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Identity, or how people choose to define themselves, is gaining traction as an explanation for who pursues and persists in engineering. A number of quantitative studies have developed scales for predicting engineering identity in undergraduate students. However, the outcome measure of identity is sometimes based on a single item. In this paper, we present the results of a new two-item scale. The scale is adapted from an existing measure of identification with an organization that was developed by Bergami and Bagozzi [1] and refined by Bartel [2]. The measure focuses on the “cognitive (i.e., self-categorization) component of identification” (p. 556), and has been found to have high convergent validity with another, rigorous measure of identification with an organization or other entity created by Mael and Ashforth [3]. This measure utilizes one primarily visual and one verbal item to assess the extent to which an individual cognitively categorizes himself or herself as an engineer. The scale was administered to 1528 engineering undergraduate students during the 2016-2017 academic year. Internal consistency of the new engineering identity scale, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, is 0.84. This new scale is an important step toward refining quantitative measures of, and the study of, engineering identity development in undergraduate students and other populations. 

https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/65340 

https://peer.asee.org/27502 

Observations of individual massive stars, super-luminous supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and gravitational wave events involving spectacular black hole mergers indicate that the low-metallicity Universe is fundamentally different from our own Galaxy. Many transient phenomena will remain enigmatic until we achieve a firm understanding of the physics and evolution of massive stars at low metallicity (Z). TheHubbleSpace Telescope has devoted 500 orbits to observing ∼250 massive stars at lowZin the ultraviolet (UV) with the COS and STIS spectrographs under the ULLYSES programme. The complementary X-Shooting ULLYSES (XShootU) project provides an enhanced legacy value with high-quality optical and near-infrared spectra obtained with the wide-wavelength coverage X-shooter spectrograph at ESO’s Very Large Telescope. We present an overview of the XShootU project, showing that combining ULLYSES UV and XShootU optical spectra is critical for the uniform determination of stellar parameters such as effective temperature, surface gravity, luminosity, and abundances, as well as wind properties such as mass-loss rates as a function ofZ. As uncertainties in stellar and wind parameters percolate into many adjacent areas of astrophysics, the data and modelling of the XShootU project is expected to be a game changer for our physical understanding of massive stars at lowZ. To be able to confidently interpretJames WebbSpace Telescope spectra of the first stellar generations, the individual spectra of low-Zstars need to be understood, which is exactly where XShootU can deliver. 

ISBN 9781510849419 

Identity, or how people choose to define themselves, is emerging as an attractive explanation for who persists in engineering. Many studies of engineering identity build off of prior work in math and science identity, emphasizing the academic aspects of engineering. However, affect towards professional practice is also central to engineering identity development. This paper describes the methods used to create a new survey measure of individuals’ affect toward elements of engineering practice. We followed the item generation, refinement, and instrument validation steps required for psychometric validation of a new survey measure. We generated items deductively using the literature on engineering professional skills and practice and inductively based on interviews with practicing engineers, engineering graduate students, and engineering undergraduate students. We blended the inductively and deductively derived item lists to create a list of initial items for the measure. We circulated this list of items to a set of engineering and professional identity experts to establish face validity and made modifications based on their feedback. The final list included 34 items. These 34 items were administered in a questionnaire survey in the fall of 2016 to 1465 engineering undergraduates in three majors at two institutions. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and established internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha on a subset of the analytical sample data (n=384). The resulting factors fit our a priori assumption of the factors theorized to characterize affect towards engineering professional practice. Using the remaining data (n=904), we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the reduced set of items resulting from EFA. The results indicate an emergent factor structure for affect towards elements of engineering practice. 

Identity, or how people choose to define themselves, is emerging as an explanation for who pursues and persists in engineering. Recent developments in the study of engineering identity, including studies of math and science identity, tend to emphasize the academic aspects of engineering without considering aspects of professional practice central to the development of an engineering identity. This paper outlines the methods used to create a new survey measure: affect toward elements of engineering practice. We followed the item generation, refinement, and instrument validation steps required for psychometric validation of a new survey measure. Through this process a final list of 34 items was administered in a survey in the fall of 2016 to engineering undergraduates. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis and established internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha on a subset of the data sample (n=384). The resulting factors reflect key elements of affect towards engineering professional practice.