Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for an Introductory Biomedical Engineering Course

Eileen Haase; Gyeongtae Sun Moon; Meera R Bhat

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Conference: ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference
Location: George Washington University, District of Columbia
Publication Date: April 19, 2024
Start Date: April 19, 2024
End Date: April 20, 2024
Page Count: 2
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45734
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45734
Download Count: 14

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Paper Authors

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Eileen Haase PhD The Johns Hopkins University orcid.org/0000-0002-3123-9706

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BS ESM Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
MS EE Johns Hopkins University
PhD Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

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Gyeongtae Sun Moon The Johns Hopkins University

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Sun Moon is a third-year Biomedical Engineering student at Johns Hopkins University. He is involved in various teaching activities, such as serving as a teaching assistant in many BME and undergraduate courses, leading a peer group-problem solving session, and serving as a student leader in Tutorial Project.

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Meera R Bhat The Johns Hopkins University

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Meera R. Bhat is an undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include engineering education, senescence, cellular aging, adipose tissue, and neonatal health. At Johns Hopkins University, she currently serves as an undergraduate teaching assistant for several biomedical engineering courses where she develops engineering curriculum for underclassmen students.

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Abstract

The Effective Teaching and Management of Engineering Teams (ETMET) course provides biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate students with the opportunity to mentor first-year BME students as lab managers in our introductory course, Biomedical Engineering & Design (BMED). Their role is integral, as BMED is a team-based, flipped, active-learning course. Freshmen are challenged to solve open-ended problems with multiple solutions. Grading for the freshmen depends 75% on team projects, and 25% on individual work. Consequently, lab managers provide a critical role in ensuring that first-year students learn how to work together as biomedical engineers. The lab managers mentor the first-year students on how to obtain and analyze data, present information in written reports and oral presentations, and divide group projects into manageable tasks to meet deadlines. Successful lab managers require preparation, both on the BMED course content and on working with student teams. Lab managers must complete an online quiz on FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). They need to review and complete a quiz for each of the modules in the first year BMED course on topics such as the design process, using an Arduino, the cardiovascular system, Python/Machine Learning, and ethics. There were also in-person sessions to ensure that each lab manager understood how to use the equipment and could answer first-year students’ questions. This year, in addition to preparing lab managers with details about the first-year course, we added seven three-to-five-minute videos to teach ETMET students the expertise needed for team management. The topics of conflict management, design of assessments, ethics, group development, peer review, public speaking, and technical communication, are essential skills for lab managers to be successful mentors. We surveyed the lab managers at the end of the semester for written feedback. The lab managers indicated that although they felt these videos were helpful, many suggested supplementing them with in-person, active learning material. Based on these results, we believe these modules aided ETMET students in being better mentors to students in BMED and provided the necessary skills to navigate their engineering education as members of future engineering teams. However, future ETMET course offerings will supplement the videos with in-person activities for the lab managers, such as role-playing and case studies.

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Haase, E., & Moon, G. S., & Bhat, M. R. (2024, April), Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for an Introductory Biomedical Engineering Course Paper presented at ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference, George Washington University, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--45734

TY - CPAPER
AB - The Effective Teaching and Management of Engineering Teams (ETMET) course provides biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate students with the opportunity to mentor first-year BME students as lab managers in our introductory course, Biomedical Engineering &amp;amp; Design (BMED). Their role is integral, as BMED is a team-based, flipped, active-learning course. Freshmen are challenged to solve open-ended problems with multiple solutions. Grading for the freshmen depends 75% on team projects, and 25% on individual work. Consequently, lab managers provide a critical role in ensuring that first-year students learn how to work together as biomedical engineers. The lab managers mentor the first-year students on how to obtain and analyze data, present information in written reports and oral presentations, and divide group projects into manageable tasks to meet deadlines.
Successful lab managers require preparation, both on the BMED course content and on working with student teams. Lab managers must complete an online quiz on FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). They need to review and complete a quiz for each of the modules in the first year BMED course on topics such as the design process, using an Arduino, the cardiovascular system, Python/Machine Learning, and ethics. There were also in-person sessions to ensure that each lab manager understood how to use the equipment and could answer first-year students’ questions. This year, in addition to preparing lab managers with details about the first-year course, we added seven three-to-five-minute videos to teach ETMET students the expertise needed for team management. The topics of conflict management, design of assessments, ethics, group development, peer review, public speaking, and technical communication, are essential skills for lab managers to be successful mentors. We surveyed the lab managers at the end of the semester for written feedback. The lab managers indicated that although they felt these videos were helpful, many suggested supplementing them with in-person, active learning material. Based on these results, we believe these modules aided ETMET students in being better mentors to students in BMED and provided the necessary skills to navigate their engineering education as members of future engineering teams. However, future ETMET course offerings will supplement the videos with in-person activities for the lab managers, such as role-playing and case studies.

AU - Eileen Haase PhD
AU - Gyeongtae Sun Moon
AU - Meera R Bhat
CY - George Washington University, District of Columbia
DA - 2024/04/19
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Online Modules to Develop Upper-classmen Mentors for an Introductory Biomedical Engineering Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/45734
DO - 10.18260/1-2--45734
ER -