While progress has been made improving courses and curriculum, it is greatly hindered by inefficiencies associated with duplicating development efforts. For example, there are approximately 200 introduction to transportation engineering courses taught annually in the US and little evidence to suggest that teaching materials (other than textbooks) are being shared between the instructors of these courses.
While progress has been made in improving courses and curriculum, it is greatly hindered by inefficiencies associated with duplicating development efforts. For example, there are approximately 200 introduction to transportation engineering courses taught annually in the US and little evidence of sharing of materials (other than textbooks) in these courses. More knowledge is needed on how and why faculty and teachers adopt curriculum. Where do they go for resources when developing a new course or revising an old course? How do they make adoption decisions when they find curriculum?
Developing conceptual knowledge situated in engineering practice has been identified as a priority by national leaders in engineering education, with the theoretically-founded expectation that it will result in students who are more capable of innovative engineering design. Progress toward this goal requires understanding fundamental ways of knowing and learning of both engineering students and engineering practitioners, coupled with the design of research-based curriculum.
This engineering education research project seeks to investigate how conceptual misunderstandings of students in different engineering disciplines have common features. By understanding patterns of misunderstandings, the project will attempt to develop a theory of engineering misconceptions that is trans-disciplinary. The PIs represent three different universities and multiple engineering disciplines. The large amount of data collected and archived by this project can serve to provide new insights on misconceptions.
Dr. Shane Brown conducts research on cognition and conceptual change in engineering. He received his bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from Oregon State University, both in Civil Engineering. His Ph.D. degree includes a minor in Science and Mathematics Education. His master’s degree is in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Brown is a licensed professional civil engineer and has six years of experience designing water and wastewater treatment facilities in central California. HewastherecipientoftheNSFCAREERawardin2011. Dr.
Assessment/Research (91)Engineering - Civil (54)The goal of this project is to investigate student conceptual understanding in Mechanics of Materials. The project will investigate student misconceptions and characterize student beliefs about learning in Mechanics of Materials in order to develop curricular materials and an instructional plan to improve student conceptual understanding.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate student conceptual understanding of fundamental transportation engineering concepts, focusing explicitly on geometric design. Geometric design is a critical element to all transportation engineering courses, encompassing essential concepts needed in current conventional roadway design. Clinical interviews with twenty students were used to investigate student understanding.
This research project will implement an in-class peer tutoring (ICPT) program in statics and mechanics of materials at two land grant universities, and investigate the relationship between the peer tutoring program and student and tutor attitudes about retention, within the framework of social capital. For this project ICPT is defined as trained and more experienced students assisting students in these two courses with active learning exercises during lecture. The ICPT also strategically includes a tutor training program and out-of-class weekly tutoring.
The inability of incoming students to advance past the traditional first-year calculus sequence is a primary cause of attrition in engineering programs across the country. As a result, this paper will describe an NSF funded initiative at Wright State University to redefine the way engineering mathematics is taught, with the goal of increasing student retention, motivation and success in engineering. Since its inception in Fall of 2004, the Wright State model has had an overwhelming impact on the retention and success of engineering students at Wright State University.
Organizational network analysis (ONA) consists of gathering data on information sharing and connectivity in a group, calculating network measures, creating network maps, and using this information to analyze and improve the functionality of the group. ONA was conducted for two functional groups in the WSDOT. The overall organizational health of these networks, as defined by network indicators, is positive, with a large percentage of individuals indicating others in their network were effective at providing information necessary to get their work done.
The purpose of this research was to create and deliver an online course in sustainable transportation infrastructure. Currently, there are no such courses. This course would reside online at either the University of Washington (UW) or Washington State University (WSU) and be available for use by any TransNow or Region X participating university. Course content would focus on: 1. the concept of sustainability; 2. systems for evaluating sustainability; 3. specific materials, methods and practices either in use currently or experimental that are more sustainable than current methods; and 4.
The Region X Consortium is poised to deliver a new educational program to a target audience of university students and transportation professionals in the Pacific Northwest in order to address pipeline, training, and retention issues in the transportation industry. The program is based on a new paradigm for educational content delivery—an active, problem-based learning environment conducted at a distance.
Although engineering educators implement many educational innovations to improve student achievement, few evaluate the impacts of their innovations sufficiently to support confident adoption of their innovations by others. A national panel of 30 engineering education and evaluation professionals has called for a national resource to enable effective evaluation of engineering education projects. This paper reports on the process and framework for creating a library of superior evaluation instruments, the ASSESS system, that supports scholarly innovation in engineering education.
The NSPIRE IGERT Program is a multidisciplinary student doctoral training program designed to create a new generation of scientists with broad and rigorous training in nitrogen cycling who seamlessly integrate nitrogen cycle science for effective communication with public policy makers.
Sustainable development and the green building movement have been adopted faster than any recent movement in the engineering field. With over 40% of the total U.S. energy usage servicing the operation of commercial and residential buildings, this trend is well founded. Recent surveys of the industry indicate that within 4 to 5 years, a vast majority of engineering firms expect their business will be significantly dedicated to green building designs.
Research has shown that undergraduate students frequently do not have a clear understanding of what it means to do science. We aim to address this knowledge gap by introducing inquiry-based learning modules that include metacognitive aspects into several courses in our program. This investigative approach works by approximating the scientific method in guided student activities. We will build on previous results that have shown that the inquiry-based approach not only improves student understanding of the scientific method, but also of the underlying fundamental concepts.
The Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (LAR) at Washington State University (WSU) will build on existing summer research programs and organize a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site. Eight or nine students will be recruited each summer, targeting underrepresented communities in the Pacific Northwest (Native Americans and first-generation college students) plus minority students from outside the Northwest who would not otherwise have undergraduate research opportunities.
This project is addressing the goal of building robust assessments that effectively guide and enable transformative improvement of engineering design education in American Schools of engineering. Four diverse lead institutions, partnering with strategically selected design education consultants, are producing methods of assessment to define, measure, and facilitate improved student achievement in capstone engineering design courses. This project is creating and disseminating proven assessment instruments that span desired student performances.
