More Like this

1. Enabling K-14 Educators in Developing and Deploying Advanced Manufacturing Curricula

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47255  

   Sarder, MD; Mayyas, Mohammad; Abouheaf, Mohammed; Kremer, Gül (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Manufacturing is undergoing rapid changes due to the demands of product complexity and variety, and therefore factories are demanded to become smarter and more efficient. This transformation is known as advanced manufacturing and will require a new generation of skilled employees. There is a huge lack of qualified personnel in advanced manufacturing stemming from a lack of student interest compounded with a lack of experienced teachers who usually motivate students. This paper describes the findings of an NSF RET project at an US university that successfully addresses the common need to produce STEM graduates in the advanced manufacturing area. We recruited fifteen high school and community college STEM educators for a six-week immersive summer research experience in the state-of-the-art robotics laboratory. At the end of their research workshop, they developed customized hands-on advanced manufacturing curricula for their students. This project produced fifteen competent high school and community college educators, who are capable of blending research with educational activities at their institutions, motivating students for STEM degrees, and building long-term collaborative partnerships in the region. This paper will share some of their successful research projects, how they translated their research into actionable curriculum modules, and some lessons learned from implementations. This paper will also explain the evaluation process and share the results. In view of the pre-survey and post-survey data analyses, it can be concluded that educator participants of the program increased their knowledge and research experiences at very high-quality research facilities and under expert guidance. 

   more » « less
2. Assessing Educational Pathways for Manufacturing in Rural Communities: Research Findings and Implications from an Investigation of New and Existing Programs in Northwest Florida: Accomplishments through Year 4

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--36705  

   Mardis, Marcia A; Jones, Faye R. (September 2022, ASEE annual conference)

   In northwest Florida, advanced manufacturing (AM) jobs far outpace the middle-skilled technician workforce, though AM constitutes almost a quarter of the region’s total employment. From 2018-2028, of the available 4.6 million manufacturing jobs, less than half are likely to be filled due to talent shortages. This widening “skills gap” is attributed to many factors that range from new technologies in the AM industry (e.g., artificial intelligence, robotics), a need for newer recruiting methods, branding, and incentives in AM educational programs. Some professionals have even indicated that manufacturing industries and AM educational programs should be aligned more to reflect the needs of the industry. Even in the wake of Covid-19, when there have been over 700,000 manufacturing jobs lost due to market conditions, many states still have jobs that go unfilled further suggesting that there are challenges in filling AM technician positions. In a time when technicians in AM are in high demand and the number of graduates are in low supply, it is critical to identify whether AM education is meeting the needs of new professionals in the workforce and what they believe can be improved in these programs. This is especially true in rural locales, where economies with manufacturing industries are much more reliant on them. In the context of a NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE), through a multi-method approach, we sought to understand: 1) Which AM competencies skills did participants report as benefiting them in gaining employment? 2) Which competencies are needed on the job to be a successful AM technician? 3) What are the ways in which AM preparation can be improved to enhance employment outcomes? This study’s results will expand the research base and curriculum content recommendations for regional AM education, as well as build regional capacity for AM program assessment and improvement by replicating, refining, and disseminating study approaches through further research, annual AM employer and educator meetings, and annual research skill-building academies in which stakeholders transfer research findings to practices and policies that empower rural NW Florida colleges. To date, research efforts have demonstrated that competency perceptions of faculty, employers, and new professionals have notable misalignments that have opportunities for AM program curriculum revision and enhancement. This paper summarizes five years of research output, emphasizing the impactful findings and dissemination products for ASEE community members, as well as opportunities for further research. 

   more » « less
3. Creating and Assessing an Upper Division Additive Manufacturing Course and Laboratory to Enhance Undergraduate Research and Innovation

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--30124  

   Maloney, Patricia A; Li, Bingbing; Zhang, Meng; Cong, Weilong (June 2018, 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   This NSF IUSE project is on the Exploration and Design Tier and the Engaged Student Learning Track. It is aimed at better preparing the country’s professional workforce in the renaissance of U.S. skilled manufacturing by creating new personnel proficient in additive manufacturing (AM). AM is mainstream; it has the potential to bring jobs back to the U.S. and add to the nation’s global competitiveness. AM is the process of joining materials to make objects from 3D data in a layer upon layer fashion. The objectives are to develop, assess, revise, and disseminate an upper division course and laboratory, “Additive Manufacturing,” and to advance undergraduate and K-12 student research and creative inquiry activities as well as faculty expertise at three diverse participating universities: Texas Tech, California State-Northridge, and Kansas State. This research/pedagogical team contains a mechanical engineering professor at each university to develop and teach the course, as well as a sociologist trained in K-12 outreach, course assessment, and human subjects research to accurately determine the effects on K-12 and undergraduate students. The proposed course will cover extrusion-based, liquid-based, and powder-based AM processes. For each technology, fundamentals, applications, and advances will be discussed. Students will learn solutions to AM of polymers, metals, and ceramics. Two lab projects will be built to provide hands-on experiences on a variety of state-of-the-art 3D printers. To stimulate innovation, students will design, fabricate, and measure test parts, and will perform experiments to explore process limits and tackle real world problems. They will also engage K-12 students through video demonstrations and mentorship, thus developing presentation skills. Through the project, different pedagogical techniques and assessment tools will be utilized to assess and improve engineering education at both the undergraduate and K-12 levels through varied techniques: i) undergraduate module lesson plans that are scalable to K-12 levels, ii) short informational video lessons created by undergraduates for K-12 students with accompanying in-person mentorship activities at local high schools and MakerSpaces, iii) pre- and post-test assessments of undergraduates’ and K-12 participating students’ AM knowledge, skills, and perceptions of self-efficacy, and iv) focus groups to learn about student concerns/learning challenges. We will also track students institutionally and into their early careers to learn about their use of AM technology professionally. 

   more » « less
4. Creating and Assessing an Upper Division Additive Manufacturing Course and Laboratory to Enhance Undergraduate Research and Innovation

   Maloney, P; Li, B; Zhang, M; Cong, W. (June 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   This NSF IUSE project is on the Exploration and Design Tier and the Engaged Student Learning Track. It is aimed at better preparing the country’s professional workforce in the renaissance of U.S. skilled manufacturing by creating new personnel proficient in additive manufacturing (AM). AM is mainstream; it has the potential to bring jobs back to the U.S. and add to the nation’s global competitiveness. AM is the process of joining materials to make objects from 3D data in a layer upon layer fashion. The objectives are to develop, assess, revise, and disseminate an upper division course and laboratory, “Additive Manufacturing,” and to advance undergraduate and K-12 student research and creative inquiry activities as well as faculty expertise at three diverse participating universities: Texas Tech, California State Northridge, and Kansas State. This research/pedagogical team contains a mechanical engineering professor at each university to develop and teach the course, as well as a sociologist trained in K-12 outreach, course assessment, and human subjects research to accurately determine the effects on K-12 and undergraduate students. The proposed course will cover extrusion-based, liquid-based, and powder-based AM processes. For each technology, fundamentals, applications, and advances will be discussed. Students will learn solutions to AM of polymers, metals, and ceramics. Two lab projects will be built to provide hands-on experiences on a variety of state-of-the-art 3D printers. To stimulate innovation, students will design, fabricate, and measure test parts, and will perform experiments to explore process limits and tackle real world problems. They will also engage K-12 students through video demonstrations and mentorship, thus developing presentation skills. Through the project, different pedagogical techniques and assessment tools will be utilized to assess and improve engineering education at both the undergraduate and K-12 levels through varied techniques: i) undergraduate module lesson plans that are scalable to K-12 levels, ii) short informational video lessons created by undergraduates for K-12 students with accompanying in-person mentorship activities at local high schools and MakerSpaces, iii) pre- and post-test assessments of undergraduates’ and K-12 participating students’ AM knowledge, skills, and perceptions of self-efficacy, and iv) focus groups to learn about student concerns/learning challenges. We will also track students institutionally and into their early careers to learn about their use of AM technology professionally. 

   more » « less
5. First Year Experience from RET Site: High School Teacher Experience in Engineering Design and Manufacturing

   Zhu, W. (January 2022, 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   In 2019, University of Houston (UH) at Houston, Texas was awarded an NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site grant titled “RET Site: High School Teacher Experience in Engineering Design and Manufacturing.” The goal of the project is to host 12 high school teachers each summer to participate in engineering design and manufacturing research and then convert their experience into high school curriculum. In summer of 2021, the first cohort of 12 teachers from Region 4 of Southeast Texas participated in the RET program at UH College of Technology (COT). This six-week program, open to local high school STEM teachers in Texas, sought to advance educators’ knowledge of concepts in design and manufacturing as a means of enriching high school curriculums and meeting foundational standards set by 2013’s Texas House Bill 5. These standards require enhanced STEM contents in high school curricula as a prerequisite for graduation, detailed in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standard. Due to the pandemic situation, about 50% of the activities are online and the rest are face to face. About 40% of the time, teachers attended online workshops to enhance their knowledge of topics in engineering design and manufacturing before embarking on applicable research projects in the labs. Six UH COT engineering technology professors each led workshops in a week. The four tenure-track engineering mentors, assisted by student research assistants, each mentored three teachers on projects ranging from additive manufacturing to thermal/fluids, materials, and energy. The group also participated in field trips to local companies including ARC Specialties, Master Flo, Re:3D, and Forged Components. They worked with two instructional track engineering technology professors and one professor of education on applying their learnings to lesson plan design. Participants also met weekly for online Brown Bag teacher seminars to share their experiences and discuss curricula, which was organized by the RET master teacher. On the final day of the program, the teachers presented their curriculum prototype for the fall semester to the group and received completion certificates. The program assessment was led by the assessment specialist, Director of Assessment and Accreditation at UH COT. Teacher participants found the research experience with their mentors beneficial not only to them, but also to their students according to our findings from interviews. The mentors will visit their mentees’ classrooms to see the lesson plans being implemented. In the spring of 2022, the teachers will present their refined curricula at a RET symposium to be organized at UH and submit their standards-aligned plans to teachengineering.org for other K-12 educators to access. 

   more » « less