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1. Using narratives to evoke empathy and support girls’ engagement in engineering

   Letourneau, S. M.; Bennett, D. (January 2020, Connected science learning)

   null (Ed.)

   Reframing engineering activities to emphasize the needs of others has the potential to strengthen engineering practices like problem scoping, while also providing more inclusive and socially relevant entry points into engineering problems. In this design-based research project, we developed novel strategies for adding narratives to engineering activities to deepen girls’ engagement in engineering practices by evoking empathy for the users of their designs. We describe a set of hands-on engineering activities developed through iterative development and testing with 190 girls (ages 7-14) at the New York Hall of Science. Findings show how elements of narrative (like characters and settings) evoked learners’ empathy, and how learners’ expressions of empathy related to practices like problem scoping and iteration. A set of design principles summarizes critical features of the narrative activities for evoking empathy and supporting the engineering design process. Finally, we offer recommendations for practitioners who would like to use narratives to engage learners in approaching engineering problems from a user-centered perspective. This work has implications for the development of inclusive and engaging engineering activities that appeal to elementary and middle school learners in a wide range of settings. 

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2. Engineering Awareness at Design Challenge Exhibits

   Randol, S.; Benne, M.; Herran, C.; Ramos-Montañez, S.; & Shagott, T. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition)

   Awareness of a STEM discipline is a complex construct to operationalize; a learner’s awareness of a discipline is sometimes viewed through the lens of personal identity, use of relevant discourse, or knowledge of career pathways. This research proposes defining engineering awareness through a learner’s associations with engineering practices - fundamental processes involved in engineering such as identifying criteria and constraints, testing designs, diagnosing issues and assessing goal completion. In this study, a learner’s engineering awareness was determined by examining 1) their ability to name or identify the engineering-related practices and processes they used, 2) associating those practices and processes with engineering, and 3) reporting that those were practices and processes that engineers use. This research was conducted in a large science center in the Pacific Northwest and capitalizes on science center exhibits as unique family learning environments in the interest of promoting and strengthening family engagement and engineering learning. Participant selection focused on girls ages 9–14 and their families, ensuring the inclusion and influence of members of Latino communities (Spanish speaking and bilingual English/Spanish). Data were collected at three different design challenge exhibits. Engineering awareness was measured using three items on a visitor survey administered following a groups’ exhibit experience and through interview responses which were coded for mention of the words design, engineering and a list of associated practices. Participants were given the option of completing the survey and interview in English or Spanish. The study found that participants overwhelmingly reported that they were doing engineering at exhibits; however, in open-ended responses from the interview, most groups simply implied or named specific engineering design practices rather than use the term engineering. The words building, testing, and improving designs were reported more frequently than words such as defining a problem, making a plan, or completing a challenge. The type of responses about using engineering practices varied by type of exhibit which suggests that different exhibits might encourage respondents to engage in, or recognise that they are engaging in, some engineering design practices more than others. This work proposes an operational definition to measure learners’ awareness of engaging in engineering practices. This definition and the instruments and methods developed to measure awareness in this way are contributions to the larger conversations on this topic in the field. Findings from this study offer insights into how learners identify engineering-related practices and how they associate those practices with engineering. As part of a five-year, federally funded project, the result of this work informs the development of new design challenge exhibits, and the instruments and methods will be used in a second research study to explore how these new exhibits and the addition of staff facilitation impact visitor use and awareness of engineering practices. 

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3. danceON: Culturally Responsive Creative Computing

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445149  

   Payne, William Christopher; Bergner, Yoav; West, Mary Etta; Charp, Carlie; Shapiro, R. Benjamin; Szafir, Danielle Albers; Taylor, Edd V.; DesPortes, Kayla (May 2021, CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)

   null (Ed.)

   Dance provides unique opportunities for embodied interdisciplinary learning experiences that can be personally and culturally relevant. danceON is a system that supports learners to leverage their body movement as they engage in artistic practices across data science, computing, and dance. The technology includes a Domain Specific Language (DSL) with declarative syntax and reactive behavior, a media player with pose detection and classification, and a web-based IDE. danceON provides a low-floor allowing users to bind virtual shapes to body positions in under three lines of code, while also enabling complex, dynamic animations that users can design working with conditionals and past position data. We developed danceON to support distance learning and deployed it in two consecutive cohorts of a remote, two-week summer camp for young women of color. We present our findings from an analysis of the experience and the resulting computational performances. The work identifies implications for how design can support learners’ expression across culturally relevant themes and examines challenges from the lens of usability of the computing language and technology. 

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4. Board 62: Usability of a Mobile Augmented Reality Application to Teach Structural Analysis

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--30074  

   Karabulut Ilgu, Aliye; Miller, Elizabeth; Yao, Suhan; Wehr, David; Chen, An; Turkan, Yelda; Behzadan, Amir; Jahren, Charles (November 2022, Proceedings of 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Structural Analysis is an introductory course for structural engineering, which is taught in every undergraduate civil engineering program at about 300 institutions in the U.S., and also in most architectural and construction programs, as a core and required course. Despite its critical role in the curriculum, most novice learners in this course do not appear to have a sound understanding of fundamental concepts, such as load effects and load path; and in general, they lack the ability to visualize the deformed shape of simple structures, a necessary skill to conceptualize structural behavior beyond theoretical formulas and methods. In this paper, we aim to identify the design characteristics of an effective pedagogy involving AR to teach structural analysis. Adopting a design-based research approach, the paper describes the iterative research process that does not just evaluate the pedagogical applications involving AR, but systematically attempts to refine this intervention; and produce design principles that can guide similar research and development efforts. The cycle of research includes (a) analysis of practical problems by researchers and practitioners in collaboration; (b) development of solutions informed by existing design principles and technological innovations; (c) iterative cycles of testing and refinement of solutions in practice; and (d) reflection to produce design principles and enhance solution implementation. Findings from the evaluation and testing of the AR environment are included in the conclusions. 

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5. Evaluation of Summer Camp Recruitment Methods and Campers’ Perceptions of Engineering (Evaluation, Diversity)

   Fleming, Gabriella Coloyan; Fernandez, Kiersten Elyse; Julien, Christine; Mastronardi, Marialice (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   Program leaders put a tremendous amount of thought into how they recruit students for engineering summer camps. Recruitment methods can include information sessions, established partnerships with school districts, and teacher or school counselor nominations of students. This study seeks to assess if the methods used to recruit students broaden participation or have any impact on students’ perceptions of engineering. Two identical week-long summer camps were hosted by the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) in the summer of 2022. Camps were entirely free for all campers. A specific goal of the camp was to promote engineering as a career pathway for students from groups that have been historically excluded from STEM majors. Campers were rising 8th and 9th grade students in two cities near UT Austin; this age was intentionally identified as students who have sufficient STEM backgrounds to engage in meaningful engineering design challenges, and who are also at a critical inflection point with respect to decisions that put them on a trajectory to study engineering in college. Summer camp topics ranged from additive manufacturing to the chemical properties of water proofing, and students did activities such as constructing a prosthetic limb from recovered materials or designing an electronic dance game pad. In one camp session, students primarily found out about the camp by being nominated by counselors at their schools, with an intentional focus on recruiting students who might not otherwise be exposed to engineering. In the other camp session, parents signed up campers after hearing about the camp via information sent through the schools. All students who applied were accepted to the camps. Identical pre- and post-camp surveys asked campers questions about their knowledge of what engineers do, their interest in math and science, and what factors are important to them when choosing a career. Survey analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in answers to questions between the groups in the pre-camp surveys, but post-camp surveys show that these differences disappeared after participating in the summer camp. Students whose parents directly enrolled them in the camp had higher pre-camp interest in science and technology; thus, counselor nominations may be a method to recruit students who might not have been interested in engineering had they not attended the camp. Additionally, prior to participating, campers recruited via counselor nominations had a narrower view of what engineers do than the parent-enrolled campers, but after camp the two groups had similar perceptions of what engineers do. The results of this study confirm literature findings regarding the importance of exposing young learners to engineering as a profession and broaden their views of opportunities in this field. The recruitment methods used for these camps show that nomination-based recruitment methods have the potential for greater impact on changing students’ engineering trajectories. 

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