Goal: The use of an online game for learning in higher education aims to make complex theoretical knowledge more approachable. Permanent repetition will lead to a more in-depth learning. Objective: To gain insight into whether and to what extent, online games have the potential to contribute to student learning in higher education. Experimental…

In U.S. coverage of leadership in science and engineering (S&E), Latinos are generally dismissed from consideration. The pipeline metaphor tends to ignore advances made by Latinos in completing doctoral degrees in S&E. New data suggest a better metaphor, the pyramid of higher education, for understanding the progress of Latinos in S&E. Questions…

The urgency to enhance the quality of science education for all of the nation's children and youth increases as we approach the next century. To address some of the issues and to obtain insight from a variety of sources regarding the problems facing educators in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education, a Summer Symposium was…

This paper describes the development, implementation, and effects of new approaches to cognitive assessment within an undergraduate engineering course at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The course, ENGR 110, "Introduction to Engineering," was designed to be a problem-based learning environment in which cadets worked in teams to solve…

The transition from undergraduate to graduate school is a point when female students may lose interest in pursuing engineering degrees, and the percentage of women enrolled in engineering graduate programs is small in comparison to that of males. To attempt to mitigate the potential isolation of women graduate engineering students, the Women in…

A study investigated the genre, structure, and delivery of oral presentations in engineering delivered in English as a first and as a second language. Eleven manufacturing engineering presentations, four by non-native speakers of English and seven by native speakers in Loughborough, United Kingdom, were analyzed with reference to the discourse…

"What is it like to be in teaching together?" has been the guiding question for this hermeneutic phenomenological study with the full-time faculty of a small engineering college. It notes the faculty struggles and conflicts arising from diverse ways of knowing associated with gender and academic discipline differences. It also explores differing…

The underparticipation of women in the fields of science and engineering is a matter of record; the understanding that something might be done to bring qualified women into productive careers as researchers, teachers, and practitioners of science and engineering prompted the National Research Council (NRC) in 1990 to establish the Committee on…

This report provides quantitative data to assist in decisionmaking while United States science and technology is in transition. This 1998 report features new data and analyses. In addition to enhanced international comparisons and a chapter on the significance of information technologies, features of this report include improved international…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Act of 1950 stipulates that NSF must maintain a program for determining the total amount of money for scientific and engineering research received from federal agencies by each educational institution and appropriate nonprofit organization and to report these data annually to Congress and the President. NSF…

This paper examines the kinds of persons that engineering education produces, focusing on cultural identities related to gender issues. It is based on survey questionnaires, interviews, and observations of 274 first-year and fourth-year engineering students at a state university known for its concern about the education of women engineers. The…

This paper seeks to establish evaluation as an important concern in hypermedia research and development, and presents a review of current hypermedia evaluation research with a prescriptive focus. Characteristics of hypermedia currently attracting the attention of instructional developers are discussed and conclusions drawn from recent evaluation…

This paper discusses two software packages used in kinematics courses at Purdue University, Calumet (Indiana) and some algorithms written by students for cam design. The first software package, 4BAR, requires the user to define the particular four bar linkage in terms of lengths of the individual links and the angle and distance to the coupler…

In a nontraditional engineering course students participated in internships in which they worked in teams for local industry or government clients to develop an engineering solution to an open-ended problem. This paper focuses on one of the teams as it solved the problem and explores the organization of the team's work within the constraints of…

Minority engineering programs (MEPs) were established in the late 1970s to recruit minority students to engineering education and reduce their dropout rate. MEPs at 20 engineering schools were examined in relation to institutional environment; pre-enrollment activities; and services that encourage community building, provide academic support, and…