This case-study research investigated how newly hired engineers at a large manufacturing company learned what they were expected to do during their first year on the job, as well as how they were expected to do their work and why it was done that way (the social norms of the organization). Two major findings challenge and extend the traditional…

Like many young men, Ty Kropp had no idea what he wanted to do when he graduated from high school. Courses he took as a computer design/manufacturing (CDM) technology student at the Ulster County Career and Technical Education center in Port Ewen, NY, gave him valuable skills that opened the door to his dream job at Orange County Choppers (OCC), a…

Seventy-one professional fine artists and 147 engineers completed Sternberg's Intellectual Styles Questionnaire (R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner, 1991). Artists preferred less external input in their work than engineers preferred, and engineers were more inclined to prioritize their thinking. Artists preferred devising their own plans significantly…

"Science and Engineering Indicators" (SEI) is first and foremost a volume of record comprising the major high-quality quantitative data on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. SEI is factual and policy neutral. It does not offer policy options, and it does not make policy recommendations. SEI employs a variety…

For recent high school graduates, life is tough. In the past year, one in four young high school graduates was unemployed and over half were underemployed. In the past decade, recent high school graduates' wages have fallen by 12 percent to just $19,400 annually in 2011, below the poverty threshold for a family of four. The downward plight of high…

While engineering educators have engaged in many endeavors aimed at advancing engineering education and practice, much of this work has focused on broad curricular issues. Few studies focus on what it means to be an engineer or the process of what it takes to learn to engineer. In the last decade engineering educators have begun to focus on…

This qualitative study tracks the journeys of four career changing women in STEM fields as they pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching degree and transition into teaching positions. Through analysis of archived writing, journaling, photo elicitation, interviews and member-checking, the study analyzes participants' thinking and learning at the…

While the Milwaukee region's economic base is rooted in its manufacturing history, many believe that the region's future prosperity will be tied to its ability to successfully transition its economy into one that is based on knowledge and innovation. Indeed, fostering innovation has become the call to action for business and political leaders…

This annual publication provides a summary of training activity in apprenticeships and traineeships in Australia, including information on training rates, completion rates, attrition rates, training within the trades and duration of training. The figures in this publication are derived from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection no.63…

Boeing Company, the Chicago-based aerospace giant, has spent the past year matching internal data from employee evaluations with information about the colleges its engineers attended. It has used that analysis to create a ranking system, which it plans to unveil in the coming month, that will show which colleges have produced the workers it…

As the world economy continues to evolve, businesses and industries must adopt new practices and processes in order to survive. Quality and cost control, work teams and participatory management, and an infusion of technology are transforming the way people work and do business. Employees are now expected to read, write, and communicate…

Research on knowledge transfer in organizations has been hampered by the lack of tools yielding valid scores for studying critical constructs in concert. The authors developed survey measures of absorptive capacity (the ability to transform new knowledge into usable knowledge) and experienced community of practice (the extent to which a person is…

Institutions of higher education, the major source of the nation's scientists and engineers, perform about one-half of the nation's basic research. Therefore, the level, distribution, and characteristics of federal academic support are of much interest to officials at federal, state, and local levels and in nongovernmental sectors. The data…

A study published in the "Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering" found that girls are completing high school science and math courses at the same rate as boys: 94 percent of girls took biology (compared with 91 percent of boys), 64 percent took chemistry (57 percent for boys) and 26 percent studied physics (32 percent of…

The purpose of this study was to gather data from the Cache County School District to evaluate the perceptions of middle school students related to Technology, Life, and Careers (TLC) curriculum. The elements of TLC have been a core curriculum requirement for middle/junior high school students since 1987. It was designed to focus on the concerns…