William C. Oakes

Reliability and Validity Evidence for the Institutional Integration Scale.

The Institutional Integration Scale is claimed to measure five facets of college student academic and social integration. The scale was based on Tinto’s model of college student withdrawal. Psychometric properties of the scale were examined based on a sample of 1st-year college students. These results led to item revisions and additions. The scale was administered to a second sample of 1st-year college students. The final 34-item instrument showed improved psychometric properties. The revised scale scores had satisfactory internal consistency reliability and intercorrelations among the subscales and with the total scale. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the original theoretical model may be problematic. Revisions to the model resulted in improved fit.

Developing the reflection component in the EPICS model of engineering service learning

Service-learning is a pedagogy where students engage in service that is linked with the course learning objectives. Research has shown that students participating in service-learning have a higher comprehension of the course material and also develop an awareness of their local community and the issues it faces. Critical to service-learning is a reflective or metacognitive component that provides students with the opportunity to make the connection between the service and the issues related to the service and the course learning objectives. In engineering, there are many examples of integrating community service into courses ranging from freshman introductory courses to senior level capstone courses. Despite successes found in these programs, the integration of effective reflection components remains an area where the engineering education community continues to struggle. The EPICS program at Purdue University has developed a number of activities and materials to engage students in reflection, with a focus on technical, social, and ethical reflection. This paper will present the development of these materials, results from the current materials, and a discussion of future plans.

A structural model of engineering students success and persistence

This study examined a model of student success and persistence at two levels: university and engineering major. The model, based on theoretical and empirical evidence, included both cognitive and noncognitive factors. Cognitive factors included high school rank, scholastic aptitude scores, and university grade point average. Noncognitive factors included motivation, as well as faculty and student integration. Outcome variables in the model were grade point average, enrollment at the university, as well as within engineering. Through the use of path analysis, several significant relationships among the factors were found. For instance, grade point average was significantly related to enrollment in both the university and engineering major. Increased levels of student interactions were significantly related to continued enrollment in engineering. Interestingly, student with higher faculty integration were more likely to change majors. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

EPICS: documenting service-learning to meet EC 2000

Engineering Projects in Community Service-EPICS-is a service-learning program that was initiated at Purdue University (USA) in the Fall of 1995. Under this program, undergraduate students in engineering earn academic credit for long-term team projects that solve technology-based problems for local community service organizations. The program has grown to include 20 project teams with approximately 300 students participating each semester during the 2000-01 academic year. With its emphasis on start-to-finish design of significant projects that will be deployed by the community customers, EPICS addresses many of the program outcomes mandated for ABET accreditation. In this paper, the authors outline the procedures and documentation that have been developed to assess and track student outcomes in the EPICS courses.

High-Speed Centrifugal Compressor Surge Initiation Characterization

An experimental study is performed to characterize the behavior of a high-speed centrifugal compressor as it approaches instability. To achieve this, data at the inlet and exit of the centrifugal compressor are analyzed. Three inducer bleed conditions are examined. Data analysis indicates that the disturbance was a 9-lobed stall pattern occurring in or near the diffuser and suggests that the phenomena is different than that typically referred to as impeller stall. The component pressure characteristics show a reduction in diffuser performance corresponding to the rise in the spatial mode magnitude, with minimal effect on the impeller. It is suggested that the rotating stall condition that was observed in this compressor may play a similar role to that observed when rotating stall initiates surge in multistage axial compressor.

From methods to methodology: Reflection on keeping the philosophical commitments of interpretative phenomenological analysis

This paper details the transition of one researcher in his journey from attending to the methods of research to identifying and enacting the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In the backdrop of this paper is a larger qualitative study that is employing IPA to understand a rich picture of how engineering student become engineers, particularly by attending to the fuzzy boundaries between technical and social features of this identity. To ground the discussion of the paper, we draw on a transcript from a single interview in this study conducted with Kevin, a graduating mechanical engineer. We transparently share a reflexive account of conducting IPA research in order to introduce IPA as an excellent research tool for open areas of engineering education research. Further, our goals are to instill confidence in novice qualitative researchers as they embark on the arduous but rewarding path of conducting engineering education research using qualitative methods.

EPICS: Serving the Community Through Engineering Design Projects

Undergraduate students in engineering face a future in which they will need more than just a solid technical background. In setting the goals for any system they are asked to design, they will be expected to interact effectively with people of widely varying social and educational backgrounds. They will then be expected to work with people of many different technical backgrounds to achieve these goals. They thus need educational experiences that can help them develop these skills.

Conversion of Collegiate EPICS to a K-12 Program

The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Program is nationally recognized for teaching engineering design in a service-learning context that brings students and community organizations together through long term partnerships. The tremendous potential for K-12 programs and their own positive undergraduate experience motivated EPICS alumnae to approach a local high school with the concept of starting a high school EPICS program in Bedford, Indiana with support from Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center and the American Society of Naval Engineers. The first year resulted in a working prototype and a provisional patent in the second year along with a 3rd place finish in the Idea to Product Competition at Purdue University. This paper will describe how the EPICS model has been modified to fit the high school environment, results to date and plans for the future, including possible integration into the high school curriculum

Work in progress: Understanding professional competency formation in a service-learning context from an alumni perspective

Engineering educators daily negotiate the formidable task of developing the twenty-first century engineers competence to enter and thrive in the workplace. With this focus, many have conducted investigations into both what defines such professional competence and how such competence forms within students. In this investigation, we study how professional competence has developed among alumni of Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), as understood through their retrospective perceptions. We are conducting a mixed methods study in order to understand competence development, and this paper presents the design and administration of a survey questionnaire that is informing the qualitative portion of the study. Findings from both aspects of the study will be presented at the conference.

EPICS: interdisciplinary service learning using engineering design projects

Engineering Projects in Community Service, EPICS, is a service-learning program that was initiated at Purdue University in the Fall of 1995. Under this program, undergraduate students earn academic credit for long-term team projects that solve technology-based problems for local community service organizations. The program has grown to include 20 project teams with over 250 students participating during the 1999 academic year from 20 different academic departments. The goals of the EPICS program include: providing students with multi-year, team-based, design and development experience; teaching students, by direct experience, how to interact with each other and with customers to specify, design, develop and deploy systems that solve real problems. This paper provides an overview of the EPICS program as well as the inclusion of the non-engineering students, particularly those in Liberal Arts. Lessons learned from the interdisciplinary nature of the program are presented.