Gifted students need a form of special education through extracurricular and learning experiences because they have extraordinary potential in terms of intelligence, creativity, social and mentality, compared to other students. This study aims to investigate various teaching and learning approaches designed for gifted students, and to constitute…

Background: Cognitive style has been shown to influence the number, type, and organization of an individual's ideas. Concept maps are used regularly to assess students' organization and mastery of knowledge (their cognitive level) in engineering courses, yet very few studies have analyzed concept maps with respect to cognitive style.…

This study aims to compare and evaluate the learning ability and performance differences between two groups of students undergoing project-based learning (PjBL), with one group having prior PjBL experience, while the other group is being freshly exposed to PjBL. More specifically, it examines if there are significant differences in knowledge…

Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB) is a nonprofit organization that partners student chapters with communities in fundamental need of potable water, clean air, sanitation, irrigation, energy, basic structures for schools and clinics, roads and bridges, etc. While EWB projects may vary in complexity, they are all realistic, ill-structured and…

This article focuses on how technology educators can challenge students to "think" about technical problems. A key aspect of success in quality problem solving is understanding learning preferences and problem-solving approaches. The Learning Style Inventory (LSI) can be used to assess an individual's ideal way to learn, in essence, a…

With the rise of e-Learning in engineering education, understanding the impact of individual differences on the ways students communicate and collaborate on-line has become increasingly important. The research described here investigates the influence of cognitive style on the interactions within student social networks in an on-line learning…

In this paper, we integrate organizational, engineering education, and educational learning literature to develop a model of student learning so as to research how learning style, behavioral tendencies, gender, and race have the potential to act as facilitators or barriers to the learning process. We argue that the gains in higher-order cognitive…

We analyze and study the beginning of a new Electrical Engineering Department, supported by an NSF Departmental Level Reform award, within a new College of Engineering in the 21st Century and also describe the academic approach and influences of an innovative cognitive-based approach to curriculum development. In addition, the approach taken…

Since the publication of the Standards for Technological Literacy in 2000 (ITEA), there have been a number of new programs developed that are designed to teach pre-engineering. Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is one such program. Project Lead the Way boasts serving over 1250 schools in 44 states and teaching over 160,000 students. Another program is…

Students of the Problem-Solving Project Group report on the results of a two-year study of how they solve problems. (BB)

Recent studies on how students solve problems are summarized and suggestions are made of how engineering teachers can apply this information. (BB)

Describes a method of teaching problem-solving to engineering undergraduates at Coventry (Lancaster) Polytechnic. The teaching model, which consists of a series of component activities, employs a methodological approach to problem-solving in the area of engineering design. Applications of the model to other forms of problem-solving are briefly…

This study investigated students' conceptual and procedural understanding of calculus within the context of an engineering mechanics course. Four traditional calculus students were compared with three students from one of the calculus reform projects, Calculus & Mathematica. Task-based interviews were conducted with each participant throughout…

Describes an attempt on the part of an engineering faculty to develop problem-solving skills in its undergraduate students. It includes a course description in problem solving. (SA)

Discusses the use of computer-assisted programs that allow chemical engineering students to study textbook thermodynamics problems from different perspectives, including the classical graphical method, while utilizing more than one property correlation and/or operation model so that comparisons can be made and sensitivities determined more…