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1. Diversity and Inclusion within the Context of the Professional Formation of Engineers: Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Increased Attention on Racial Disparities

   Matters, M.; Brightman, A. O.; Buzzanell, P. M.; Zoltowski, C. B. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   In our NSF RFE sponsored research project, we have been investigating the intersection of three goals in engineering education: professional formation of students, an integrated sociotechnical perception of engineering, and increased diversity and inclusion. We approached this investigation into possible social change with design thinking. We engaged with faculty, staff, and students in a collaborative design process as part of a comparative study of two engineering departments – the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering (BME) – at Purdue University. Our project has been organized around the three phases of the design process (inspiration, ideation, and implementation), and embedded within the design process is a longitudinal, multiphase, mixed-methods study. During this third phase of the project, implementation, we have been both challenged and enabled by events and shifting conversations around the viral pandemic of disease and the widespread activism around racial injustice. In this paper, we provide an overview of the larger project’s previous analyses of the surveys and interview data from faculty, staff, administrators, students, and alumni in both ECE and BME which we have conducted. These analyses will provide insight on the indirect and/or longer-term impact on the school’s cultures and on aspects that are more embedded in the schools and disciplines, as well as those that are more amenable to change. In addition, we describe how design processes and mindsets have and can be used to address complex issues in engineering education, and how this approach facilitated the working groups/committees that emerged in both BME and ECE as part of this project. We also describe the data we are collecting in the final year of the project to understand the impacts of this project, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the attention to racial disparities on our research questions. 

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2. Uncovering Privacy and Security Challenges In K-12 Schools

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580777  

   Chanenson, J.; Sloane, B.; Morrill, A.; Chee, J.; Rajan, N.; Huang, D.; Chetty, M. (January 2023, Human factors in computing systems)

   Increased use of technology in schools raises new privacy and security challenges for K-12 students---and harms such as commercialization of student data, exposure of student data in security breaches, and expanded tracking of students---but the extent of these challenges is unclear. In this paper, first, we interviewed 18 school officials and IT personnel to understand what educational technologies districts use and how they manage student privacy and security around these technologies. Second, to determine if these educational technologies are frequently endorsed across United States (US) public schools, we compiled a list of linked educational technology websites scraped from 15,573 K-12 public school/district domains and analyzed them for privacy risks. Our findings suggest that administrators lack resources to properly assess privacy and security issues around educational technologies even though they do pose potential privacy issues. Based on these findings, we make recommendations for policymakers, educators, and the CHI research community. 

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3. Middle School Student Perception of Technology Use and Digital Citizenship Practices

   Florence Martin, Brittany Hunt (July 2020, Computers in the schools)

   Digital citizenship is defined as using knowledge and skills to exhibit appropriate behavior online using digital technology. Two hundred and thirty-seven middle school students were surveyed about digital device use and perception of digital citizenship practices on cyberbullying, digital netiquette, digital footprint, digital privacy, and digital identity. Findings indicated that student use of mobile devices has increased, which has established the need for parental monitoring of the online behavior of their children. Only 55.3% of the surveyed students indicated parental monitoring of their internet/social media use, and only 37.1% of the students identified digital citizenship as being taught in their schools. Seventy-three percent of the students indicated having never been cyberbullied, and only 55.7% indicated knowing how to collect proof if they suspect cyberbullying has occurred. Fifty-seven percent of the students cited following digital netiquette when communicating or posting online, 59.7% of the students have shared their password with a friend, and 48.5% have added a friend and followed someone they did not know. Middle school students lack an understanding of digital citizenship practices, which has implications for teachers, administrators, and parents on teaching digital citizenship at school and home. 

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4. Engineering Bright Futures: A College Mentorship Program for Title I Public High Schools

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47272  

   Telang, Nina; Raghavan, Anjali (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   This paper discusses creating and establishing an engineering mentorship program for high school students from Austin Title I public schools supported by NSF grant EEC-2217741. This program aims to provide high school students of underrepresented backgrounds exposure to engineering fields, the necessary support to navigate financial and accessibility obstacles posed by the college application process, and a role model and mentor. Typically, students from lower- income high schools do not receive the resources to be familiar with engineering areas and careers, nor the college application process, so this program aims to address these gaps. The goal is that students who participate in this program feel encouraged and confident to apply to engineering programs, resulting in increased applications and potential enrollment of students from low-income high schools. In this program, student mentors (current undergraduate engineering students) are responsible for helping second-year high school students find an engineering major based on their interests, discussing the college application process at a fundamental level, and connecting the student with various financial and academic resources. Weekly mentoring sessions are held over Zoom during the students’ school day in compliance with school district and university regulations. The program lasted five weeks, covering topics such as an overview of the University of Texas’ engineering program, the different engineering fields and careers, a thorough overview of the application process, and financial aid. This project was evaluated with an anonymous survey administered to the high school students after the completion of the program to gauge engagement, whether they felt the program was beneficial, and interest levels in engineering, all of which helped determine the program's effectiveness. 

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5. Enabling factors and barriers for adopting engineering curricula in high schools: School, district, and state administrator perspectives

   Dalal, M.; Carberry, A. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition)

   null (Ed.)

   Pre-college engineering education has been on a sharp rise in the United States. Numerous schools offer some variation of an engineering curricula, but challenges remain regarding socio-cultural perceptions of engineering, teacher training, curricular alignment with state standards, and policy decisions. Many past studies have examined students’ and teachers’ knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs regarding pre-college engineering instruction. Few studies have investigated the viewpoints of school administrators, or state and district personnel. This qualitative study investigated perspectives of three such administrators in a southwest US public high school. The school was one of nine pilot locations offering a new engineering course designed to ‘demystify’ engineering for high school students and teachers from all walks of life. Results converged around four major themes: 1) relevance and current state of pre-college engineering education, 2) teacher certification and professional development, 3) industry connections, and 4) expectations of pre-college engineering curricula. The resulting themes shed light on long standing issues affecting adoption of engineering at the pre-college level and highlight a few areas that upcoming pre-college engineering education programs could focus on. 

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