Using Classroom Activities to Integrate Concepts of Diverse Thinking and Teaming into Engineering Design (Experience)

Breigh Nonte Roszelle; Ronald R. DeLyser; Goncalo Martins; Christina Paguyo

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Minorities in Engineering Division Technical Session 7
Tagged Division: Minorities in Engineering
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35455
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/35455
Download Count: 369

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Paper Authors

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Breigh Nonte Roszelle University of Denver

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Dr. Breigh Roszelle currently serves as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science and a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Denver. She currently teaches courses in the fields of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and introduction to engineering, including computer aided design. Her educational research interests include first-year engineering experiences, assessment, inclusive excellence, and active learning pedagogy, including project-based learning.

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Ronald R. DeLyser University of Denver

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Ronald R. DeLyser is currently an Associate Professor Emeritus of the University of Denver where he served on the faculty between 1986 and 2019. He has received all of his degrees in Electrical Engineering: the B.S. degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1974; the M.S. degree from the University of New Mexico, in 1978; and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1991. Dr. DeLyser, a member of the U.S. Air Force between 1965 and 1986, held a teaching position at the United States Air Force Academy, served as a development engineer at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico and was the Requirements Officer for the Nellis AFB Ranges in Nevada. Prior to 2000, his research areas included pedagogy, outcomes based assessment, the study of periodic gratings used as antennas and in antenna systems, high power microwave interactions with large complex cavities, anechoic chambers, and anechoic chamber absorbing materials. Since 2000, he has been concentrating on engineering education pedagogy, engineering program accreditation, and outcomes based assessment for both engineering programs and general education. He continues to do research that advances inclusive excellence for engineering an computer science programs.

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Goncalo Martins University of Denver

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Christina Paguyo University of Denver

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Christina H. Paguyo, PhD, is the Director of Academic Assessment at the University of Denver. Her research interests focus on designing and examining educational environments grounded in research, theory, and equity.

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Abstract

While the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in engineering programs is an ongoing goal at most universities, an additional question remains: How do we educate all our students about the importance of increasing the diversity in our fields? The development of a new generation of engineering graduates that is more conscientious of the need for diverse thinking and teams is critical for retaining members of these underrepresented populations outside of a university setting and developing a stronger and more effective engineering workforce. (name of school) is performing NSF-funded research to help analyze the use of classroom interventions to help educate our students about these topics. In this project two engineering courses, Thermodynamics I and Embedded Systems, integrated a specific classroom activity that focused on designing a product that had implications for gender or culture. In the Thermodynamics course students were asked to work in teams to discuss the current design of a hairdryer and pitch potential new design features. A hairdryer was selected because it serves as an excellent example of energy balance and transfer but is also overwhelmingly used by female consumers versus male. Teams were formed in order to have three different compositions: all-female, all-male, or co-ed. For the Embedded Systems project students performed a similar activity but focused on the design of a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) controller. The controller was used because one’s taste in music can be influenced greatly by their culture. The teams were comprised of students with different backgrounds, including international students from several different countries. In both courses, once the teams had gone through the activity, there was a reflection session where they were asked questions about their experience and had an overall discussion of the design process and how the makeup of their teams may have made a difference. Students were also asked to write a reflection piece about their experience during the activity and the concept of diverse teams in general. These reflection pieces were analyzed to highlight common language, themes, in order to analyze the outcomes based on the attributes of students with professional inclusive identities. Additionally, students were asked to complete surveys at the beginning of the course and after they completed the interventional activity. These surveys looked at the students’ opinions/feelings about a broad range of topics including, their sense of belonging on a university level, their engineering identity, diversity topics, climate, the activity they performed, and more. This paper will discuss the results of the reflection analysis and surveys, as well as an overall analysis of the activities and changes for future implementations based on this pilot experience.

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Roszelle, B. N., & DeLyser, R. R., & Martins, G., & Paguyo, C. (2020, June), Using Classroom Activities to Integrate Concepts of Diverse Thinking and Teaming into Engineering Design (Experience) Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35455

TY - CPAPER
AB - While the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in engineering programs is an ongoing goal at most universities, an additional question remains: How do we educate all our students about the importance of increasing the diversity in our fields? The development of a new generation of engineering graduates that is more conscientious of the need for diverse thinking and teams is critical for retaining members of these underrepresented populations outside of a university setting and developing a stronger and more effective engineering workforce. (name of school) is performing NSF-funded research to help analyze the use of classroom interventions to help educate our students about these topics. In this project two engineering courses, Thermodynamics I and Embedded Systems, integrated a specific classroom activity that focused on designing a product that had implications for gender or culture.

In the Thermodynamics course students were asked to work in teams to discuss the current design of a hairdryer and pitch potential new design features. A hairdryer was selected because it serves as an excellent example of energy balance and transfer but is also overwhelmingly used by female consumers versus male. Teams were formed in order to have three different compositions: all-female, all-male, or co-ed.

For the Embedded Systems project students performed a similar activity but focused on the design of a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) controller. The controller was used because one’s taste in music can be influenced greatly by their culture. The teams were comprised of students with different backgrounds, including international students from several different countries.

In both courses, once the teams had gone through the activity, there was a reflection session where they were asked questions about their experience and had an overall discussion of the design process and how the makeup of their teams may have made a difference. Students were also asked to write a reflection piece about their experience during the activity and the concept of diverse teams in general. These reflection pieces were analyzed to highlight common language, themes, in order to analyze the outcomes based on the attributes of students with professional inclusive identities.

Additionally, students were asked to complete surveys at the beginning of the course and after they completed the interventional activity. These surveys looked at the students’ opinions/feelings about a broad range of topics including, their sense of belonging on a university level, their engineering identity, diversity topics, climate, the activity they performed, and more.

This paper will discuss the results of the reflection analysis and surveys, as well as an overall analysis of the activities and changes for future implementations based on this pilot experience.
AU - Breigh Nonte Roszelle
AU - Ronald R. DeLyser
AU - Goncalo Martins
AU - Christina Paguyo
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Using Classroom Activities to Integrate Concepts of Diverse Thinking and Teaming into Engineering Design (Experience)
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/35455
DO - 10.18260/1-2--35455
ER -