What Value Does Service Learning Have on Introductory Engineering Students\u27 Motivation and ABET Program Outcomes?

A quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using a service learning (SL) method on influencing introductory engineering students\u27 motivation and ABET program outcomes, compared to the effectiveness of using a conventional, non-service-learning (NSL) method. The sample used in the study was 214 students enrolled in an Introduction to Engineering course at a medium-size university in the northwestern region of the U.S. during the fall semester of 2009 and the spring semester of 2010. Sixty-nine students completed SL projects while 145 students completed NSL projects. Both SL and NSL projects were team-based. Using the ARCS model as a framework, students’ motivation was measured on attention (interest), relevance, confidence in engineering knowledge, confidence in collaborative learning, and satisfaction. Students\u27 self-assessed engineering abilities were measured on the a through k ABET program outcomes. Results showed that the SL method was significantly more effective than the NSL method in terms of positively influencing students’ interests, recognition of relevance, and satisfaction in learning and their self-assessed engineering abilities in three out of 11 ABET program outcomes, c, e, and k. Interpretation of the results, application of the results to the course redesign, and recommendations for other engineering educators are provided

Measuring Learners’ Attitudes Toward Team Projects: Scale Development Through Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses

Team projects are increasingly used in engineering courses. Students may develop attitudes toward team projects from prior experience, and their attitudinal responses could influence their performance during team project-based learning in the future. Thus, instructors need to measure students’ attitudes toward team projects during their learner analysis to better understand students’ characteristics and be proactive in providing effective strategies to help students succeed in a team project environment. The purpose of our study was to develop a survey instrument that measures students’ attitudes toward team projects to be used as a learner analysis tool, derived from our local practical needs and due to the lack of appropriate existing instruments. The study was conducted at a mid-sized university in the northwestern United States during 2015-2016. After we generated an initial pool of 50 items, we administered the survey to 225 undergraduate engineering students, performed exploratory factor analysis on the data, and arrived at a four-factor solution of 20 items and a three-factor solution of 14 items. We tested the two competing solutions with another set of 330 undergraduate engineering students. Based on our confirmatory factor analysis results, we arrived at a three-factor model of 12 items as the finalized scale, which measures: (a) professional capacity building, (b) learning and problem-solving skills development, and (c) workload challenges. We call the scale, the Attitudes toward Team Projects Scale on Capacity, Learning, and Workload (ATPS-CLW). Suggestions for future research include continuous development, testing, and validation of the scale

Evolution of a First-Year Engineering Course

The first-year engineering course at Boise State University has evolved significantly over the past decade as a result of continuous improvement with a particular focus on student retention. The course was originally created in 1999-2001 as an “Introduction to Engineering” course in order to recruit students to one of the fields of engineering, by introducing those fields of engineering as topics across the semester. Over the first ten years, the course continued that introductory-to-field focus while also introducing a significant design element solving openended engineering problems. As a result of a five-year grant aimed toward improving first-year retention, the first-year course was substantially revised in 2013 to focus on developing mathematics skills, based on the work of Klingbeil and colleagues1–3. This paper describes these most recent modifications to the course and presents results from students who took the modified course as they moved forward in their academic careers and took second year mathematics and science courses. We collected data both in the form of grades and measurements of students’ self-efficacy to explore how increasing mathematical content in the first-year engineering class can improve students’ performance in both co-enrolled and subsequently enrolled mathematics and science courses

Effects of Service Learning Implemented in an Introductory Engineering Course on Student Attitudes and Abilities in the Context of ABET Outcomes

A semester-long, quasi-experimental study with 119 students enrolled in seven sections of an Introduction to Engineering course at Boise State University was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using a service learning (SL) method on improving student learning, compared to the effectiveness of using a conventional, non-service-learning (NSL) method. The experimental SL group consisted of two of the seven sections of the course, and the NSL group as a comparison group consisted of the other five sections of the course. Although both SL and NSL groups of students participated in collaborative project-based learning environments to complete given assignments, the types of collaborative learning differed in several ways: 1) The SL students completed one comprehensive project for 7 ½ weeks, whereas the NSL students completed a series of small scale problem-solving projects, 2) The SL students worked with the same members of a team throughout the project, whereas the NSL students worked with different team members for each project (teams of four members worked on the SL project, and teams of three members completed the NSL projects), and 3) Each SL team worked with a client from the community to solve a real problem (i.e., real-world learning experience), whereas NSL teams solved a series of projects based on written directions without input and guidance from real clients (i.e., a lack of real-world learning experience). Results showed that the SL method was significantly more effective than the NSL method in terms of 1) positively influencing students’ motivational attitudes toward collaborative project-based learning and 2) improving their self-assessment of engineering abilities measured against ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission program outcomes

Clinical validation of cutoff target ranges in newborn screening of metabolic disorders by tandem mass spectrometry: A worldwide collaborative project

PURPOSE:: To achieve clinical validation of cutoff values for newborn screening by tandem mass spectrometry through a worldwide collaborative effort. METHODS:: Cumulative percentiles of amino acids and acylcarnitines in dried blood spots of approximately 25-30 million normal newborns and 10,742 deidentified true positive cases are compared to assign clinical significance, which is achieved when the median of a disorder range is, and usually markedly outside, either the 99th or the 1st percentile of the normal population. The cutoff target ranges of analytes and ratios are then defined as the interval between selected percentiles of the two populations. When overlaps occur, adjustments are made to maximize sensitivity and specificity taking all available factors into consideration. RESULTS:: As of December 1, 2010, 130 sites in 45 countries have uploaded a total of 25,114 percentile data points, 565,232 analyte results of true positive cases with 64 conditions, and 5,341 cutoff values. The average rate of submission of true positive cases between December 1, 2008, and December 1, 2010, was 5.1 cases/day. This cumulative evidence generated 91 high and 23 low cutoff target ranges. The overall proportion of cutoff values within the respective target range was 42% (2,269/5,341). CONCLUSION:: An unprecedented level of cooperation and collaboration has allowed the objective definition of cutoff target ranges for 114 markers to be applied to newborn screening of rare metabolic disorders. © 2011 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins