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One intervention thought to foster women’s interest in engineering is introducing girls to STEM or engineering activities. The argument for this is that an increase in interest early in their lives will lead to more women pursuing a career in engineering. The focus of our research is women who are thriving as undergraduate student leaders in engineering project teams. We employ a multi-case study method that involves a sequence of semi-structured interviews. This paper speaks to the findings derived from the life history interview where participants describe their early lives and pre-college education. Our inductive thematic analysis of the data indicates that: (1) The women’s early familial influences allowed non-gender defined ways of being, doing, and aspiring for trying new things. (2) This re/definition of gender in relation to self is reinforced by their success in school and through their accomplishments in other extracurricular activities. Those activities were not confined or even heavily weighted toward STEM. (3) Not all of the women assumed leadership roles throughout their K-12 schooling. Nevertheless, what is common is that through academic and extracurricular engagements they developed confidence, a “can-do” attitude, and a rejection of viewing failures as defining indicators of their ability or potential. Their self-awareness, their confidence, and their persistence in the face of failure are critical because they later function as counter-narratives in the women’s encounters with sexism and other forms of marginalization when in engineering and their project teams. Finally, there is some evidence to suggest that encouraging young girls to involve themselves in STEM and/or engineering may be counterproductive. By unintentionally “pushing” these young girls into engineering, rather than “allowing them to choose for themselves,” we may be encouraging the adoption of masculinist gendered roles associated with engineering. 

Despite considerable gains made towards increasing students interest in STEM education, one specific population, Veterans in engineering, suffers from disproportionally high attrition. Social responsibility (SR) is one motivating factor for becoming an engineer and was identified as a successful intervention strategy to improve retention of first-year engineering students. SR is also a core value instilled by all branches of the U.S. military while actively serving. Therefore, the objective of this research study was to examine Veterans’ perceptions of SR as it related to engineering. For this study, a survey instrument was designed, piloted, revised, and launched for instrument validation and exploratory examination if a relationship between SR and Veteran students’ core beliefs existed. Results of this study showed that both Veteran and first-year non-Veteran students strongly value the tenants of SR. The results of this study indicate the potential for curriculum and policy changes to increase Veteran retention in engineering programs. 

This research addresses the global initiative to increase diversity in the engineering work force. The military Veteran student population was identified as one of the most diverse student groups in engineering; however, discontinue and dismissal rates of Veteran students in engineering are significantly higher than traditional engineering students in the United States. These Veteran students hold identifiable traits that are different than traditional engineering students who are under the age of 24 and financially dependent on their parents. While great leaps have been made in engineering student retention, most has focused on these traditional students. This research seeks to fill this gap by specifically addressing the retention of Veteran students using the concept of social responsibility. Social responsibility is generally considered to be acting to benefit society. It is a common ideal promoted in the military (e.g., service before self in the U.S. Air Force fundamental and enduring values). It is also embodied in the engineer’s creed (i.e., engineers using their professional skills to improve human welfare) and revealed by the literature as a major factor that attracts many students from historically underrepresented groups into engineering. Therefore, the objective of this research is to explore the associations between Veteran student retention, social responsibility, and demographics. A survey instrument was developed based on a model for assessing first-year engineering student understanding of social responsibility. The survey was updated to include demographics specific to the Veteran student cohort (e.g., military branch, prior job attributes, and university transfer credits) and questions specifically linking military service and engineering. The survey was piloted, followed by a focus group to clarify survey questions; it was then revised and launched in October 2018 to all students who self-identify as Veterans and all first-year students in the college of engineering at a 4-year land grant institution. Approximately 48% of the Veteran student cohort and 52% of the first-year cohort responded to the survey. This paper will discuss the Veteran and first-year student perceptions of social responsibility in engineering based on results from the instrument. The results of this research will be used to design an intervention, likely in the first-year when most Veteran students discontinue or are dismissed, to increase Veteran retention in engineering programs. 

The objective of this research is to determine the fundamental mechanisms that cause loss of topsoil. Claypan soils cover approximately 10 million acres in the United States and are characterized by a highly impermeable layer below the topsoil. This impermeable layer acts as a barrier for infiltrating water which may be increasing the erosion rate and sediment transport of upper soil layers. This increasing topsoil depletion ultimately limits the productive capacity of agronomic fields. This study focuses on the undermining of the topsoil due to the impermeable claypan layer in Southeastern Kansas where the topsoil depth is limited and, in places, the claypan layer is exposed at the surface. Using LiDAR-derived digital elevation maps, the potential areas of critical soil loss and hydrologic flow patterns is determined. Surface soil apparent electrical conductivity (EC) measurements highlight the soil variability throughout the field. Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) surveys is also performed to determine the depth to the claypan layer in low and high crop yield areas. The results indicate that the areas of high EC correlated with high clay content and low crop yield, while areas of low EC correlated with high crop yield. The results also indicate that the claypan layer in the low crop yield area is 1.0 m thick and significantly thins once reaching the high crop yield area. The next phase of this ongoing research is to measure the soil properties between the low and high crop yield areas, measure the movement of water at the claypan interface, and measure sediment transport at the claypan interface.