259,277 research outputs found
Designing for Epistemic Agency: How university student groups create knowledge and what helps them do it
How do university students create knowledge together? Collaborative projects are part of most tertiary undergraduate programs but in-depth studies of student work outside classrooms are rare. My interest is in shared epistemic agency—how knowledge is collaboratively created. There is, naturally, a social aspect—dialogue, team roles and relationships. There is also materiality to collaboration; the objects that students create and use as thinking tools and to organise work. Sociomaterial theories of knowledge creation, putting shared objects at the centre of social learning, underpinned this study. I followed seven groups of undergraduate students, as they worked together in education and engineering courses on ill-structured assessment tasks. I used ethnographic methods, including video- and audio-recordings, and capturing artefacts and online communications and work. I made detailed transcriptions and used discourse analysis of actions and objects as well as dialogue. I mapped projects through relational diagrams tracing actors, actions, conceptual development and objects over time. I compared cases across dimensions of knowledge creation and students’ assembled infrastructure. Findings and outputs include: • Conceptualisation of a new type of epistemic object, the synthesising object, to bridge individual and shared knowledge creation. • An original method of visual analysis and representation of shared epistemic objects over multiple dimensions. • A model for epistemic agency in group tasks, outlining the interactions between what students bring to the task, the components of infrastructure supporting knowledge work, and design. • The importance of early stages of projects: students bring dispositions that help them understand and frame epistemic work. • A set of design principles for shared epistemic agency, working collaboratively on knowledge in a specific context. A long-term strategy, targeted activities, deliberate practice and reflection are key
Creativity Training for Future Engineers: Preliminary Results from an Educative Experience
Due in part to the increased pace of cultural and environmental change, as
well as increased competition due to globalization, innovation is become one of
the primary concerns of the 21st century. We present an academic course
designed to develop cognitive abilities related to creativity within an
engineering education context, based on a conceptual framework rooted in
cognitive sciences. The course was held at \'Ecole Polytechnique de Montr\'eal
(\'EPM), a world renowned engineering school and a pillar in Canada's
engineering community. The course was offered twice in the 2014-2015 academic
year and more than 30 students from the graduate and undergraduate programs
participated. The course incorporated ten pedagogical strategies, including
serious games, an observation book, individual and group projects, etc., that
were expected to facilitate the development of cognitive abilities related to
creativity such as encoding, and associative analytical thinking. The CEDA
(Creative Engineering Design Assessment) test was used to measure the students'
creativity at the beginning and at the end of the course. Field notes were
taken after each of the 15 three-hour sessions to qualitatively document the
educative intervention along the semester and students gave anonymous written
feedback after completing the last session. Quantitative and qualitative
results suggest that an increase in creativity is possible to obtain with a
course designed to development cognitive abilities related to creativity. Also,
students appreciated the course, found it relevant, and made important,
meaningful learnings regarding the creative process, its cognitive mechanism
and the approaches available to increase it.Comment: 10 page
Principles And Practices Fostering Inclusive Excellence: Lessons From The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Capstone Institutions
Best-practices pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aims for inclusive excellence that fosters student persistence. This paper describes principles of inclusivity across 11 primarily undergraduate institutions designated as Capstone Awardees in Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) 2012 competition. The Capstones represent a range of institutional missions, student profiles, and geographical locations. Each successfully directed activities toward persistence of STEM students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, through a set of common elements: mentoring programs to build community; research experiences to strengthen scientific skill/identity; attention to quantitative skills; and outreach/bridge programs to broaden the student pool. This paper grounds these program elements in learning theory, emphasizing their essential principles with examples of how they were implemented within institutional contexts. We also describe common assessment approaches that in many cases informed programming and created traction for stakeholder buy-in. The lessons learned from our shared experiences in pursuit of inclusive excellence, including the resources housed on our companion website, can inform others’ efforts to increase access to and persistence in STEM in higher education
Learning for the Future: Changing the Culture of Math and Science Education to Ensure a Competitive Workforce
This report argues that improving the math and science skills of our nation's youth is an important step in ensuring and promoting innovation-led economic growth in the coming decades. The report calls for the implementation of a strategic plan that will increase student "demand" for and achievement in mathematics and science
Toward a Systematic Evidence-Base for Science in Out-of-School Time: The Role of Assessment
Analyzes the tools used in assessments of afterschool and summer science programs, explores the need for comprehensive tools for comparisons across programs, and discusses the most effective structure and format for such a tool. Includes recommendations
A New Course on Creativity in an Engineering Program: Foundations and Issues
The importance of innovation in the world's economy, now undeniable, draws
great attention to the need to improve organizations' creative potential. In
the last 60 years, hundreds of books have been written on the subject and
hundreds of webpages display information on how to be more creative and achieve
innovation. Several North American and European universities offer graduated
programs in creativity. However, building an effective and validated creativity
training program is not without challenges. Because of the nature of their
work, engineers are often asked to be innovative. Without aiming for a degree
in creativity, could future engineers benefit from training programs in
creativity? This article presents the conceptual framework and pedagogical
elements of a new course in creativity for engineering students.Comment: 10 pages, Intl Conf on Innovative Design and Manufacturing (pp.
270-275). Aug 13-15, Montreal. IEEE Conference Proceeding
An interprofessional, intercultural, immersive short-term study abroad program: public health and service systems in rome
The purpose of this paper is to describe a short-term study abroad program that exposes engineering and nursing undergraduate students from the United States and Italy to an intercultural and interprofessional immersion experience. Faculty from Purdue University and Sapienza UniversitĂ di Roma collaborated to design a technical program that demonstrates the complementary nature of engineering and public health in the service sector, with Rome as an integral component of the program. Specifically, the intersection of topics including systems, reliability, process flow, maintenance management, and public health are covered through online lectures, in-class activities and case study discussions, field experiences, and assessments. Herein, administrative issues such as student recruitment, selection, and preparation are elucidated. Additionally, the pedagogical approach used to ensure constructive alignment among the program goals, the intended learning outcomes, and the teaching and learning activities is described. Finally, examples of learning outcomes resulting from this alignment are provided
Assessing California's Multiple Pathways Field
The multiple pathways approach to high school education combines rigorous academic learning and career skills to give students the intellectual and real-world experience to succeed in college, career and life. Growing evidence shows that the multiple pathways approach holds promise for increasing academic engagement and achievement, reducing high school dropout rates and boosting students' future earning power. The James Irvine Foundation engaged the Bridgespan Group to assess the state of the multiple pathways field in California and to make recommendations to strengthen it. Assessing California's Multiple Pathways Field: Preparing Youth for Success in College and Career offers findings and recommendations based on a newly developed framework that assesses the multiple pathways field based on five characteristics of strong fields
Load flow studies on stand alone microgrid system in Ranau, Sabah
This paper presents the power flow or load flow analysis of Ranau microgrid, a
standalone microgrid in the district of Ranau,West Coast Division of Sabah. Power
flow for IEEE 9 bus also performed and analyzed. Power flow is define as an
important tool involving numerical analysis applied to power system. Power flow
uses simplified notation such as one line diagram and per-unit system focusing on
voltages, voltage angles, real power and reactive power. To achieved that purpose,
this research is done by analyzing the power flow analysis and calculation of all the
elements in the microgrid such as generators, buses, loads, transformers,
transmission lines using the Power Factory DIGSilent 14 software to calculate the
power flow. After the analysis and calculations, the results were analysed and
compared
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