Collaborative Research: Assessing Engineering Students' Mathematical Preparation to Create Engineering Solutions

合作研究：评估工科学生创建工程解决方案的数学准备情况

• 批准号: 0536815
• 负责人: Jeffrey Froyd
• 金额: $ 6.22万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-06-01 至 2011-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0536815&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Assessing; Engineering; Students

Research (91), Engineering (59) The goal of this project is the development of a prototype assessment instrument to evaluate how well engineering students are mathematically prepared for core engineering courses. The instrument is addressing the following related questions:1) What are the strengths of their preparation? 2) In what areas is improvement required?3) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to carry out well-defined computational procedures, e.g., solve a single equation in one unknown, solve a set of linear simultaneous equations, differentiate a symbolic expression, integrate a symbolic expression? 4) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to transfer their understanding of computational procedures to engineering contexts that they may not have seen in their mathematics and/or science courses? And 5) To what extent does any lack of mathematical preparation relate to the ability of the students to formulate a clear plan to solve problems? This project is benefiting from participation by engineering faculty members at Purdue University and Texas A&M University in electrical and mechanical engineering and a prominent mathematics educator from a third university.Intellectual MeritGiven the broad importance of mathematics in engineering, designing an effective assessment instrument requires a careful and rigorous development process. Engineering faculty who teach the core classes are contributing their expertise in the form of problems that characterize their expectations for the mathematics preparation of their students. The investigators are contributing their expertise in engineering education and assessment to refine these problems into a set of learning objectives and a prototype instrument. Careful analysis of student performance on the prototype instrument is being used to gauge the reliability and validity of the instrument. Both the development processes and the prototype instrument will be a foundation for future collaborations that will broaden the applicability of the instrument.Broader ImpactEngineering design requires prediction of the performance of a proposed design before its actual construction and mathematics skills are central to making accurate predictions. Thus, understanding the degree to which engineering students are mathematically prepared to enter their core engineering classes is critical to efforts to improve engineering education. A review of existing research has revealed the lack of instruments with which to assess the quality of mathematics preparation. By filling this void this project is providing the foundation for renewal in engineering and mathematics courses in engineering curricula.

研究 (91)、工程 (59) 该项目的目标是开发原型评估工具，以评估工程学生为核心工程课程做好的数学准备。该文书正在解决以下相关问题：1）他们的准备工作的优势是什么？ 2) 在哪些方面需要改进？3) 数学准备的缺乏在多大程度上与学生执行明确定义的计算程序的能力有关，例如求解一个未知数中的单个方程、求解一组线性联立方程、微分符号表达式、积分符号表达式？ 4）数学准备的缺乏在多大程度上与学生将他们对计算过程的理解转移到他们在数学和/或科学课程中可能没有见过的工程背景的能力有关？ 5）缺乏数学准备在多大程度上与学生制定清晰计划解决问题的能力有关？该项目受益于普渡大学和德克萨斯农工大学电气和机械工程系的工程教员以及来自第三所大学的著名数学教育家的参与。 智力优势鉴于数学在工程中的广泛重要性，设计有效的评估工具需要仔细而严格的开发过程。教授核心课程的工程教师以问题的形式贡献他们的专业知识，这些问题体现了他们对学生数学准备的期望。研究人员正在贡献他们在工程教育和评估方面的专业知识，将这些问题细化为一组学习目标和原型仪器。对学生在原型仪器上的表现进行仔细分析，以衡量仪器的可靠性和有效性。开发过程和原型仪器都将成为未来合作的基础，从而扩大仪器的适用性。更广泛的影响工程设计需要在实际构造之前预测拟议设计的性能，而数学技能对于做出准确预测至关重要。因此，了解工程学生在数学上为进入核心工程课程做好的准备程度对于改善工程教育至关重要。对现有研究的回顾表明，缺乏评估数学准备质量的工具。通过填补这一空白，该项目为工程课程中工程和数学课程的更新奠定了基础。