“Pilot implementation of an interdisciplinary course on climate solutions”

A pilot implementation of an experimental interdisciplinary course on climate solutions was undertaken at San Jose´ State University in the fall semester of 2008. The course, co-taught by seven faculty members from six colleges, was approved for a general education requirement and was open to upperclass students campus-wide. A course with such a breadth of topics and range of student backgrounds was the first of its kind here. The lessons learned from the pilot effort were assessed from student, faculty, and administrative perspectives. The educational benefits to students from the interdisciplinary format were found to be substantial, in addition to faculty development. However, challenges associated with team-teaching were also encountered and must be overcome for the long-term viability of the course. The experimental course was approved as a permanent course starting in the fall semester of 2009 based on the pilot effort, and plays a role in the College of Engineering’s recent initiatives in sustainability in addition to campus-wide general educatio

Women in engineering: Promoting identity exploration and professional development

Engineering colleges are concerned about retention of women, especially women of color, in their programs. One possible solution is to promote undergraduate women\u27s engineering identity. This paper describes an evaluation of a one-day technical and professional development conference for undergraduate women in engineering and computer science, which focused on understanding and facilitating engineering identity. Data on the impact of the conference and engineering identity, were collected in pre- and post-conference surveys. The pre-conference survey assessed demographic information (e.g., first generation status, ethnicity), engineering student identity (i.e., commitment to engineering major; engineering competence, and engineering agency), social support, and reasons for attending. The post-conference survey assessed engineering student identity, ratings of self- and engineer creativity, professional identity, and evaluations of the conference. 193 participants returned pre-conference surveys and 103 returned post-conference surveys. Most were engineering (54%) and computer science (38%) majors; 46% were Asian, 28% LatinX; and 65% received financial aid. Correlations, MANOVA, regression, and content analyses were used to analyze the data. Participants reported the conference was highly valuable. Both pre- and post-conference surveys revealed positive associations between commitment, competence, and agency, suggesting that undergraduate women view their engineering identities as a coherent set. Results indicated that the strength of a participant\u27 professional identity is shaped by first-generation status and knowing an engineer. They also indicated that women undergraduates do not rate themselves as being as creative as a typical engineer, and there is a strong association between self-ratings of creativity and professional identity. Engineering identity is discussed in the context of participants\u27 reported goals for the conference and its benefits. Suggestions for promoting engineering identity are described

A Case Study of a Co-Instructed Multidisciplinary Senior Capstone Project in Sustainability

As societal challenges involving sustainable development increase, the need to effectively integrate this inherently multidisciplinary topic into existing curricula becomes more pressing. Multidisciplinary, team-taught, project-based instruction has shown effectiveness in teaching teamwork, communication, and life-long learning skills, and appreciation for other disciplines. Unfortunately, this instruction mode has not been widely adopted, largely due to its resource-intensiveness. Our proposed co-instruction model of multidisciplinary senior project administration was tested to see if it could effectively teach sustainability topics and duplicate the known benefits of team-taught instruction, while overcoming its resource-intensiveness. A case study of a co-instructed senior project was undertaken with students and faculty from electrical and mechanical engineering, business, political science, and industrial design. The participating students were compared to the control group, i.e. students who chose to complete a traditional disciplinary senior project instead. Extensive assessment was performed with pre/post quizzes, online surveys, focus groups, and course deliverables. The multidisciplinary projects outperformed traditional senior projects in 4 out of the 5 participating courses. However, the students in the multidisciplinary project rated their satisfaction with the experience lower on average than the control group. A strong, positive correlation between students’ project satisfaction and rating of other instruction aspects (0.50 \u3c r \u3c 0.7, p \u3c 0.01) was discovered, which has implications for all project-based instruction. Participating faculty generally found the process illuminating and engaged in scholarship and creative endeavors as a result

Developing an Evaluation Tool to Examine Motivational Factors of Non-student Community Partnership Participants

Research of engineering community engagement has primarily focused on the experiences and outcomes of students, yet it is often the faculty, administrators, and community partners who have a long-term commitment to the program’s success. In this study, we are developing and validating an assessment instrument that combines two previously identified aspects of community engagement programs: participant motivation and the nature of engagement relationships. Participant motivation refers to the reasons people stay engaged in the community engagement experience and can be categorized into: student learning and growth, personal and professional development, and benefits to the community organization. The nature of an engagement relationship is defined as the quality of interactions and interpersonal dynamics within partnerships. It is associated with transactional, cooperative, and communal interactions. A validation survey was developed by creating 45 statements associated with the interacting effects of motivational categories and the nature of engagement relationships. Statements were validated by service-learning practitioners with a minimum of two years research and/or practical experience. Validation participants were provided with a codebook for motivational categories and relationship natures. They were asked to code each of the 45 initial statements with the provided categories and natures. We received feedback from eight researchers, with the initial goal of attaining 10 responses. We identified ten statements that maintain at least 75% coding convergence across responses. Our results highlight key underlying assumptions associated with the TCC Framework and opportunities to improve the instrument to increase clarity and reduce potential bias

Progress on Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Growth Mindset and Belonging Interventions in a Freshman Engineering Class

Growth mindset and belonging interventions have shown to be effective in increasing retention and performance in some K-12 and postsecondary populations. These interventions hold the promise of cost-effective and scalable interventions that may be able to boost retention and graduation rates, and close the achievement gap that often exists between underrepresented (URM) students and non-URMs.A study of the impact of growth mindset and belonging interventions was designed and implemented in the 2015-2016 academic year in an Introduction to Engineering Course typically taken in the freshman year of all engineering and technology programs at a large comprehensive public university. The interventions were adapted from prior successful interventions by established researchers. Preliminary results upon the conclusion of the Spring 2016 semester showed that the interventions had different effects on different demographic groups. The belonging intervention resulted in higher course performance compared to the control group among the men and non-URMs in the study, controlling for instructor, high school GPA, and SAT math score. Curiously, the growth mindset intervention resulted in lower course performance among women in the study, also controlling for the same possible pre-existing differences. Neither intervention appeared to influence the URM students course performance. Currently, we have 5 semesters of retention and progress-to-degree data for this cohort (N = 441). Prior work with these interventions have registered long-term effects of subtle interventions, and it is our hope that there will be measurable effects on metrics of student progress and success that linger past the intervention

Preliminary Findings Using Growth Mindset and Belonging Interventions in a Freshman Engineering Class

Engineering is typically plagued with lower graduation rates and larger achievement gaps compared to other majors; the projected demand for its future graduates lends to the urgency in reversing these trends. Holding a growth mindset, or a belief that intelligence is mutable, and a feeling of belongingness are keys to persisting in and graduating from college. In prior research, improvements in retention and graduation rates have been found following minor interventions, particularly among some underrepresented populations of students. The current study explored whether similar interventions could be effective in increasing retention and graduation rates among underrepresented populations of engineering and technology majors. It was conducted in an engineering college in a large, comprehensive, Hispanic-Serving, public university with a sizeable Asian population (40%), and 10-20% gap in the graduation rates of underrepresented and non-underrepresented minorities. The engineering college has a low percentage of women undergraduates (15%) and graduations rates for women are 5-10% higher than those of men. The results of this study may be applicable to other engineering schools with similar characteristics. Following IRB approval, a control assignment or interventions designed to elicit a growth mindset and/or a belongingness mindset were administered in 25 sections of a required Introduction to Engineering course (441 students total), typically taken in the freshman year of all engineering-named and technology programs. Block randomization was used to distribute, as evenly as possible, the gender, ethnic background, and section instructor composition across conditions. Pre- and post-course surveys measured happiness, health, belonging, self-efficacy, and growth mindset, and student grades were collected at the end of the academic term. One year into a 6-year study in which students will be tracked through graduation, preliminary results suggest that the interventions can aid performance. Overall, students who received the belongingness intervention had higher average class grades than those in the control and growth mindset condition, controlling for instructor, HS GPA, and SAT math scores. Further analyses revealed that the interventions had different effects on different demographic groups. First, among women, the growth mindset intervention resulted in lower course performance compared to the control and belongingness groups. Second, among men, the belongingness intervention resulted in higher course performance than in the growth and control. Third, the interventions did not differentially affect course performance among under-represented minorities (URMs). Finally, among non-URMs, the belongingness intervention led to improved course performance compared to the growth mindset and control conditions. Interestingly, prior to the interventions, underrepresented minority students exhibited higher growth mindset scores (effect size = 0.32) than non-underrepresented minority students and women exhibited higher feelings of belonging (effect size = 0.21) than men