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1. A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding How Colleges, Universities, and Employers Prepare and Support Undergraduates in Engineering Internships. San Jose, CA, USA, 2018

   Chen, H. L; Powers, K; Prasad, K. V; Anderson, M; Royalty, A; Gilmartin, S; Sheppard, S. (October 2018, IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE))

   Does engagement in high impact practices such as technical internships and undergraduate research influence engineering students’ career decisions and future plans? And how is learning that comes from these high impact practices related to “school learning”? These high impact educational practices have been shown to increase the rates of student engagement and retention in higher education. While access to and participation in these activities is often unsystematic across various institutions, these practices have been shown to benefit college students with diverse backgrounds and learner qualities. This paper establishes a context for understanding the characteristics and attitudes of students who participate in internships and undergraduate research by drawing from analyses of the first administration of the Engineering Majors Survey (EMS), a longitudinal study designed to examine engineering students’ career objectives related to creativity and innovation, and the experiences and attitudes that might influence those goals. In addition, using interview data from product development interns at a single engineering firm, we add insights into the specific skills that interns identify as learning in their internship and suggest connections between school-and-work learning. The more general picture of the impact of internship and research experiences (from the EMS), complemented with a “deep dive” into the learning that happens in internship experiences (from the interviews) provides a solid starting point for future exploration of how high impact practices such as internships and research experiences might be better integrated into a student’s educational development. 

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2. The Role of Science Internships in Shaping High School Students’ Career Choices

   https://doi.org/10.1177/10538259251325140  

   Hsu, Pei-Ling; Wang, Xuemei (March 2025, Journal of Experiential Education)

   Background:Science internships have been suggested as a powerful way to engage high school students in conducting authentic science inquiry. However, despite the recognized significance of high school science internships, little research is done to examinehowthese experiences affect high school students’ career choices.Purpose:Our study drew on the theoretical framework of social cognitive career theory to examine how a 7-month science internship might shape high school students’ career choices.Method:88 students were interviewed 6–8 months after their internship graduation.Findings:The analysis suggests that the science internships altered more than 90% of the participating students’ career choices by either enhancing, expanding, narrowing down, or even replacing their original career choices. Students reported that the science internships boosted their self-efficacy through their first-hand mastery of authentic STEM practices, by directly observing scientists’ STEM performance, by hearing scientists’ opinions on students’ capabilities and potential in STEM, and by the impact of the students’ own physiological and affective states on the STEM practices.Implications:These findings help educators better understand how a unique learning environment like science internship may influence high school students’ career choices; they have important implications for internship design, career counseling, and education policy. 

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3. Exploring the Relationships between Engineering Internships and Innovation and Engineering Task Self-Efficacy

   Trego, M; Chen, H.L; Prasad, K. V; Sheppard, S. (October 2019, IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, 2019)

   This research to practice full paper presents the work of an academic-industry research partnership to explore the internship experiences of summer interns at a large global engineering company. Engineering internships give students the opportunity to apply the engineering skills they have been learning to real products and can have a high impact on innovation and engineering task self-efficacy. The relationship between internships and innovation and engineering task selfefficacy matters because self-efficacy is an important predictor of major and career choice. Innovation interests is another measure that measures the individual’s interest in innovative behaviors, unlike ISE which measures their confidence in practicing these behaviors. This paper focuses on understanding the relationship between internship work assignment and supervisor interaction and innovation interests. Furthermore, the relationship between the internship experience and the intern’s likelihood of accepting a job offer from the same company is explored. A survey administered to engineering interns (N = 115) at the end of their summer 2017 internship at a large global engineering company forms the main dataset for this work. Keywords—Engineering Education Research, Industrial Partnerships and Collaborations, Engineering Education Research, Innovation and Creativity 

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4. Insights Gathered from the National Survey of Student Education (NSSE) About Engineering/Computer Science Participation in High-impact Educational Practices at Two Western Land-grant Institutions

   Ewumi, E.R.; Adesope, O.; Claiborn, C.S.; Minichiello, A. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference)

   Student engagement, especially among Engineering and Computer science majors (E/CS), has been a priority for researchers. Although considerable efforts have been made to improve college students' engagement and interest, underrepresented minority groups and first-generation students are still at risk of dropping out of engineering majors due to lack of inclusiveness, motivation, and other related factors. According to Kuh (2008), student participation in High-Impact Educational Practices (HIEP) is correlated with student outcomes such as persistence, performance, achievement, and intent to complete their current major. The present study reviews the existing National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, 2012, 2017) data from two western land-grant universities to fully capture participation through the survey of first-year students and seniors (N = 674). The HIEP considered include service-learning, learning communities, research with faculty, internship or field experience, study abroad, and culminating senior experience. These practices are designed to encourage meaningful interactions between faculty and students, foster collaboration with students within different demographics groups, and facilitate learning outside the classroom. Insights were gleaned from how the students interacted with HIEP based on special characteristics such as sex, race, age, enrollment status, and residence. The purpose of the present study is to examine the extent to which E/CS students participate in HIEP and its effects on student outcomes. This study also offers comparisons or possible relationships between student demographics, student success, and HIEP involvement. For example, the participation rates of HIEP on different engineering and computer science majors, including civil, chemical, electrical, mechanical, and materials engineering, etc., are analyzed to examine the practices that work for a particular E/CS major. The present study reports findings from NSSE 2012 and 2017 surveys. Results show that among the E/CS seniors, service-learning, learning community, and study abroad program are the HIEP with the lowest participation rate with 41% (service-learning), 59% (learning community), and 68% (study abroad program), indicating that they do not plan to engage in these practices in their senior year. Conversely, internships and culminating senior experiences had the most participation among E/CS seniors with 52% (internships) and 68% (culminating senior experiences. Interestingly, first-year students showed a significant interest to participate in the following HIEP: internships, study abroad programs, and culminating senior experiences – with 76% (internships), 47% (study abroad program), and 68% (culminating senior experiences) indicating plans to engage in these practices. Finally, findings show that participation or engagement in HIEP is a significant predictor of student learning outcomes. Findings of this review may serve as a guide for future research in E/CS student participation in HIEP. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications of the findings on student engagement and learning. Key words: NSSE, high impact educational practices, Engagement 

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5. Effects of High Impact Educational Practices on Engineering and Computer Science Student Participation, Persistence, and Success at Land Grant Universities – Year 2

   Asghar, M.; Minichiello, A.; Banerjee, A.; Ewumi, E.; Claiborn, C.; Adesope, O. (August 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce contributes to the U.S. economy by supporting 67% of jobs and 69% of the gross domestic product [1]. Currently, there is an increased demand for engineering and computer science (E/CS) professionals, particularly those from underrepresented (e.g., gender, racial, ethnic) and underserved (socio-economic, geographically isolated) groups who bring diversity of thought and experience to the national E/CS workforce [2]. Correspondingly, educational institutions are called upon to develop capabilities to attract, engage, and retain students from these diverse backgrounds in E/CS programs of study. To encourage and enable diverse students to opt into and persist within E/CS programs of study, there is a critical need to engage students in supportive and enriching opportunities from which to learn and grow. The importance of student engagement for promoting student growth and development has been researched to such an extent that its utility is widely agreed upon [5]. Importantly, it has been shown that both academic and extracurricular aspects of a student’s learning processes are characterized by engagement [6]. High Impact Educational Practices (HIP) provide useful opportunities for deep student engagement and, thus, positively influence student retention and persistence [4]. Kuh [3] identified eleven curricular and extracurricular HIP (i.e., collaborative assignments and projects, common intellectual experiences, eportfolios, first year seminars and experiences, global learning and study abroad, internships, learning communities, senior culminating experiences, service and community-based learning, undergraduate research, and writing intensive courses). In computer science and engineering education fields, however, the extent to which HIP affects persistence and retention has not been fully investigated. This project aims to examine E/CS undergraduate student engagement in HIP and to understand the factors that contribute to positive engagement experiences. 

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