This full paper concerns an exploratory study that investigates students' reasoning about torsion. Mechanical reasoning is critical to engineering applications and yet students still struggle to accurately predict, analyze, and model mechanical systems using formal symbolic notations (i.e., formalizations). To understand the nature of students'…

Community colleges have a strong history of providing vocational education and occupational training to meet changing workforce demands of local industries. In the Midwest, agricultural industries have expressed an expanding need for middle-skilled workers with postsecondary, pre-baccalaureate credentials. The 21st century agricultural landscape…

This longitudinal trend study sought to compare the perceptions of preservice agricultural education teachers, enrolled in a Metals and Welding course at a land grant university, on their welding related skills at the beginning of the semester to their final course grade at the end of the semester. Preservice agriculture teachers (N = 240) who…

This paper describes a multidisciplinary teaching program, designed to provide students with the broad knowledge and skills required to practice product development in robotics and mechatronics. The curriculum was designed to prepare students for the senior capstone design project, in which they design and build a working mechatronic/robotic…

To identify the most important competencies for college graduates to succeed in the 21st century workforce, we conducted an analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. O*NET is a large job analysis operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor. We specifically analyzed ratings of the importance of abilities (52…