Engineering education must embrace several challenges, such as increased numbers of work-based students, increased demand for online education, mismatches in employability skills and industry requirements, and lack of student engagement. The hydrology course at the University of Southern Queensland attracts more than 100 students every year, where…

Background: As engineers solve problems that are ill-structured and require collaboration, a common goal of engineering programs is to develop students' competencies for solving such problems in teams, often using cornerstone design experiences. Purpose: With the goal of designing effective learning environments, this study identifies…

Background: Prior to undertaking studies involving human subjects, engineering education researchers are required to consider the ethical implications of their work by obtaining approval from an ethical review board. Purpose/Hypothesis: Recent research suggests that some unintended consequences of this procedure are that it externalizes and…

Moulier Boutang's book "Cognitive Capitalism" introduces a radically different conception of the key resources -- 'immaterial labour' and 'capture of externalities' -- for economic activity, compared with the argument in the knowledge economy discourse that professionals manipulate 'symbols'. The paper explores this claim by firstly,…

In this quantitative study, we investigate the relationship between the conceptions of first-year Engineering Education students about the role of mathematics in their studies and career, as well as the links of their conceptions with their approaches to study. The data analysis revealed that the students view mathematics as being about…

This research presents the analysis of image of the popular program packages: CAS (Computer Algebra Systems) Matlab, Mathcad, Mathematica, and the spreadsheet 'Microsoft Excel' among students of engineering specializations studying in Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU). The research has explored perception of program packages by all…

Background: Problem exploration includes identifying, framing, and defining design problems and bounding problem spaces. Intentional and unintentional changes in problem understanding naturally occur as designers explore design problems to create solutions. Through problem exploration, new perspectives on the problem can emerge along with new and…

Background: The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for the integration of engineering content and practices in elementary science curricula, yet little is known about elementary teachers' preparedness to do so or their views on teaching engineering. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of the current study was to explore K-5 teachers'…

Background: Capstone design courses represent a critical juncture in students' development at the transition from school to work. However, few studies have systematically explored teaching in this context, leaving a significant gap in our ability to concretely describe faculty practices in ways that support subsequent explorations of the…

In this paper we present activities that can help students deepen their understanding of DC circuits and develop practical competences. The students investigate electric properties of commercially available conductive thread and solve a practical design task using the thread. The activities follow the framework of investigative science learning…

Path analysis was used to evaluate a structural theoretical model of the relations among different pre-university variables, social and academic experiences during the first year of university, and academic success, evaluated through first-year university achievement and permanence in the sophomore year or student retention. The participants in…

The university reward structure has traditionally placed greater value on individual research excellence for tenure and promotion, influencing faculty's allocation of time and definition of worthwhile labour. We find gender differences in Canadian natural sciences and engineering faculty's opinions of the traditional criteria for measuring…

At the start of each academic year, it is critical that school systems have developed a plan regarding how safety is to be enforced within their Technology and Engineering (T&E) education departments. This plan should focus on a uniform way to approach safety across all T&E courses and help reduce the liability of the school district,…

Engaging in engineering tasks can help students learn science concepts. However, many engineering tasks lead students to focus more on the success of their construction than on learning science content, which can hurt students' ability to learn and transfer scientific principles from them. Two empirical studies investigate how content-focused…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore creativity and how it changes over time among engineering students in practice-based entrepreneurship in higher education. This change was examined in students over a one-semester course in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship courses that use creativity tools for practice-based learning are expected…