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1. A Systematic Review of PBL Literature: In Search Guidelines for Problem Design, Facilitation, and Assessment in Engineering PBL

   Olewnik, A.; Horn, A.; Schrewe, L.; Ferguson, F. (January 2023, IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education)

   Problem-based learning (PBL) is recognized as a pedagogical approach that is well-suited to preparing engineering students for the realities of the profession, but there are persistent implementation challenges that serve as barriers to broad adoption. This systematic literature review focuses on three facets of PBL – design, facilitation, and assessment – in search of operational guidelines for engineering faculty considering a transition to PBL. Findings led to two broad conclusions. First, there is a need for research on methods to support engineering faculty in problem design. Second, while current research provides thorough support for PBL facilitation and suggestions for assessment, there is a need for additional research to evaluate the efficacy of the various models of facilitation and assessment suggested by the literature. 

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2. Board 240: Developing Critically Conscious Aerospace Engineers through Macroethics Curricula: Year 1

   Johnson, Aaron W; Bowen, Corin L; Strehl, Elizabeth A; Olson, S; Elias, R (June 2024, American Society for Engineering Education)

   Absent from the undergraduate aerospace curricula at many universities is any acknowledgement of macroethics, the ways in which engineering impacts society positively and negatively. For example, aviation makes the world a smaller place, but aircraft emissions also contribute to climate change. Satellite internet megaconstallations provide internet access to places that were previously unconnected, but also contribute to light pollution that negatively impacts astronomy. And, many career pathways in the aerospace industry relate to military and weapons technology design, development, operations or maintenance, resulting in significant macroethical dilemmas regarding the interconnections between engineering and violence. Without putting aerospace engineering in its social context, students are left ill-prepared to recognize and address challenging ethical questions and issues they will encounter in their future engineering careers. Alternatively, aerospace engineering curricula should support the development of the critical consciousness required to reflect on the social impact of the field and students’ present and future roles within it. We are addressing this pressing need with integrated curriculum development research initiatives. Our multi-institutional team is composed of aerospace and engineering education research faculty, graduate students in engineering education, undergraduate students in engineering, and practitioners in the aerospace industry. This paper highlights the results thus far and describes the ongoing work of the project, one year into NSF IUSE grants DUE-2236148 and DUE-2236227. 

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3. The Development of a Student Survey on Macroethics in Aerospace Engineering [Work-In-Progress]

   Bowen, Corin L; Strehl, Elizabeth A; Ennis, M; Benham, A; Johnson, Aaron W (June 2024, American Society for Engineering Education)

   This work-in-progress paper presents the development of a survey designed to understand undergraduate aerospace engineering students’ views on macroethics in the field. Macroethics describes the real world ethical implications of engineering technology and the collective social responsibility of the aerospace engineering profession. As macroethics education is currently lacking in most undergraduate aerospace curricula in the United States, we are developing a survey intended to measure students’ current perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs about macroethics in the field. Insight into our students’ current beliefs and perceptions is imperative to develop new curricula and more generally alter the culture and direction of the aerospace engineering field from striving for apoliticalization to embracing the sociotechnical. A mixed-methods survey was taken by 158 undergraduate aerospace engineering students at two large, research-intensive universities in the United States. This paper presents confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of Likert-scale data to further the development of the survey. The survey items were initially designed to address two proposed research questions: RQ1) To what degree are students aware of the importance of macroethical issues in the field of aerospace engineering?, RQ2) Do aerospace engineering students feel that their undergraduate education is preparing them to address macroethical issues? While confirmatory factor analysis does not confirm these two survey constructs for which the survey items were designed, an exploratory factor analysis results in five factors, each highlighting a different aspect of students’ perceptions of macroethical aerospace engineering education: 1) The criticality of the relationship between aerospace engineering and society, 2) The ease or difficulty of being an ethical aerospace engineer, 3) Technical determinism and aerospace career pathways, 4) Macroethics discussions within aerospace coursework, and 5) The ability of faculty to facilitate conversations on the macroethics of aerospace. These five factors provide a new basis upon which we will generate additional survey items in the future. Through this process, we will develop a survey that can effectively measure students’ beliefs and experiences in regards to the macroethical implications of the field of aerospace engineering. 

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4. The Development of a Student Survey on Macroethics in Aerospace Engineering [Work-In-Progress]

   Bowen, Corin L; Strehl, Elizabeth A; Ennis, M; Benham, Andrew; Johnson, Aaron W (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Eduation (ASEE) PEER)

   This work-in-progress paper presents the development of a survey designed to understand undergraduate aerospace engineering students’ views on macroethics in the field. Macroethics describes the real world ethical implications of engineering technology and the collective social responsibility of the aerospace engineering profession. As macroethics education is currently lacking in most undergraduate aerospace curricula in the United States, we are developing a survey intended to measure students’ current perceptions, knowledge, and beliefs about macroethics in the field. Insight into our students’ current beliefs and perceptions is imperative to develop new curricula and more generally alter the culture and direction of the aerospace engineering field from striving for apoliticalization to embracing the sociotechnical. A mixed-methods survey was taken by 158 undergraduate aerospace engineering students at two large, research-intensive universities in the United States. This paper presents confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of Likert-scale data to further the development of the survey. The survey items were initially designed to address two proposed research questions: RQ1. To what degree are students aware of the importance of macroethical issues in the field of aerospace engineering? RQ2. Do aerospace engineering students feel that their undergraduate education is preparing them to address macroethical issues? While confirmatory factor analysis does not confirm these two survey constructs for which the survey items were designed, an exploratory factor analysis results in five factors, each highlighting a different aspect of students’ perceptions of macroethical aerospace engineering education: 1. The criticality of the relationship between aerospace engineering and society 2. The ease or difficulty of being an ethical aerospace engineer 3. Technical determinism and aerospace career pathways 4. Macroethics discussions within aerospace coursework 5. The ability of faculty to facilitate conversations on the macroethics of aerospace These five factors provide a new basis upon which we will generate additional survey items in the future. Through this process, we will develop a survey that can effectively measure students’ beliefs and experiences in regards to the macroethical implications of the field of aerospace engineering. 

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5. Board 240: Developing Critically Conscious Aerospace Engineers through Macroethics Curricula: Year 1

   Johnson, Aaron W; Bowen, Corin L; Strehl, Elizabeth A; Olson, Sabrina; Elias, Ricardo (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) PEER)

   Absent from the undergraduate aerospace curricula at many universities is any acknowledgement of macroethics, the ways in which engineering impacts society positively and negatively. Without putting aerospace engineering in its social context, students are left ill-prepared to recognize and address challenging ethical questions and issues they will encounter in their future engineering careers. Alternatively, aerospace engineering curricula should support the development of the critical consciousness required to reflect on the social impact of the field and students’ present and future roles within it. We are addressing this pressing need with integrated research and curriculum development. Our multi-institutional team is composed of aerospace and engineering education research faculty, graduate students in engineering education, undergraduate students in engineering, and practitioners in the aerospace industry. The overarching objective of our design-based research project is to investigate how a macroethical curriculum can be effectively integrated into aerospace engineering science courses. To do this, we ask two research questions to inform the curriculum: RQ1) What are undergraduate students’ current awareness and perceptions of macroethical issues in aerospace engineering?, and RQ2) In what ways do students feel their education is or is not preparing them to address macroethical issues? We also pose a question to assess our curriculum: RQ3) How does the macroethical curriculum impact students’ perceptions and awareness of macroethical issues and their desire to engage with the macroethical implications of their future work? In this poster, we will describe the development and iteration of macroethics lessons in multiple aerospace engineering courses, along with an assessment of the lessons through instructor reflections and quantitative student feedback. We will also describe the development of a survey to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses of students’ awareness and perception of macroethical issues in aerospace engineering. We will also present preliminary results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. 

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