This column presents ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue shares information on how students' everyday experiences can support science learning through engineering design. In this article, the authors outline a reverse-engineering model of instruction and describe one example of how it looked in our fifth-grade…

Co-curricular and extracurricular involvement plays important roles in students' cognitive and effective development, educational effectiveness and satisfaction, and sense of belonging. Moreover, these practices can help equip a diverse population with the academic and professional skills necessary to succeed in the technological workforce. Yet…

This article is the first of a two-part series about Engineering for All (EfA), a $1.7M National Science Foundation-funded project, which introduces middle school students to engineering, not only as a career path, but as an endeavor with potential for doing social good. Engineering for All opens students' eyes to the role engineers play in…

The last two decades have witnessed a revival of research interest in the Cold War, and on science during the Cold War, from a revised social theoretic perspective. Part of this reframing is evident in explorations of the relationship underpinning the Cold War discourse and modernisation theory. Drawing on this new turn, this article switches the…

This study investigates how students can use "interactive example models" in inquiry activities to develop their conceptual knowledge about an engineering phenomenon like electromagnetic fields and waves. An interactive model, for example a computational model, could be used to develop and teach principles of dynamic complex systems, and…

This dissertation study explores the experiences of 11 undergraduate women in a variety of engineering majors graduating from a Southern, research, predominately White institution and the use of theory to understand those experiences. While narrative inquiry is used throughout, this dissertation study is organized into three separate papers. The…

Women continue to be underrepresented in computer science and technology related fields despite their significant contributions. The lack of diversity in technology related fields is problematic as it can result in the perpetuation of negative stereotypes and closed-minded, unchecked biases. As technology tools become integral to our daily lives…

In just a short time, mobile devices have revolutionized the way we access information and interact with each other. With an ever expanding list of sensors and features, these devices are also capable of reshaping our experiences with physical systems. Prior efforts to explore this potential of mobile devices have often considered traditional user…

Robotic telepresence is a growing strategy for enabling participants to join with colleagues even when the pilot of the robot cannot be physically present (Bower, 2015). In this paper, we describe our research that studies robotic telepresence in undergraduate engineering education, and specifically in the case when there are physical objects that…

The underrepresentation of Black men in engineering graduate programs contributes to the low numbers of Black faculty members, and in general, role models who could teach and inspire future generations of students in STEM. Addressing this national concern requires stakeholders to identify prevailing obstacles such as racial microaggressions, and…

Background: It is increasingly acknowledged that technical expertise is not sufficient for engineers today, given the complex intercultural global contexts in which they are required to work. This article, therefore, examines how the concept of culture is typically operationalized in engineering education and discusses possible reasons for this…

Background: Louisiana State University's (LSU) STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) was established to increase students' persistence in first-year, declared engineering majors (a project priority), in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors (an NSF goal), and in all majors at LSU (an institutional goal). Over 8 years, 3,097 (27%)…

Background: There is a need to find ways of productively engaging K-12 students with engineering design. I investigate a new class of physical models, referred to as Improvable Models, as scaffolds for helping middle school students productively engage in engineering design practices. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study is to answer two…

Background: In recent years, technological innovation and entrepreneurship have been emphasized in engineering education. There is a need to better understand which individual- and contextual-level factors are related to engineering students' entrepreneurial intentions. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study explores individual and contextual predictors…

Background: Pipeline and pathways models influence persistence metrics used to study how students navigate engineering education. Purpose: This study presents pipeline, pathways, and ecosystem models and their associated metrics, compares and contrasts these models using an intersectional approach to explore persistence, and advocates for use of…