engineering team. Questions posed to coaches (teachers), include their reason for participation and their perception of the impact on students. Finally, plans for further assessment are presented. Assessment of this large, nationwide K-12 competition is intended to begin a discussion on the definition of ‘success’ for such programs.