By Samantha Leong

Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) graduate students and faculty attended the 2018 Annual American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference this June 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We were excited to have four conference papers accepted this year. ASEE continues to be an important part of sharing the research done by CEEO and to share our work with like-minded thinkers in the Engineering Education Community. Please read below to learn more about the work we presented at ASEE 2018.

WIP: High-Achieving Students’ Perceptions of and Approaches to Problem Solving in Introductory Engineering Science Courses – Jessica Swenson, Becca LeBow, and Kristen Wendell

This study acknowledges the “disconnect between between [students’] classroom approach and the higher level of critical thinking they will have to exercise to solve workplace problems” and seeks to “capture students’ approaches to problem solving just as they were beginning their first engineering science course and track it over the course of the semester” in order to determine the range of high-achieving students’ perceptions of and approaches to problem solving.

Elementary Students’ Disciplinary Practices During Integrated Science and Engineering Units (Work In Progress) – Nicole Batrouny, Kristen Wendell and Tej Dalvi 

This study focuses on “how to scaffold integrated science and engineering learning experiences so that they provide all students with opportunities to develop disciplinary practices in both science and engineering.”

Examining the Interactions Related to Role Modeling in an Elementary Outreach Program (Work in Progress) – Karen Miel, Merredith Portsmore, Kelli Paul, and Adam Maltese

This is a case study of a 5th grade classroom that used “quantitative survey instruments and qualitative analysis of interviews and video recordings of classroom activities” to examine the dynamics between students and engineering ambassadors and how to optimize their interactions to “increase the likelihood that they will be taken as role models.”

WIP An Interview Study of Faculty, Course Assistant, and Student Insight within Teaching and Learning Assistant Programs for Undergraduate Engineering Courses – Hernán Gallegos, Jessica Swenson, Kristen Wendell

This study examines teaching assistants’ and learning assistants’ “approaches for instructional assistants in undergraduate engineering courses” by interviewing multiple stakeholders, professors, assistants, and students, for “their perceptions of and experiences with instructional assistant programs in engineering and other STEM courses.”