Innovative administration supports innovative education (original) (raw)
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2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
Engineering innovation and design continues to be vital to economic success, sustainability, and the creation of jobs in the U.S., and remains at the top of government policy agendas today. For the U.S. to maintain its edge in innovation, our youth must be inspired to pursue STEM fields and must also be exposed to the process of innovation in order to understand the synergism of the methods and approaches used in ideation, discovery and experimentation in the STEM disciplines. This paper describes a unique National Science Foundation-Research Experience for Teachers program that is thematically centered on innovation and engineering design. The overall objectives of this six week program for K-12 STEM teachers and pre-service teachers entitled Engineering Innovation and Design for STEM Teachers was to enhance the knowledge of teachers and pre-service teachers about engineering innovation and design so that they can facilitate inspirational engineering and innovation experiences in their classrooms as well as better inform their students of potential career fields and societal needs related to STEM. During the first and second summers of this program, ten teachers and five pre-service teachers were placed on teams with an engineering student, engineering faculty and an industrial mentor or community partner. Each team participated in an introductory engineering innovation and design project as well as a more in-depth project provided by the industrial mentor or community partner. The experience was enhanced through field trips to the industrial mentors' sites, guest speakers, laboratory experiences and tours, technical writing seminars, as well as history and ethics of engineering innovation sessions. Additionally, the participants were guided through a well-structured curriculum writing experience modeled after that used for a highly successful regional STEM teacher professional development program. Through this experience, the teams made use of a curriculum template that was developed to ensure that the resulting lessons provided high quality inquiry based STEM experiences for the students that included concepts of engineering innovation and design and were also aligned with the state curriculum standards. Guided reflections, team presentations of STEM Curriculum, and developed prototypes provided evidence associated with the objectives. Local System Change (LSC), Mathematics Teaching Efficacy and Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI) and Science Teaching Efficacy and Beliefs Instrument (STEBI) surveys were administered to the in-service teachers prior to the program. Follow-up surveys were administered to the 2012 cohort and will be administered to the in-service teachers during the 2013 academic year to identify changes in attitudes, beliefs and practices. Classroom observations of participants delivering developed STEM content provided details regarding transference to K-12 classrooms. A focus group with the engineering students provided feedback regarding their growth and experiences. Results from both qualitative and quantitative assessment suggest that this program was successful at meeting the program objectives.
First year comparative evaluation of the Texas A&M freshman integrated engineering program
Proceedings Frontiers in Education 1995 25th Annual Conference. Engineering Education for the 21st Century, 1995
The paper documents the first year process and product evaluation of the NSF-sponsored Foundation Coalition (FC) project at Texas A&MUniversity designed to integrate five courses taken by most freshman engineering students: physics, engineering design, calculus, English, and chemistry. In addition to the curriculum integration, the project emphasized cooperative learning, teaming, technology applied to learning, and active learning.
Achieving a Vision: Connecting Programs to Increase STEM Graduation
Proceedings of the …, 2008
Louisiana Tech University's College of Engineering and Science has established the vision to "be the best college in the world at integrating engineering and science in education and research." We believe implementation of this vision is the most effective way for Louisiana Tech to significantly increase the number of highly-qualified STEM graduates entering the workforce. To accomplish this vision we have initiated several interconnected programs which will result in increased recruitment and retention of STEM students. We began our efforts toward achieving this vision with our first Integrated Engineering Curriculum in 1997 followed by our Integrated Science Curriculum in 2002, both of which were supported by NSF funding. Since that initial funding, several additional programs have been created. Success of these programs depends not only on the quality of each individual program but also on the synergy between them. The purpose of this paper is to describe these programs and how they are interrelated.
Core Engineering Renaissance At Rensselaer: Engineering Discovery A Pilot First Year Course
2005 Annual Conference Proceedings
Introduction and Motivation Are engineering schools meeting the needs of today's young women and men not just to study engineering, but to become engineers? Are they showing young students, even before they enter college, what it means to be an engineer and how engineers can help people and contribute to society? Do our young students share with us in the responsibility for their education and are they prepared for a process of lifelong learning necessary for the technical leadership required to face an unpredictable future? Do engineering students view the required fundamental courses in science, mathematics, and social science as disconnected courses that must be taken as part of some rite of passage into the study of engineering, or as the interrelated fundamental body of knowledge essential for the practice of engineering? These questions are being asked nationwide by students and parents, university faculty, government administrators, and industry executives. Unfortunately, the answers indicate an urgent need for a systemic change-incremental change is not an option. Recent times have seen no clear path forward and an apparent absence of focused, action-oriented leadership. New generations of students, with different backgrounds, interests, skills, and needs, must be enthused about the profession of engineering and better prepared, in both technical and non-technical areas, to creatively advance technology and solve the problems the 21 st century will present. Renaissance engineers, men and women who get involved in public policy, stand for practical and cooperative solutions, work to change the world to make it a better place, and improve the quality of life for all the people of the earth, are needed. To create them requires a new approach to engineering education. The U.S. is in a competitiveness-and-innovation struggle with the rest of the world, primarily India, China, and Japan. The U.S. is also facing a critical shortage of engineers. Several factors have contributed to this. Among them are: (a) There has been a 37 percent decline in engineering interest by college-bound high school students over the past 12 years; (b) The U.S. now ranks 17 th among nations surveyed in the share of its 18-to-24-year-olds who earn natural science and engineering degrees. In 1975, it was third. Engineering B.S. degrees peaked in 1985 at 77,572 (2.2% women), and plunged to 60,914 (1.7% women) in 1998 1 ; (c) The U.S. has become overly dependent on the global workforce while no longer dominating the global marketplace for technical talent as it once did 6. Who then will take us into the future? Science and engineering together are the engines for economic growth and national security. Universities are failing to attract women, underrepresented minorities, people with disabilities, and perhaps, most importantly, those students who were never exposed to the excitement and fulfillment of an engineering career. What are the Essential Requirements for a 1 st-Year Engineering Curriculum? The freshman year is critical for keeping promising students on the engineering track. A firstyear engineering curriculum is a bridge between high school and the in-depth study of the engineering disciplines. This bridge, at most universities, is very rickety and many students fall
2007 37th annual frontiers in education conference - global engineering: knowledge without borders, opportunities without passports, 2007
The Texas High School Initiative aims at producing a leading innovative technical workforce in Texas by aligning the education efforts of high school, postsecondary, and economic development entities. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Micheal and Susan Dell Foundation, and other government and private sector partners have committed $180 million to STEM education reform in Texas. Texas Tech University was awarded funding to create one of five T-STEM Centers to develop innovative curriculum, professional development for teachers, classroom support, and other research-based educational resources in STEM areas. The Centers will identify, document, and disseminate best practices that demonstrate improved teaching and learning in STEM subjects as part of the Texas Innovation Network, which also includes 35 high school T-STEM Academies, and programs to train high school principals and administrators in STEM best practice. The special emphasis of the Texas Tech T-STEM Center is to research, create, and disseminate best practices for innovative teaching and learning using the engineering-design process as an instructional framework for engaging students in rigorous inquiry and project-based learning that emphasizes high level application of mathematics, science, and technology and develop problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, communication, and other skills needed to succeed in higher education and the workforce. The TTU T-STEM Center will also provide pedagogical training, professional development, and recruitment opportunities for K-12 teachers in STEM fields. With engineering design as its focus, the Texas Tech University T-STEM Center will train teachers to use engineering design in teaching applied math, science and technology. The center's design team, drawn from three successful programs at Texas Tech---the Center for Engineering Outreach, Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Center for the Integration of Science and
2001 Annual Conference Proceedings
The objective of this paper is to provide insight into the functioning of Boise State University's (BSU) three new M.S. programs in Engineering, namely, Civil (CE), Electrical (EE), and Mechanical (ME) Engineering. These programs were created as a result of a tremendous collaborative effort with partners from higher education, government, and industry. Notable examples include (i) 12millioninacommunityfundedefforttoconstructtwonewengineeringbuildingsthatbecameoperationalin2000;(ii)12 million in a community funded effort to construct two new engineering buildings that became operational in 2000; (ii) 12millioninacommunityfundedefforttoconstructtwonewengineeringbuildingsthatbecameoperationalin2000;(ii)5 million in laboratory equipment donations from Micron, HP, American Microsystems, SCP, Cascade Microtech, Teradyne, and Zilog; (iii) $5 million in research and equipment grants in the Year 2000; (iv) development of four new "distance" graduate courses to be offered to the industry and the community-at-large via various video delivery modes; (v) participation of four industry experts as adjunct faculty for teaching BSU graduate courses; and (vi) 10,000 man-hours donated by industry engineers to train BSU faculty and technicians in the use of sophisticated laboratory equipment. The newly created M.S. programs in CE, EE, and ME are engaged in an interdisciplinary research effort, which is discussed in this article. The technical goal is to minimize the use of hazardous chemicals in cleaning high aspect ratio microstructures. Broader goals include dynamic curricula development, and student leadership and mentoring opportunities that will enhance the quality of graduate education and attract new students to the programs. This project symbolizes the commitment shared by the faculty and their partners in the industry and in the government to ensure the rapid, collaborative growth of professionally oriented graduate programs at BSU.