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1. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Increasing Diversity and Community Participation to Achieve Environmental and Social Justice

   https://doi.org/10.1089/ees.2020.0148  

   Montoya, Lupita D.; Mendoza, Lorelay M.; Prouty, Christine; Trotz, Maya; Verbyla, Matthew E. (November 2020, Environmental Engineering Science)

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   Communities of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental pollution and by obstacles to influence policies that impact environmental health. Black, Hispanic, and Native American students and faculty are also largely underrepresented in environmental engineering programs in the United States. Nearly 80 participants of a workshop at the 2019 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research and Education Conference developed recommendations for reversing these trends. Workshop participants identified factors for success in academia, which included adopting a broader definition for the impact of research and teaching. Participants also supported the use of community-based participatory research and classroom action research methods in engineering programs for recruiting, retaining, and supporting the transition of underrepresented students into professional and academic careers. However, institutions must also evolve to recognize the academic value of community-based work to enable faculty, especially underrepresented minority faculty, who use it effectively, to succeed in tenure promotions. Workshop discussions elucidated potential causal relationships between factors that influence the co-creation of research related to academic skills, community skills, mutual trust, and shared knowledge. Based on the discussions from this workshop, we propose a pathway for increasing diversity and community participation in the environmental engineering discipline by exposing students to community-based participatory methods, establishing action research groups for faculty, broadening the definition of research impact to improve tenure promotion experiences for minority faculty, and using a mixed methods approach to evaluate its impact. 

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2. Engineering Student Perceptions of Combined Faculty and Peer Academic Performance

   Rodríguez, Y; Angulo, N; Nieto-Wire, C; Varelas, A. (December 2020, The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching 2020. Special Issue 13. UNM Mentoring Institute’s Conference Proceedings 2020. ISSN 2372-9848)

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   There has been a nationwide effort to increase the number, caliber, and diversity of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Research on student development shows that while there is a need, providing financial aid alone is not a sufficient factor for academic success of low-income academically talented college students. Thus, Hostos Community College has recently created the NSF-funded Hostos Engineering Academic Talent (HEAT) Scholarship Program which offers its scholars financial support and experience with a combined mentoring model where students work with faculty and peers during the academic year. This research then systematically investigated the impact of a combined faculty- and peer-mentorship approach with a population not yet studied, undergraduate STEM students at minority-serving community colleges. Preliminary data indicates that the combined mentoring approach has positive effects on scholar’s academic performance and STEM identity. The findings are expected to be generalizable to other populations, and hence provide an opportunity to expand the combined mentorship model to other STEM programs at a variety of institutions whose students could benefit from its implementation. 

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3. Innovative Learning Strategies to Engage Students Cognitively

   Aji, Chadia A.; Khan, Javed M. (July 2020, 2020 ASEE National Conference)

   The role of cognitive engagement in promoting deep learning is well established. This deep learning fosters attributes of success such as self-efficacy, motivation and persistence. However, the traditional chalk-and-talk teaching and learning environment is not conducive to engage students cognitively. The biggest impediment to implementing an environment for deep learning such as active-learning is the limited duration of a typical class period most of which is consumed by lecturing. In this paper, best practices and strategies for cognitive engagement of students in the classroom are discussed. Several lower level math and aerospace engineering courses were redesigned and offered during the academic year at a historically black university. The learning strategies in these redesigned courses included the “flipped” pedagogical model which allowed the integration of the active-learning strategy in the classroom. The research study is to determine the impact of these redesigned courses on student academic performance and persistence in STEM courses. The efficacy of the design of the flipped approach was also investigated. A between-group quasi-experimental research design was used for comparing student academic performance in traditional classroom (control group) and redesigned classroom (intervention group). A within-subject, repeated measures design was also used to assess the impact on the students’ self-regulated learning. A validated instrument was used to measure the effect of the redesigned learning environment on the motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning. Data on the academic performance of the students were collected. Analyses of these data indicated a significant impact on student academic performance. A positive change in student motivation and self-regulated learning was observed. Data analysis also validated the design of the intervention. This research is supported by NSF Grant# 1712156. 

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4. Investigating Factors that Predict Academic Success in Engineering and Computer Science

   Adesope, O.; Sunday, O.J.; Ewumi, E.R.; Minichiello, A.; Asghar, M.; Claiborn, C.S. (July 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference)

   Over the years, researchers have found that student engagement facilitates desired academic success outcomes for college undergraduate students. Much research on student engagement has focused on academic tasks and classroom context. High impact engagement practices (HIEP) have been shown to be effective for undergraduate student academic success. However, less is known about the effects of HIEP specifically on engineering and computer science (E/CS) student outcomes. Given the high attrition rates for E/CS students, student involvement in HIEP could be effective in improving student outcomes for E/CS students, including those from various underrepresented groups. More generally, student participation in specific HIEP activities has been shown to shape their everyday experiences in school, both academically and socially. Hence, the primary goal of this study is to examine the factors that predict academic success in E/CS using multiple regression analysis. Specifically, this study seeks to understand the effects of high impact engagement practices (HIEP), coursework enjoyability, confidence at completing a degree on academic success of the underrepresented and nontraditional E/CS students. We used exploratory factor analyses to derive “academic success” variable from five items that sought to measure how students persevere to attain academic goals. A secondary goal of the present study is to address the gap in research literature concerning how participation in HIEP affects student persistence and success in E/CS degree programs. Our research team developed and administered an online survey to investigate and identify factors that affect participation in HIEP among underrepresented and nontraditional E/CS students. Respondents (N = 531) were students enrolled in two land grant universities in the Western U.S. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the proportion of the variation in the dependent variable (academic success) explained by the independent variables (i.e., high impact engagement practice (HIEP), coursework enjoyability, and confidence at completing a degree). We hypothesized that (1) high impact engagement practices will predict academic success; (2) coursework enjoyability will predict academic success; and (3) confidence at completing a degree will predict academic success. Results showed that the multiple regression model statistically predicted academic success , F(3, 270) = 33.064, p = .001, adjusted R2 = .27. This results indicate that there is a linear relationship in the population and the multiple regression model is a good fit for the data. Further, findings show that confidence at completing a degree is significantly predictive of academic success. In addition, coursework enjoyability is a strong predictor of academic success. Specifically, the result shows that an increase in high impact engagement activity is associated with an increase in students’ academic success. In sum, these findings suggest that student participation in High Impact Engagement Practices might improve academic success and course retention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. 

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5. Ruminations on the NSF Broader Impacts Criterion: A Dialogue with Academic Researchers and Broader Impacts Professionals

   https://doi.org/10.54656/jces.v17i2.616  

   Telliel, Yunus Doğan; Chen, Katherine C (November 2024, Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship)

   The National Science Foundation, a United States federal agency supporting STEM research, puts special emphasis on research impacts in society, and requires each funded research project to have “broader impacts” outside of conventional academic scholarship. As “broader impacts” have become an important part of the STEM research landscape in the U.S., most academic researchers need guidance and support in their broader impact plans. Focusing on a mid-size STEM-focused university, our research identified three major areas that matter to academic researchers: (1) autonomy of the researcher and non-prescriptive nature of broader impacts, (2) impact identity and personal connection to broader impacts, and (3) a critical engagement with diversity and inclusion in research and education. Combining these findings with a broader impacts professional’s reflections, we examine the ways in which broader impacts resources such as the ARIS Toolkit can assist academic researchers. We argue that by constructing dialogues between faculty researchers and broader impacts professionals, the research culture in the U.S. can turn into an ecosystem that supports meaningful, inclusive, and transformative STEM practices. 

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