Profiles Jerry Elliott, an American Indian who has taken advantage of both Native American and white cultures to become a successful engineer at NASA. He believes that Native Americans can meet the challenges of a modern world by studying science and engineering without losing their cultural identity and values. (LP)

Introduces a series of six installments on making the transition from a training/instructional design approach to human performance technology (HPT). The first installment topics include defining human performance technology; obstacles to effective HPT; and the necessary role characteristics for trainers performing HPT. (AEF)

Describes the Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars Program, a 10-week internship program for junior and senior undergraduates and first-year graduate students who are pursuing degrees in engineering or science. The program enables participants to conduct research under the supervision of NASA scientists and engineers. Profiles American…

Study investigated psychological and demographic characteristics of men in nontraditional careers like elementary education, comparing them to women in the same fields and men in engineering. Surveys indicated nontraditional career men valued relationship-oriented career components more than did men in engineering. (SM)

Questionnaire data from faculty at six engineering schools were analyzed to determine the role of writing in graduate engineering programs and its implications for the design of writing courses. Faculty attitudes and beliefs about the importance of writing skills, and their practices regarding students' proficiency, are discussed. (36 references)…

Described are the idea of chaos and the ability to control the chaotic behavior of a real-world physical system. Included is an explanation of the methodology and applications in biology and chemistry. (KR)

Described is an integrated framework used to teach engineering, creativity, and management that emulates the working environment of a modern and dynamic engineering organization. This is done through the use of case studies. (KR)

The concept of reengineering is examined as it applies to colleges and universities, with emphasis upon information technology units. Covered are the purposes, principles, and process of reengineering; organizational change; leadership; reengineering the information technology unit; and critical success factors for reengineering higher education.…

Addresses research results and controversies concerning the ergonomic design of computer work stations ranging from the traditional concerns with anthropometric fashions, work posture, and visual performance to the recent considerations about human information processing capacities and awareness of problem-solving strategies. (eight references)…

Outlines the teacher training program developed by the the U.S. Air Force Academy. Focuses on effective teaching methods that maintain the sharp quality of instruction needed to offset any confounding effects resulting from the frequent turnover in the engineering faculty, which is comprised almost entirely of active-duty Air Force officers on…

Presents the geometric, software-ergonomic, and educative standards for interactive graphics systems envisioned for planimetric constructions and calculations in secondary mathematics instruction. Describes the geometric-didactic potentials of the MS DOS-Version 1.6 of CABRI-Gomtre which is an Intelligent Tutoring System with the possibilities for…

A study examined the relationship between second-language skills and academic achievement of 90 Indonesian engineering graduate students in the Netherlands. Results suggest a specific range of proficiency, with upper and lower limits, within which achievement is optimized. Limits of the range may be discipline or even institution-specific.…

Examines conflicting studies which report on the effects of Visual Display Units (VDU) on health. Five aspects of alleged VDU effects are discussed: (1) radiation or emission effects; (2) visual effects; (3) postural effects; (4) effects on the arms and fingers; and (5) ultrasonic noise from scanning components. (36 references) (MAB)

Results of a systematic investigation into university students' (n=236) misunderstandings of d.c. simple circuit operations are reported. These results provide evidence of various misconceptions present before and after teaching the following topics: a battery as a source of constant current; the functional relation expressed by Ohm's law; power…

An attempt to portray the nature of the learning task in university engineering courses is presented. Introductory courses are described first and are then compared to the upper level courses. Emphasis is put on three introductory courses to determine what skills students bring into the introductory course, what the learning task is, and how…