What is Cool Stuff? Exploring Engineering Students’  Motivation to Be Excited About Their School Activities

Thomas Machamer; Micah Lande

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division Technical Session - Best Paper
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41649
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/41649
Download Count: 204

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Paper Authors

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Micah Lande South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

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Micah Lande, PhD is an Assistant Professor and E.R. Stensaas Chair for Engineering Education in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Dr. Lande directs the Holistic Engineering Lab & Observatory. He teaches human-centered engineering design, design thinking, and design innovation courses. Dr. Lande researches how technical and non-technical people learn and apply design thinking and making processes to their work. He is interested in the intersection of designerly epistemic identities and vocational pathways. Dr. Lande received his B.S. in Engineering (Product Design), M.A. in Education (Learning, Design and Technology) and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Design Education) from Stanford University.

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Thomas Machamer South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

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Abstract

Studying engineering as an undergraduate student allows for the exploration and investigation of possible interests. A program of study in a particular major may map out a balance of breadth and depth in that engineering field. There are co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities that add to that. And certainly, internships bring additional context for what students may consider as the practice and activities of engineering. With all that, students’ study of engineering may still be conceptualized, and presented, as an abstract endeavor. Starting with a generative question of “what is cool stuff?” (a marketing platitude being developed at our university), we seek to better understand from undergraduate engineering student what that might mean for them. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews that ask students to reflect on “critical incidents” in their decisions to get involved in engineering and experiences along the way, we will do emergent thematic analysis of students’ responses to find patterns of commonality across individual experiences. We will recruit student participants both cross-sectionally across engineering and science majors, and longitudinally from 1st year student to seniors. The goal is to take a general notion of being motivated to do engineering work because of “cool stuff” into more nuance about an underlying aspect of motivation. Some motivation may come from the intrinsic motivation, doing for its inherent satisfaction and impact, and other may come from an extrinsic motivation to accumulate outward rewards, such as a good paying job. We will revisit the National Academy of Engineering’s Changing the Conversation project to present messages about engineering in a more targeted fashion for prospective engineers. It is expected that students’ stories and experiences will be placed even more concretely in their own contexts, and perhaps also in a context more directly drawn from [our university] and its setting and programs. This will extend previous work about the engagement of students and potential students into engineering, and inform local efforts to frame engineering about “cool stuff.”

Citation
Format

Lande, M., & Machamer, T. (2022, August), What is Cool Stuff? Exploring Engineering Students’ Motivation to Be Excited About Their School Activities Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41649

TY - CPAPER
AB - Studying engineering as an undergraduate student allows for the exploration and investigation of possible interests. A program of study in a particular major may map out a balance of breadth and depth in that engineering field. There are co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities that add to that. And certainly, internships bring additional context for what students may consider as the practice and activities of engineering. With all that, students’ study of engineering may still be conceptualized, and presented, as an abstract endeavor. Starting with a generative question of “what is cool stuff?” (a marketing platitude being developed at our university), we seek to better understand from undergraduate engineering student what that might mean for them. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews that ask students to reflect on “critical incidents” in their decisions to get involved in engineering and experiences along the way, we will do emergent thematic analysis of students’ responses to find patterns of commonality across individual experiences. We will recruit student participants both cross-sectionally across engineering and science majors, and longitudinally from 1st year student to seniors. The goal is to take a general notion of being motivated to do engineering work because of “cool stuff” into more nuance about an underlying aspect of motivation. Some motivation may come from the intrinsic motivation, doing for its inherent satisfaction and impact, and other may come from an extrinsic motivation to accumulate outward rewards, such as a good paying job. We will revisit the National Academy of Engineering’s Changing the Conversation project to present messages about engineering in a more targeted fashion for prospective engineers. It is expected that students’ stories and experiences will be placed even more concretely in their own contexts, and perhaps also in a context more directly drawn from [our university] and its setting and programs. This will extend previous work about the engagement of students and potential students into engineering, and inform local efforts to frame engineering about “cool stuff.”
AU - Micah Lande
AU - Thomas Machamer
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - What is Cool Stuff? Exploring Engineering Students’ Motivation to Be Excited About Their School Activities
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/41649
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41649
ER -