Capstones are open-ended undertakings where students are expected to creatively analyze, synthesize, and apply a wide-variety of learning outcomes from prior coursework. This paper discusses the structure, approach and evolution of the capstone project pathways within our College. Specifically two programs, MET and EET, have adopted different…

There is wide demand for engineering graduates to be capable of working well in teams. The engineering accreditation body (ABET, www.abet.org) has responded to this need by requiring engineering programs to demonstrate that their graduates have "an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams" (Haag, Froyd, Coleman, & Caso, n.d.),…

Nothing brings out the best in eighth-grade physical science students quite like an engineering challenge. The wind turbine design challenge described in this article has proved to be a favorite among students with its focus on teamwork and creativity and its (almost) sneaky reinforcement of numerous physics concepts. For this activity, pairs of…

Accidents happen; however, the likelihood of accidents occurring in the agricultural mechanics laboratory is greatly reduced when agricultural mechanics laboratory facilities are managed by secondary agriculture teachers who are competent and knowledgeable. This study investigated the agricultural mechanics laboratory management in-service needs…

This article reports on an investigation into whether writing centre (WC) respondents at an institution of Higher Education (HE) encourage or discourage draft dialogue (a conversation in writing) with students submitting drafts electronically to the WC for feedback. The writing respondents insert local feedback responses or comments directly onto…

The article reports and discusses a long-term qualitative study of forty 8-10-year-old students who regularly played a math game during math lessons for 9 weeks. The goal was to explore the relations between (i) some of the "pedagogical principles" that underlie the game and (ii) the "playing practice" in terms of what actually takes place when…

Many different sources of input are available to assistive technology innovators during the course of designing products. However, there is little information on which ones may be most effective or how they may be efficiently utilized within the design process. The aim of this project was to compare how three types of input--from simulation tools,…

In this foreword, Shirley Malcom and Lindsey Malcom speak to the history and current status of women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As the author of the seminal report "The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science", Shirley Malcom is uniquely poised to give us an insightful…

Partial discharge (PD) monitoring is an effective predictive maintenance tool for electrical power equipment. As a result, an understanding of the theory related to PD and the associated measurement techniques is now necessary knowledge for power engineers in their professional life. This paper presents a modular course on PD phenomenon in which…

Professional mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) are one of the policy instruments employed in global and regional trade agreements to facilitate the mobility of skilled labour. While such agreements have been noted in the literature examining cross-border academic mobility, little is known about how they impact higher education. This paper…

The quasi-experimental field study with 174 advanced engineering students analysed the possibilities to assist the requirement analysis when solving design problems. Technical check lists are in common practice for assisting the requirement analysis. We wondered if a generic question answering system (GQAS) aiming at the "semantic relationships"…

There is continued growth and development of outreach programs designed to increase pre-college students' awareness and understanding of engineering as a profession and as a career. These outreach programs vary in format and in the groups targeted for participation, but maintain the same fundamental goal of increasing participant knowledge of…

From popular movies to New York Times bestsellers, organic food is widely acknowledged to be of growing importance. Many community college students are asking: How is organic food different from everything else in the grocery store? What impact does farming have on the environment? How safe is our food? A survey of reference works introduces…

Building a human-powered flying craft can be much more complicated than one would first imagine. There are no "premade" plans available for this type of craft. In addition, the crafts needed to be built with some "style," or in other words, they should represent something other than a flying machine. The concept of launching a…

Many people use wind to help meet their needs. Over the years, people have been able to harness or capture the wind in many different ways. More recently, people have seen the rebirth of electricity-generating wind turbines. Thus, the age-old argument about technology being either good or bad can also be applied to the wind. The wind can be a…