This guide was developed to help teachers use the 14th season of NEWTON'S APPLE in their classrooms and contains lessons formatted to follow the National Science Education Standards. The "Overview,""Main Activity," and "Try-This" sections were created with inquiry-based learning in mind. Each lesson page begins with…

The College of Engineering at the University of Washington conducted a portfolio evaluation project to better understand the nature and effects of its writing project. The project was implemented to address two needs: (1) the need expressed inside and outside the college for graduates with better communication skills; and (2) the need to…

The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) project involves gaining access to data on student learning from the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES) that schools and programs do not normally have. This document contains an executive summary in addition to the full length report on the accomplishments of the project. The…

The tables contained in this document present data on the characteristics of men and women who received a bachelor's or master's degree in a science or engineering field from academic institutions in the U.S. during the 1992-93 and 1993-94 academic years. The data were collected in 1995 and 1996 and reflect the status of individuals as of April…

This learning packet provides background information about Hoover Dam (Nevada) and the surrounding area. Since the dam was built at the height of the Depression in 1931, people came from all over the country to work on it. Because of Hoover Dam, the Colorado River was controlled for the first time in history and farmers in Nevada, California, and…

This digest presents information on the state of sex equity in the fields of science and engineering. Featured articles include: "Becoming a Scientist" (Shirley Malcolm); "Gender Equity Issues in Science Careers" (Sue V. Rosser and Julie Montgomery); and "Innovations in Intervention Settings" (Katherine Darke and Beatriz Chu Clewell). A list of…

This report is based on a 1999 National Science Foundation (NSF) summit on the future of minority leadership in science and engineering. The summit examined what it would take to create, from among members of ethnic or racial minority groups, leaders with scientific, mathematical, and engineering skills and credentials. The purpose of the summit…

Factors influencing the achievement and retention of ethnic minority students were studied, focusing on 38 ethnic minority students in a college engineering program. Of the 38 students, 12 were African American, and 26 were Hispanic of Mexican American origin. Students were participants in the university's Equal Opportunity in Engineering program,…

A 3-year follow-up evaluation was conducted of an experimental problem-based learning (PBL) integrated curriculum directed to students of the first 2 years of engineering. The PBL curriculum brought together the contents of physics, mathematics, and computer science courses in a single course in which students worked on real-life problems. In…

In this activity, students construct bird nests and birdhouses. Students research a bird of their choice in order to design a house that will meet that bird's specific needs. The activity works well in conjunction with a high school level woodshop class where students would partner up. This activity requires an 80-minute time period for…

The paper presents literature related to the problems and promises of interdisciplinary work. Important characteristics of effective work groups are described, and origins of difficulty in groups are discussed. Most work on groups has been based on research on groups that come together only in the laboratory. These groups are different from…

In fall 2001 staff of the Los Rios Community College District Office of Institutional Research collaborated with occupational deans, academic deans, and faculty to develop and administer a survey of former Drafting and Engineering Design Technology students. The survey was designed to determine how well courses had met the needs of former drafting…

This document reviews the Pacific Region Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (PJSHS) program for 2003-2004 which is a 10-month, precollege student research program held in Japan. The theme is AtmosphereThe Other Ocean. The program includes a one-week symposium of student delegates who have completed research projects in the sciences or have…

The available technologies of microcomputers and international communication - Internet, are powerful sources for the Teaching and Learning Process. Undergraduate courses can take advantage of these resources to help students and teachers in the classroom. Thinking on this the Project REESC - Reengineering of Engineering Education in Santa…

This book presents selected papers from a conference whose objective was to determine the policies needed to foster the involvement of minorities in science, engineering, and mathematics. The following papers were presented: (1) "Introduction" (Eugene Cota-Robles); (2) "United States Demographics" (George Campbell, Jr.); (3) "A Practitioner's…