This paper describes the combination of problem-based learning (PBL) and simulation tools in the chemical engineering unit operation laboratory course, focusing on heat transfer concepts using a shell-and-tube heat exchanger experiment. This approach has significantly enhanced student learning outcomes by bridging theory with practice, fostering a…

Background: Collaboration--including coordination, communication, and teamwork--is crucial to engineering practice. However, engineering students are often perceived as lacking key collaboration skills at the time of graduation. Purpose: We used structuration theory to explore how differences between students and practitioners' collaboration…

The design process is full of judgment, especially around successes and failures that occur through each iteration. Decisions about how to proceed when ideas do not work can be especially challenging for beginning designers. Yet, experts are able to demonstrate more natural regulation of the process. This research focused on the experiences of…

This paper explores the impact of sessions with sophomore biomedical engineering students at an R1 university focused on individualized talent discovery and development to create effective teams of contributing individuals and future professionals. The rationale was that the identification and exploration of individual strengths early in the…

While team learning within engineering classrooms has been studied, minimal work has been done examining out-of-classroom collaboration to complete individual deliverables. However, such informal peer collaboration (IPC) is common among engineering undergraduates, and some evidence exists that low levels of IPC are associated with poorer learning…

Purpose: Biomedical engineers that have the ability and skill sets to comprehend and retain basic anatomy and physiology (A&P) knowledge, apply fundamental engineering principles, use critical thinking, and communicate effectively across multiple disciplines to facilitate successful development and clinical translation of medical devices. The…

Background: Even among women who persist in the gender-imbalanced engineering fields, women on engineering design teams tend to take on non-technical roles. Understanding the mechanisms that inform this phenomenon is important for encouraging more women in STEM in order to close the gender gap. Although factors such as self-efficacy, task…

Background: Implementing maker education in schools is on the rise, fuelled by its potential to move formal education towards a creative, technology-driven 21st century learning culture. In maker education, collaborative learning takes place through and around various digital and traditional technologies, which provide the means for students'…

Background: Although most engineering colleges offer a variety of co-curricular and extracurricular activities to enrich students' sense of belonging to the college, existing literature has not fully captured whether and how the various activities serve to support students' sense of belonging and predict student outcomes. Purpose: We investigated…

This study contributes to team science and competency development by comparing demonstrated teamwork skills by engineering students participating in disciplinary and cross-disciplinary team projects. Teamwork skills are key competencies necessary to solve complex technical challenges in the workplace. Despite prior efforts to enhance these…

Cultivating a sense of belonging can be challenging in online contexts as well as for underrepresented students in engineering education. This study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory design to understand underrepresented students' experiences in a Canadian first-year course. Taking place during remote delivery due to COVID-19, we…