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1. Anchors associated with secondary school student's engineering design experiences

   Carberry, A.; Dalal, M.; Emiola, O. (January 2022, International journal of engineering education)

   Many students do not truly encounter engineering education during their school years despite numerous calls to increase focus on engineering-centric knowledge and skills in pre-college education. This study uses a Social Cognitive Career Theory framing to examine the nuanced experiences of pre-college students who learned the engineering design process through multiple, progressively complex project experiences in an introductory engineering course designed for all. Data was collected from 80 students within eight schools across the United States using multiple focus groups. Iterative thematic analysis revealed four themes that collectively depict how design experiences provide an anchor or a comprehensive knowledge base for engineering pathways. The study provides insights into the complex interplay of learning activities and wider educational contexts that influence students’ higher education and career choices. Under-standing the anchors associated with students’ design experiences has the potential to impact future motivation and design of pre-college engineering experiences that can lead to improved student recruitment and retention in higher education 

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2. Understanding high school student experiences in an engineering course designed for all

   Figard, R. (June 2022, American Society for Engineering Education Conference & Exposition)

   Pre-college engineering education still struggles to implement curricula that engage a diverse range of students. Engineering for US All (e4usa) aims to fill this gap through a course that demystifies engineering while catering to a broad range of students. This paper examines the influence of the e4usa course on students’ engagement with engineering design, and their understanding of engineering as a potential future educational and career pathway. Focus group sessions were conducted with students from 12 participating schools during the 2020-21 school year to examine how their interests and understanding of engineering were influenced by the course. There were four main question categories for the focus groups, including: (1) students’ perceptions of engineering, (2) engagement in the e4usa course, (3) influences of the e4usa course, and (4) experiences as a female in engineering. Focus group data were analyzed using open coding and constant comparison methods. Themes emerged from each of the main question categories, giving insight into students’ experiences in the e4usa course. Understanding student experiences in the e4usa course has the potential to impact the future design of pre-college engineering experiences that can lead to a more diverse engineering workforce. 

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3. Community Cultures: Broadening Participation By Understanding How Rural Communities Support Engineering as a College Major Choice

   Paretti, Marie C.; Grohs, Jacob R.; Anderson, William Michael; Lester, Marlena McGlothlin; Baum, Liesl M.; Newbill, Phyllis Leary; Kelly, Stacey Leigh (July 2018, 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   his project is supported by an NSF BPE grant. Career choices, such as engineering, are influenced by a number of factors including personal interest, ability, competence beliefs, prior work-related experience, and financial and social supports. However, financial and social support, a particularly significant factor for rural students’ career decisions, is often overlooked in the literature exploring career choice. Moreover, little work has explored how communities serve as key influencers for supporting or promoting engineering as a career choice. Therefore, the goal of this study is to explore the ways in which communities provide support to students deciding to pursue engineering as a college major. To better understand how students from selected rural area high schools choose engineering as a major, we conducted focus group discussions consisting of 4-6 students each from selected schools to talk collectively about their high school experiences and their choice to major in engineering. Choosing focus group participants from different schools enabled us to elicit tacit perceptions and beliefs that may not be evident when students from the same community talk with one another. That is, as students share their experiences across schools, they may recognize differences in their experiences that, though otherwise unconscious or unacknowledged, proved significant in their choice of college and major. We expect that certain community programs and the individuals involved will have some influence on students’ decisions to study engineering at [University Name]. We anticipate that the results will yield two key outcomes: 1. A holistic understanding of the communities that effectively support and encourage engineering major choice for rural students. 2. Locally driven, contextually relevant recommendations for policies and programs that would better enable economically disadvantaged, rural schools in southwestern Virginia to support engineering as a career choice for high school students. By understanding the ways some economically-disadvantaged rural communities support engineering as a career choice and linking a broad spectrum of rural communities together around this issue, this project will broaden participation in engineering by increasing support for students from these areas. By shifting our focus from students to communities, this research broadens our understanding of career choice by capturing the perspectives of community members (including not only school personnel, but also community leaders, students’ families, business owners and others) who often play a key role in students’ decisions, particularly in rural communities. Our research will bring these voices into the conversation to help scholars learn from and respond to these essential community perspectives. In doing so, we will provide a more nuanced model of engineering career choice that can then be explored in other rural contexts. This work thus contributes to the research on career choice, rural education, and engineering education. © 2018 American Society for Engineering Education 

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4. Understanding Engineering Identity in Undergraduate Students

   Schell, W.J.; Hughes, B.E.; Tallman, B. (October 2018, American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) International Annual Conference (IAC))

   The process of becoming an engineer is fundamentally an identity development process and students who identify as engineers are more likely both to graduate and to enter the field upon graduation. Therefore an opportunity in engineering education is providing undergraduates experiences that bolster their sense of identity as engineers. In particular, experiences that offer authentic engagement in engineering work should be expected to promote engineering identity. This paper tests the relationship between collegiate experiences expected to promote engineering identity formation with change in engineering identity in a national sample of 918 engineering students using data from the 2013 College Senior Survey (CSS). The CSS is administered by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA to college students at the end of their fourth year of college; data from the CSS are then matched to students’ prior responses on the 2009 Freshman Survey (TFS) to create a longitudinal sample. Engineering identity is measured using a composite of items available in both surveys to assess change in engineering identity over four years, and intention to pursue an engineering career is also tested. Results show participation in undergraduate research appears to increase engineering identity, while participation in an internship increases likelihood of pursuing an engineering career. 

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5. Board 214: Building an Understanding of Black Families’ Engineering, Design, and Inventive Practices

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46782  

   Ejichukwu, Emmanuella; Tolbert_Smith, DeLean; Matar, Hanadi (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Black students belong in STEM career pathways but often experience a diminished sense of belonging in their college programs. Through informal conversations, the authors learned that some Black students felt they had not had the formal pre-college engineering training and extracurricular experiences that they perceived their peers had and therefore they did not feel they possessed engineering knowledge. There is little research that identifies the diverse engineering family practices of Black families and further finds ways to connect these practices to formal higher education learning environments. Acknowledging the rich history of Black engineering, design, and invention that occurs in Black households and communities, the authors explore the following question: In what ways can engineering practices emerge as Black families engage in design challenges? This study is informed by asset-based frameworks and a systems theory of learning to center the role of the Black family in learning how to engage in and value engineering, design, and inventive practices. To date, 15 Families have participated in activities that were modified from the Invention Convention Curriculum. Their design sessions were video recorded and were analyzed using Python and qualitative methods. This work-in-progress manuscript will focus on identifying the engineering practices of one family who participated in a set of family engineering design activities. The authors will share insights from the family narrative (synthesis of all the data generated from the family’s participation) and results of how the family enacted specific engineering practices. Also, the authors will share a preliminary reflection on how these practices might serve as a vehicle to positively impact the sense of belonging of Black engineering students. 

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