Research Initiation: Formation of Engineering Identity Through Capstone Design Peer-Interventions

美国在未来十年内将面临100万STEM专业人员的短缺。为了减少这种短缺，美国高等教育系统有必要教育更多的STEM专业。众所周知，至少有三分之一的大学新生会改变他们的专业，不幸的是，STEM专业的学生比非STEM专业的学生更有可能改变专业。在低年级本科生中早期发展工程身份可能会减少大学前两年从工程专业转出的学生人数。这项建议旨在提高大一和大二学生学习化学工程的工程身份，让他们参与课程相关的干预措施。这些干预措施利用高级化学工程专业的学生作为近同行的榜样，同时将高级顶点设计课程的内容整合到较低的师，核心化学工程课程。这可能是谁离开工程学的学生缺乏一个强大的工程身份，并在课程的早期增长这种身份将增加在该领域的持久性。这项工作的预期成果是通过使用高年级学生作为榜样的近同行指导计划，增加了化学工程项目中学生的持久性。拟议工作的第二个成果是培训教育研究方法的主要调查员，以增加有能力领导工程教育研究领域研究工作的科学家队伍。该项目作为未来工作的基础，以研究工程身份的形成，通过他们的顶点设计项目到课程的其他领域的高年级学生的整合的影响。 这个为期两年的项目旨在确定在何种程度上，相对于对照组，暴露于同伴导师增加学生的工程身份的发展，随着时间的推移相比，那些谁没有收到同伴指导干预。第一年介绍了一个介绍化学工程课程的新生队列，通过围绕他们的设计项目为中心的课堂内和课外互动，向高级化学工程顶点设计学生介绍。第二年将通过由capstone设计的学生提供便利的基于问题的短期学习练习，将capstone设计纳入大二学生的材料和能量平衡课程的复习部分。将测量同行互动的数量和时间及其对工程身份开发的影响。最后，研究小组将评估学生认为同伴指导影响他们的工程身份发展，知识获取和持久性的程度。这项工作所依据的理论框架结合了社会化理论和角色习得理论。工程身份将通过有效的调查工具进行评估，并在接受或不接受干预的学生群体之间进行比较。除了定量调查工具外，还将通过重点小组获得关于学生认为的干预措施质量的定性数据。专业发展活动，旨在满足项目的指导部分，将与研究计划同时进行，包括：（1）通过完成以教育为重点的在线研究生证书，对主要研究者进行定量研究方法的正式培训;（2）通过加入该机构的基于计算机的教育研究小组，对主要研究者进行指导;以及（3）让主要研究者参加每周的联合主要研究者教育研究小组会议。研究计划和专业发展计划的同时执行为正式和非正式培训提供了直接的背景。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The United States is facing a one-million-person shortfall in STEM professionals within the next decade. To abate this shortfall, it is necessary for the United States higher education system to educate additional STEM majors. It is widely known that at least one third of college freshman will change their majors and, unfortunately, students in STEM majors are even more likely to change majors than their non-STEM counterparts. The development of an engineering identity early in lower division undergraduates may decrease the number of students transferring out of engineering programs within the first two years of college. This proposal aims to enhance the engineering identity of freshman and sophomore students studying chemical engineering by involving them in course-related interventions. These interventions utilize senior chemical engineering students as near-peer role models and simultaneously integrate content from the senior capstone design course into-lower division, core chemical engineering courses. It may be that students who leave engineering lack a strong engineering identity, and growing this identity early in the curriculum will increase persistence in the field. A desired outcome of this work is the increased persistence of students within the chemical engineering program through this near-peer mentoring program that uses senior level students as role models. A second outcome of the proposed work is training the principle investigator in educational research methods to increase the body of scientists equipped to lead research endeavors in the area of engineering education research. This project serves as a foundation for future work to examine formation of an engineering identity as impacted by of the integration of senior students via their capstone design projects into other areas of the curriculum. This two-year project aims to determine to what extent, relative to a control group, does exposure to a peer mentor increase students' engineering identity development over time compared to those who do not receive a peer mentoring intervention. Year 1 introduces a cohort of freshman students in an introductory chemical engineering course to senior chemical engineering capstone-design students through in-class and out-of-class interactions centered around their design projects. Year 2 will incorporate capstone-design into recitation sections of a material and energy balances course taken by sophomore students via short problem-based learning exercises facilitated by the capstone-design students. The quantity and timing of the peer interactions and their impact on engineering identity development will be measured. Finally, the research team will assess the extent to which students perceive that peer-mentoring influenced their engineering identity development, knowledge acquisition and persistence. The theoretical framework on which the work is based incorporates both socialization theory and role acquisition theory. Engineering identity will be assessed through a validated survey instrument and compared between groups of students who receive or do not receive the intervention. In addition to the quantitative survey instrument, qualitative data regarding the student-perceived quality of the interventions will be obtained through focus groups. Professional development activities, meant to satisfy the mentoring component of the project, will occur in tandem with the research plan and include: (1) the formal training of the principle investigator in quantitative research methods through completion of an online graduate certificate with a focus on education; (2) the mentorship of the principle investigator through inclusion in the Discipline-Based Education Research Group at the institution; and (3) inclusion of the principle investigator at the weekly education research group meetings of co- principle investigator. The simultaneous execution of the research plan and professional development plan provides immediate context to the formal and informal training.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.