Discusses barriers to African-American student progress, persistence, and achievement in science and engineering graduate study, including lack of encouragement, bias in graduate school admission criteria, lower faculty expectations of black students, financial support and fellowship structures, lack of opportunity to become professionally…

Examined the flow out of and into science, mathematics, and engineering (SME) majors among African American, American Indian, and Hispanic students, noting persistence-related factors. Student surveys indicated that these groups experienced greater attrition from SME majors than did whites and Asian Americans. Person-oriented fit and peer values…

New graduates striving to become successful engineers must use communication to interact with superiors and colleagues. This paper reports the results of a four-year development program using the capstone design course as a driver for developing engineers? communication skills. Faculty assessment of the program, as well as post-graduation feedback…

The work provides guidelines for instructors who wish to incorporate green engineering concepts into a typical non-green engineering course without diluting course content or modifying the course syllabus by identifying 5 critical elements necessary to the successful integration of green engineering concepts into any traditional, design-oriented,…

This report of the National Science Foundation-funded SCALE Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Case Studies line of work provides preliminary findings about SCALE activities at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN). This interview-based study (N = 19) includes a descriptive analysis of SCALE activities and an exploratory analysis…

This document consists of a workshop presentation on curriculum development, design, specification, and assessment in the engineering classroom. Ten sessions focus on: (1) the format and purpose of the workshop, which is designed to help instructors develop an understanding of the basic principles of curriculum and instruction and the ability to…

Gender and ethnic differences in, and possible predictors of, academic self-confidence, academic self-efficacy, and career-related outcome expectations were investigated for 289 students entering graduate programs in engineering and physical sciences at a research university in the midwestern United States. Influence of student demographic…

The transition between high school and college is a crucial point where many young women engaged in the applied sciences and engineering cease their participation. To help retain young women's interest and help bridge the gap between secondary school and higher education, The University of Maryland, College Park, held a six-week live-in academic…

This report summarizes the Engineering Curriculum Transformation Project (ECTP) instituted at the University of Maryland during the 1995-1996 academic year. This initiative focused on facilitating the development of engineering course curricula based on diverse learning styles, more inclusive examples, and the incorporation of diversity and…

Based on the premise that second language instruction at the college level should focus on the elements of academic discourse and not spend unnecessary time on less relevant grammatical structures, an analysis of discourse structures in subject-area textbooks was undertaken. Grammatical structures characteristic of academic discourse were analyzed…

This report examines the representation of women and minorities in the science, mathematics, and engineering fields and addresses the sources of current trends and issues for the future. The first section, "Demographics and the Science and Engineering Talent Pool", addresses the expected shortfall of more that 400,000 science and engineering…

This study was designed to provide information about factors that influenced career decisions and career development patterns of contemporary engineers. Graduate engineers (N=2835) and beginning student engineers (N=980) completed survey instruments designed to measure demographic, cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors. Subjects also…

This document provides an alphabetical list of programs designed to improve the science education of minority groups and to increase their participation in science and science-related careers. Minority refers to such racial and/or ethnic groups as Blacks, Chicanos/Mexican Americans, Native Americans/American Indians, and Puerto Ricans. Programs in…

The Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science and Technology was established by the U.S. Congress in Public Law 99-383 with the purpose of developing a long-range plan for broadening participation in science and engineering. Public hearings were held in Albuquerque (New Mexico), Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland), Boston…

The Task Force on Women, Minorities, and the Handicapped in Science and Technology was established by the U.S. Congress in Public Law 99-383 with the purpose of developing a long-range plan for broadening participation in science and engineering. Public hearings were held in Albuquerque (New Mexico), Atlanta (Georgia), Baltimore (Maryland), Boston…