Impact of Inclusion of Makerspace and Project Types on Student Comfort with Additive Manufacturing and Three-Dimensional Modeling in First-Year Engineering Program

Andrew Charles Bartolini; Simran Moolchandaney

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division (FYP) - Technical Session 7: Making
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43480
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/43480
Download Count: 104

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Paper Authors

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Andrew Charles Bartolini University of Notre Dame

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Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Notre Dame
Coordinator, First-Year Engineering Program, University of Notre Dame

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biography

Simran Moolchandaney University of Notre Dame

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Simran Moolchandaney is a class of 2023 undergraduate student at the University of Notre Dame majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Bioengineering. Outside the classroom, Simran is an NCAA Division 1 Fencer, and an active SWE member who zealously engages in community service work.

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Abstract

The following evidence-based practice study investigates the impact of utilizing a makerspace on the exposure to additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling practices to first-year students. Recent literature demonstrated statistically significant gains across factors such as: design self-efficacy, technology self-efficacy, innovation orientation, innovation self-efficacy, sense of belonging within the makerspace, and sense of belonging within the engineering community for courses that included a visit to the makerspace. Furthermore, one recent study looked at the data through the lens of year, gender, and race of the students demonstrating gaps in each [1]. This paper will explore how one university’s inclusion of a brand-new makerspace influences the first-year students’ comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling through both individual and group projects. The analysis will also include breakdowns by gender and race. Furthermore, this paper will investigate the role that each type of project had on the students’ comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling.

The study is currently being conducted at a medium-sized, private, Midwestern, residential university and analyzes the response of students in the First-Year Engineering Program in Fall 2022. With the creation of a new Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH), the university sought to immerse the first-year students into the new space through three experiences. The first was a tour and safety training of the space during a class period. The next experience was a group project, which was an iterative design project that required the students to create and 3D print a Computer-Aided Design model of a valve that controls the flow of water with a servo motor. The students tested the valves and redesigned the valve in a second iteration. The third experience was an individual project that required students to create an object that met a user-defined set of requirements. The object had to be created either with the manufacturing/fabrication, additive manufacturing, laser cutting, or waterjet cutting capabilities of the EIH.

The study’s analysis is based on three surveys. The first survey occurred at the start of the academic year, the second at the middle of the fall semester (after the first iteration of the group project and before the individual project began), and the third survey will be administered at the end of the fall semester. The initial survey asked for students’ comfort with the topics of additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling along with the resources available at the student’s high school. The second survey asked the same questions related to comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling. The end of the semester survey will ask the same questions as the second survey, but also include questions about the accessibility to the resources in the EIH, the amount of interaction between the course and the EIH, the likelihood that they would use the EIH again, and an open-ended question related to the positive elements/areas of improvement for the EIH. These surveys will result in both quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the common question between the three surveys will be used to explore the change in student comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling as a product of the three exposures within the course. Furthermore, the timing of the second survey was purposeful to gain insights into how the comfort levels towards additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling changed initially through only a group project and then secondly through both a group and individual project. The data will also be broken down by gender and race to determine if any gaps exist in student comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling.

[1] Andrews, M.E., Borrego, M. & Boklage, A. (2021) Self-efficacy and belonging: the impact of a university makerspace. International Journal of STEM Education 8, 24.

Citation
Format

Bartolini, A. C., & Moolchandaney, S. (2023, June), Impact of Inclusion of Makerspace and Project Types on Student Comfort with Additive Manufacturing and Three-Dimensional Modeling in First-Year Engineering Program Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43480

TY - CPAPER
AB - The following evidence-based practice study investigates the impact of utilizing a makerspace on the exposure to additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling practices to first-year students. Recent literature demonstrated statistically significant gains across factors such as: design self-efficacy, technology self-efficacy, innovation orientation, innovation self-efficacy, sense of belonging within the makerspace, and sense of belonging within the engineering community for courses that included a visit to the makerspace. Furthermore, one recent study looked at the data through the lens of year, gender, and race of the students demonstrating gaps in each [1]. This paper will explore how one university’s inclusion of a brand-new makerspace influences the first-year students’ comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling through both individual and group projects. The analysis will also include breakdowns by gender and race. Furthermore, this paper will investigate the role that each type of project had on the students’ comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling.

The study is currently being conducted at a medium-sized, private, Midwestern, residential university and analyzes the response of students in the First-Year Engineering Program in Fall 2022. With the creation of a new Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH), the university sought to immerse the first-year students into the new space through three experiences. The first was a tour and safety training of the space during a class period. The next experience was a group project, which was an iterative design project that required the students to create and 3D print a Computer-Aided Design model of a valve that controls the flow of water with a servo motor. The students tested the valves and redesigned the valve in a second iteration. The third experience was an individual project that required students to create an object that met a user-defined set of requirements. The object had to be created either with the manufacturing/fabrication, additive manufacturing, laser cutting, or waterjet cutting capabilities of the EIH.

The study’s analysis is based on three surveys. The first survey occurred at the start of the academic year, the second at the middle of the fall semester (after the first iteration of the group project and before the individual project began), and the third survey will be administered at the end of the fall semester. The initial survey asked for students’ comfort with the topics of additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling along with the resources available at the student’s high school. The second survey asked the same questions related to comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling. The end of the semester survey will ask the same questions as the second survey, but also include questions about the accessibility to the resources in the EIH, the amount of interaction between the course and the EIH, the likelihood that they would use the EIH again, and an open-ended question related to the positive elements/areas of improvement for the EIH. These surveys will result in both quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the common question between the three surveys will be used to explore the change in student comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling as a product of the three exposures within the course. Furthermore, the timing of the second survey was purposeful to gain insights into how the comfort levels towards additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling changed initially through only a group project and then secondly through both a group and individual project. The data will also be broken down by gender and race to determine if any gaps exist in student comfort with additive manufacturing and three-dimensional modeling.

[1] Andrews, M.E., Borrego, M. &amp;amp; Boklage, A. (2021) Self-efficacy and belonging: the impact of a university makerspace. International Journal of STEM Education 8, 24.
AU - Andrew Charles Bartolini
AU - Simran Moolchandaney
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Impact of Inclusion of Makerspace and Project Types on Student Comfort with Additive Manufacturing and Three-Dimensional Modeling in First-Year Engineering Program
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/43480
DO - 10.18260/1-2--43480
ER -