Background: The importance of spatial abilities for individuals' success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains has been well established. Researchers have also emphasized the need to train engineering students in spatial ability. Although virtual reality (VR) offers prospects for training spatial abilities, research…

Background: Promoting engagement and motivation in early engineering experiences is important for fostering interest and retention in engineering. One method that has been effective for doing so is facilitating transformative experiences (TEs), which occurs when students apply academic content to everyday experience. Our goal was to explore the…

Background: There is clear consensus among influential education reports that an expansive range of intrapersonal (e.g., self-regulation) and interpersonal competencies (e.g., empathy) highly influence educational and career success. Research on teaching and learning these competencies is limited in engineering education. Purpose/Hypothesis: This…

Background: Social community may play a role in how successful undergraduate engineering mentoring programs are in increasing diversity, retention rates, and graduation rates. However, there is minimal research about how mentoring programs influence the development of the social community outcomes of connectedness, satisfaction, social capital,…

Background: The flipped classroom has become more widely used in engineering education. However, a systematic and quantitative assessment of its achievement outcomes has not been conducted to date. Purpose: To address this gap, we examined the findings from comparative articles published between 2008 and 2017 through a meta-analysis to summarize…

Background: Over the past decade, there has been a shift in science, technology, engineering and math education, especially in engineering, towards a competency-based pedagogy. Competency-based learning (CBL) is an outcome-based, student-centered form of instruction where students progress to more advanced work upon mastering the necessary…

Background: Since students' success in their first-semester college mathematics course is a key factor in their success in engineering, many summer bridge programs for underrepresented students focus on their preparation in mathematics. However, research on the design and efficacy of such programs is limited. We examine the design and…

Reviews past studies of engineering education and investigates a particular civil engineering curriculum. Findings indicate that, at commencement, an engineer must begin a lifelong process of formal/informal education to supplement knowledge gained in college and obtain skills needed in a professional career. (PVD)

Describes an introductory environmental engineering course that used a semester-long design project, team exercises, field trips and imaginative demonstrations, active learning strategies, and extensive discussions of environmental engineering practice to improve student learning and interest. Students performed well and gave the course good…