In this study we explored the experiences of students who completed a project-based, interdisciplinary capstone course that was offered at a large university in Southern Ontario, Canada. To do so, we interviewed students after they completed the course, adopting a constructivist perspective and a phenomenological approach. Interview transcripts…

Despite best efforts, the student experience remains poorly understood. One under-explored approach to understanding the student experience is the use of big data analytics. The reported study is a work in progress aimed at exploring the value of big data methods for understanding the student experience. A big data analysis of an open dataset of…

This paper deals with an integration of STEM education and project-based learning (PBL) by introducing a hybrid hardware/software-based learning platform covering eight learning units. PBL not only bridges the gap between theory and practice, but also focuses on improving students' soft skills, which is important as they prepare for further…

The pandemic has had a major effect on engineering education, transforming both current and future teaching practice. The physical meetings between student and teacher have during the pandemic been replaced by online contact and recordings of lectures and demonstrations. In this paper, the focus is on computer aided design (CAD) teaching for…

Background: Mental health issues reported among college-aged individuals have increased. Prevalence of these issues has an established impact on students' personal, professional, and academic outcomes. Graduate students experience unique stressors that impact their mental health. In particular, engineering graduate students have lower help-seeking…

For successful technology adaptation today, individuals need not so much acquired experience and knowledge as certain personality traits in the form of skills, competencies, and abilities for collaborative problem solving, as well as achievement motivation and self-development. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model for the…

This study examined how 10 Latinx students perceived their sense of belonging in engineering programs. Drawing upon Strayhorn's definition of sense of belonging, we sought to understand the experiences and individuals that facilitated Latinx students' connections to their engineering programs and to the larger campus community at a 4-year…

We report on the study of student difficulties regarding a heat engine in the context of a Stirling cycle by the method of measurement. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken by three classes, and the students were asked to perform one of the most basic activities--calculate the efficiency of the heat engine. Our…

The new transdisciplinary nature of industrial product design should be appropriately addressed by post-secondary institutions and engineering schools in their curricula to ensure high quality of engineering design education and its applicability to industrial demands. To achieve this, a new transdisciplinary teaching methodology is required. This…

While the importance of school-to-work transitions is increasingly recognised, little research has examined the roles that gender plays in those transitions. This is a problem because of the higher rates of attrition of newcomer women engineers than newcomer men engineers. To address that gap in research, this article addresses the questions:…

Contribution: This article explores the factors favoring the enrollment in engineering studies in Spain, analyzing gender differences. Background: Understanding the motivation of choosing engineering studies is very important in order to strengthen this choice in future promotions in Spain, considering that it is well below the average of the…

During the SARS-2-COVID pandemic our institution sought to continue the teaching and learning of experimental laboratories by designing, assembling, and delivering a microscale chemistry kit to the students' homes. Thanks to this approach students were able to perform [approximately]25 experiments during each one of the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021…

Background: The National Science Foundation (NSF) and other organizations have spent millions of dollars each year supporting well-designed educational innovations that positively impact the undergraduate engineering students who encounter them. However, many of these pedagogical innovations never experience widespread adoption. To further the…

This study employed four waves of Institute of Education Sciences nationally representative data to investigate changes in K-12 technology and engineering education teachers in terms of demographics, qualifications, and service loads over time through the 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Surveys and the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 National…

This study uses the Education Longitudinal Survey of 2002 (ELS:2002) to examine how varying levels of intention (planning) and action (choice) in pursuing a science-based major affect American college students' degree attainment in Science and Engineering (S&E) fields by age 26. The study is guided by the Social Cognitive Career Theory's…