Applications in engineering, science and technology within undergraduate programmes can be difficult for students to understand. In this paper, new results are presented which go some way to demonstrate and explain the problems faced by students in linking mathematical models to real-world applications. The study is based on student responses to…

This paper reports on a collaboration between three authors; two mathematicians in a Swedish university and a UK-based mathematics educator. The focus of the enquiry was the evaluation of the experience of Swedish first-year undergraduate engineers required, in their mathematics class, to learn to use the programming language "Matlab". Students…

Odense University College of Engineering has begun a revision of all curricula founded on the principle that student learning is the main objective of teaching. At the same time there is a large demand for increasing efficiency and increasing the possibility of professional development of staff. Development of staff should be possible by…

This article reports on research into the student experience of learning through discussions in a third-year undergraduate engineering subject. Information engineering students studying e-commerce were required to engage in face-to-face and online discussions as a key aspect of their learning experience. This study investigates the quality of the…

This laboratory experiment was designed for Chemistry, Food Technology, Biology, and Chemical Engineering undergraduate students. This laboratory experience shows the advantages of immobilized bakery yeasts in ethanol production by alcoholic fermentation. The students were able to compare the ethanol production yields by free or calcium alginate…

There is continuing concern about the low enrolment of students on to some undergraduate science courses, especially physics. Here we explore some of the reasons that might underpin this. The views about physics and biology of Year 1 undergraduate students on English, physics and biology programmes of study were compared using a closed-form…

This paper presents the metaphor of engineering and the social sciences located on either side of a chasm and connected by the bridge of information geography. Information geography is not an integral part of engineering and is a new field within geography, a social science discipline. The specialty of information geography is one of the newest in…

The field of tissue engineering/regenerative medicine combines the quantitative principles of engineering with the principles of the life sciences toward the goal of reconstituting structurally and functionally normal tissues and organs. There has been relatively little application of tissue engineering efforts toward the organs of speech, voice,…

A series of studies were conducted to investigate students' metacognitive development in a second year chemical engineering course. The first of these was an exploratory study involving observation together with some limited interviewing. This was followed by a major study with two phases, the first of which involved a series of individual…

This book, written by authors representing 12 countries and five continents, is a collection of international perspectives on distance learning and distance learning implementations in higher education. The perspectives are presented in the form of practical case studies of distance learning implementations, research studies on teaching and…

This report provides a summarized version of a larger study conducted by the Office of Technology Assessment concerning the choices that Congress and the executive branch must make in supporting U.S. science and engineering. The summary first discusses the report's origins; trends in federal research funding; and a look at federally funded…

This report analyzes what the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) identifies as four pressing challenges for the Federal Research System in resource allocation and funding for research in the 1990s: (1) setting priorities in funding; (2) understanding trends in research expenditures; (3) preparing human resources for the future research work…

The eight working papers presented in this compendium were prepared for the National Science Foundation (NSF) as one means to assist the Office of Science and Technology Policy with preparation of the Administration's Annual Science and Technology Report to the Congress, 1981. They focus on specific aspects of three central themes directly related…

The number of undergraduate credit hours taken in the sciences, engineering, and engineering technology, and in four major humanities fields (English, history, modern languages, and philosophy) for the fall semester, 1980-1981 was studied, based on a survey of 65 colleges and universities that are members of the American Council on Education's…

Information on the placement status of 1980 engineering and technology graduates is presented. At the doctoral degree level, the percentage without job offers or other firm plans was lower than in 1979. The bachelor's degree level experienced a one percentage point reduction in the number of graduates employed as of graduation compared to 1979,…