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1. WIP: Investigation of Recruitment Communication Channels and Student Awareness of an Engineering Bridge Program via Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

   Zhang, Xinyu; Wang, Li; Michaluk, Lynette; Hensel, Robin A; Perez, Isabel; Hammond, Clayton S; Bush, Ian; Cao, Ryan G. (July 2023, Peer.asee.org)

   The Academy of Engineering Success (AcES), a summer bridge program for incoming first-time freshmen (FTF) engineering students at West Virginia University (WVU), faced challenges in recruiting underserved students for years. To address this issue, research was conducted via a collaboration among faculty in engineering and business, with support from an undergraduate researcher and faculty in the Center for Excellence in STEM Education. A mixed methods study using surveys and interviews was designed to assess recruitment communication channels and student awareness of AcES and another university-level trip-based summer program to explore any misalignment and propose suggestions to improve future recruitment of diverse students. Results from 91 survey responses and 2 interviews are discussed. This paper also describes how cross-disciplinary non-tenure track faculty collaborated on engineering education research. 

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2. Engineering technology, anthropology, and business: Reflections of graduate student researchers in the pursuit of transdisciplinary learning

   Martinez, R; Lucas, D (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Education)

   To pursue transdisciplinary education, bringing together different disciplinary perspectives is necessary. As two graduate researchers, in engineering technology and anthropology, on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education research project, we want to embody and explore our role in the journey to pursue transdisciplinary education. Our familiarity with higher education as students, our different disciplinary backgrounds and lived experiences, and our training as an engineering technology educator and a social scientist contribute greatly to the advancement of understanding the project. Harnessing our combined expertise enables us to see collaborative co-teaching, group learning, and student engagement in new ways. Often transdisciplinary education research is approached from siloed disciplines or from a single perspective and not inclusive of graduate students' perspectives. We find ourselves working on a collaborative cross-college project between three different colleges, Business, Engineering Technology, and Liberal Arts, where faculty and students are co-teaching and co-learning in a series of design and innovation courses. A key element of this project is gathering and using stakeholder data from students, faculty, and administrators. Midway through our three-year project, the NSF project’s external reviewer highlighted the crucial value added of having graduate researchers looking at transforming higher education towards transdisciplinarity. With that in mind, we offer some guiding thoughts about collaborative research among graduate students and faculty from different academic disciplines. This includes tips on how we collaborated in coding, analysis, and data presentations. Using project examples, we will discuss how we used tools for collaboration such as NVivo Teams and Microsoft Teams; these platforms aided in contributing to the iterative research design of this project and research outputs. Our process was strengthened by active participation in project meetings with faculty, educational community events, and data review sessions to reach data consensus. We have noticed how transdisciplinarity can transform undergraduate learning and encourage cross-college faculty collaboration. We will reflect on the significance of collaboration at all levels of higher education. Furthermore, this experience has set us on the path to becoming transdisciplinary scholars ourselves. 

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3. The Impact of a Multidisciplinary Service-Learning Project on Engineering Knowledge and Professional Skills in Engineering and Education Students.

   Ringleb, S. I. (June 2023, ASEE New England annual conference)

   A multidisciplinary service-learning project that involved teaching engineering to fourth and fifth graders was implemented in three sets of engineering and education classes to determine if there was an impact on engineering knowledge and teamwork skills in both the engineering and education students as well as persistence in the engineering students. Collaboration 1 paired a 100-level engineering Information Literacy class in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a 300-level Educational Foundation class. Collaboration 2 combined a 300-level Electromechanical Systems class in Mechanical Engineering with a 400-level Educational Technology class. Collaboration 3 paired a 300-level Fluid Mechanics class in Mechanical Engineering Technology with a 400-level Elementary Science Methods class. Collaborations 1 and 3 interacted with fourth or fifth graders by developing and delivering lessons to the elementary students. Students in collaboration 2 worked with fifth graders in an after-school technology club. While each collaboration had its unique elements, all collaborations included the engineering design process both in classroom instruction and during the service learning project. Quantitative data were collected from both engineering and education students in a pretest/posttest design. Teamwork skills were measured in engineering students using a validated teamwork skills assessment based on peer evaluation. Each class had a comparison class taught by the same instructor that included a team project, and the same quantitative measures. Engineering students who participated in collaboration 1 were evaluated for retention, which was defined as students who were still enrolled in the college of engineering and technology two semesters after completion of the course. Engineering students also completed an evaluation of academic and professional persistence. For the engineering students, none of the assessments involving technical skills had significant differences, although the design process knowledge tests trended upward in the treatment classes. The preservice teachers in the treatment group scored significantly higher in the design process knowledge test, and preservice teachers in collaborations 1 and 3 had higher scores in the engineering knowledge test than the comparison group. Teamwork skills in the treatment group were significantly higher than in the comparison group for both engineering and education students. Thus, engineering and education students in the treatment groups saw gains in teamwork skills, while education students saw more gains in engineering knowledge. Finally, all engineering students had significantly higher professional persistence. 

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4. Interdisciplinary Convergence in Robotics and Autonomous Systems

   Dutta, Prashanta; Seo, Soobin; Probst, Tahira; Hewa, Joseph M (June 2024, ASEE)

   While the demand for interdisciplinary knowledge is undeniable, there are formidable challenges when offering graduate education to Engineering students. To address that, we designed an educational research project that delves into the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Trainee (NRT) program for engineering students studying robotics and autonomous systems. This newly funded NRT program aims to train next-generation scientists and engineers with professional skills through interdisciplinary courses such as leadership, business, and psychology in addition to cutting-edge technical knowledge in the field. We are using retrospective surveys and content analysis to identify student experience with interdisciplinary training and education programs. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis evidenced an increased level of confidence in soft skills such as interdisciplinary understanding, communication, and collaboration skills throughout participating in the interdisciplinary NRT program. 

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5. Design Sketching: A Newfound Skill

   Kelley, T.; Chandler, T.; Lu, T. (October 2022, Technology and engineering teacher)

   Sketching is an excellent brainstorming approach that improves students’ 21st century skills including critical-thinking, communication, and, when working in teams, collaboration. The purpose of the article is to translate the teaching of design sketching, learned through collaborative design & innovation programming at the higher education level, to the K-12 engineering and technology classroom. 

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