Past work has demonstrated that language comprehension ability correlates with general chemistry course performance with medium effect sizes. We demonstrate here that language comprehension's strong cognitive grounding can be used to inform effective and equitable pedagogies, namely, instructional interventions that differentially aid low-skilled…

Expanding access to engineering for underrepresented groups has by and large focused on ethnicity/race and gender, with little understanding of socioeconomic disadvantages. In this study, we use economic, human, and cultural capital theories to frame and then describe access to undergraduate engineering degree programs and bachelor's degrees.…

The present study sought to reveal how elementary teachers develop their engineering pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) after leaving professional development programs to practice engineering teaching in real classroom settings. Participants of this study were the elementary teachers who received one-week training of engineering education…

The role of an academic advisor is emphasized in this study. There is only one academic advisor in the School of Engineering at the Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU). The academic advisor addresses the advising needs of more than 1,200 engineering students. The importance of professional advising and the need for higher advisor-student…

Robotics provide the opportunity for students to bring their individual interests, perspectives and areas of expertise together in order to work collaboratively on real-world science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) problems. This paper examines the nature of collaboration that manifests in groups of elementary and middle school…

Published articles on spatial ability can be found in the fields of psychology and graphics education. In the "Engineering Design Graphics Journal" for 1936-1978, six articles concerning visualization (spatial ability) were listed. As published graphics research increased, the journal (1975-1996) listed 28 articles in the visualization…

In the high tech factories of today robots can be used to perform various tasks that span a wide spectrum that encompasses the act of performing high-speed, automated assembly of cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices to the compounding, filling, packaging and distribution of life-saving pharmaceuticals. As robot usage continues to…

Tightening fiscal budgets and the growing emphasis on accountability has created a need to assess the value that programmatic accreditation provides. For degrees in engineering, ABET is the only organization recognized in the U.S. responsible for the programmatic accreditation. This research examines the costs and benefits of ABET accreditation to…

This paper presents the initial results of a study of the evolution of students' knowledge of software engineering from the beginning to the end of a master's degree curriculum in software engineering. Students were presented with a problem involving the initiation of a complex new project at the beginning of the program and again at the end of…

The importance of delivering software process courses to software engineering students has been more and more recognized in China in recent years. However, students usually cannot fully appreciate the value of software process courses by only learning methodology and principle in the classroom. Therefore, a process-specific project course was…

The historical development of the classical postulates of the second law of Thermodynamics can be traced back to the book by Sadi Carnot, "Reflections on the motive power of fire." While unique in its own right and in some sense revolutionary, the book starts with an analogy between heat engines and waterwheels. Waterwheels were common engines of…

The problem of maintaining hygrothermal comfort in a house is addressed using the chemical engineer's toolbox. A simple dynamic modelling proved to give a good description of the humidification of the house in winter, using a domestic humidifier. Parameters of the model were identified from a simple experiment. Surprising results, especially…

Engineering graphics has historically been viewed as a challenging course to teach as students struggle to grasp and understand the fundamental concepts and then to master their proper application. The emergence of stable, fast, affordable 3D parametric modeling platforms such as CATIA, Pro-E, and AutoCAD while providing several pedagogical…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe specific techniques of "inquiry-based learning" employed by three instructors in Engineering schools, one in Europe and two in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: Theorists such as Bransford et al. argue that twenty-first century educators need to teach students to do more than simply…

This paper reports on some findings from the first year of a three-year longitudinal study, in which seventh- to ninth-graders were introduced to engineering education. Specifically, the paper addresses students' responses to an initial design activity involving bridge construction, which was implemented at the end of seventh grade. This paper…