The topic of alternative energy is not only relevant to a multitude of issues today, it is also an effective vehicle for developing instruction that applies across a variety of content disciplines and academic standards. Since many of the issues associated with alternative energy are open-ended, alternative energy also lends itself to…

This case study reviewed the collaborative efforts of university engineers, teacher educators, and middle school teachers to advance sixth- and seventh-grade students' learning through a series of project-based engineering activities. This two-year project enriched regular school curricula by introducing real-world applications of science and…

It is considered good practice to teach with an awareness that groups of students will not be homogeneous, and will differ. Research tells educators to take into account specific student differences, including learning styles, socio-economic status, race, and culture. This important issue has been debated and discussed; however, little has been…

This analysis, that utilizes data from part of the Academic Pathways Study (APS) of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), found that as a result of taking a course in engineering design and/or studying engineering for four years, students acquire engineering design language that is common to a larger community of practice…

Undergraduate and graduate engineering training differ significantly. The former looks to established protocols and formulas to design and control processes while the latter often involves questioning established protocols and formulas to better suit and describe phenomena. Although we do not dispute the benefits of practical hands-on approaches,…

One of the core courses in the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has been completely redesigned. In the new numerical methods course, all assignments and learning experiences are built around a video/computer game. Students are given the task of writing computer programs to race a simulated car around a track. In doing so, students…

Intrigued by the interviews with high school valedictorians that the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer publishes this time each year, researcher E. Ann York decided to gather up three years' worth of its stories to look for any gender differences in the aspirations of these highest-achieving local students. Were boys more likely to strive for careers…

This article reports on an examination of the communication needs of a group of Thai civil engineering students. Twenty-five stakeholders helped identify the communication needs of the students by participating in individual interviews. These included employers, civil engineers, civil engineering lecturers, ex-civil engineering students of the…

There has been a great deal of discussion in the past few years about implementing engineering design in K-12 classrooms. Experts from K-12 education, universities, industry, and government officials attended the ASEE leadership workshop on K-12 Engineering Outreach in June of 2004 and came to a consensus on the need to implement engineering in…

This study examines the recruitment of women into a heavily male dominated field of study, in this case mechanical engineering. Qualitative data, in the form of interviews and focus groups, were gathered from six undergraduate mechanical engineering programs that enroll and graduate a relatively high proportion of women. Results revealed that (1)…

The investments of federal agencies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education are aimed at a single core question: How can educators ensure that the United States will have a well-prepared and innovative science and technology workforce in an era of increasing global competition? As the exploration of what this entails…

A WebQuest is an Internet-based and inquiry-oriented learning activity. The aim of this work is to outline the creation of a WebQuest entitled "Power Generation Plants: Steam and Gas Turbines." This is one of the topics covered in the course "Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer," which is offered in the second year of Mechanical…

The aim of this article is to present a concept of digital content emphasizing its new shape and ways to be developed and shared on Web 2.0 principles. Due to recent EU initiatives, a great number of digital materials, resources, and services for education have been designed and produced in recent years. Digital content from materials such as…

This paper explores the relationship between tuition differentials and low-income students in Engineering fields at two public, research-intensive universities. Although current reports indicate the need for increased participation within the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, rising tuition prices at the university…

In the 21st century, engineers are expected to be creative and work collaboratively in teams to solve or design new products. Research in the past has shown how creativity and good team communication, together with knowledge, can impact the outcomes in the organization. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among creativity,…