Examining the Impact of Participation in Engineers Without Borders on Undergraduate Students’ Transition to Practice and Professional Development

该项目旨在通过整合经验来改善工程教育课程，使大学毕业生能够过渡到专业实践并发展成为各自领域的领导者，从而为国家利益服务。许多研究人员认为，在传统课堂讲授之外增加经验是改善工程教育的一个重要因素，可以帮助学生为21世纪的工程师角色做好准备。将课程转变为包含高影响力体验对教师和管理人员提出了许多挑战，并且需要影响的证据来规划和倡导这些变化。这个参与式学生学习一级项目将为那些进入职业生涯并参与社区参与体验作为其教育计划一部分的毕业生提供影响证据。该项目将调查参加最大的国家工程社区参与学习计划的工程毕业生，美国无国界工程师组织（EWB-USA）。项目目标包括确定项目的成果和属性，以促进学习和促进工程本科生的专业发展。EWB-USA是一个战略试验台，所有项目都是与全球或国内社区的真实用户进行真实的设计体验。设计团队在各种环境中运作，作为课外俱乐部，与课程相关的课外体验，或在课程中作为课程。这样就可以收集数据，为本科教育中广泛的学习经验提供信息。EWB-USA也是最多元化的工程项目之一，在5000多名学生会员中，女性占了40%以上。该项目将通过回答五个研究问题来填补文献空白。(1)学生参与EWB-USA的本质是什么，如何将正式的中学后工程教育和专业实践的经历联系起来？(2)相对于其他教育活动，校友认为通过参加EWB-USA学生活动，哪些专业能力得到了最大的发展？(3)参与EWB-USA项目的性质和/或结构的变化如何影响学生的学习和专业实践的准备？(4)行业其他成员对EWB-USA毕业生的看法如何？(5)以上因素与男女学生、不同种族和民族学生以及第一代大学生的参与和经历有何关系和影响？该项目将通过两项相关研究来调查研究问题。第一项研究将研究在本科阶段有EWB-USA工作经历的毕业生，第二项研究将研究他们的雇主和导师，以便从他们的本科经历中更全面地了解他们的能力。这两项研究都将使用顺序混合方法，并使用一种调查工具，该工具将为随后的半结构化访谈提供信息。来自毕业生、雇主和导师的数据将促进对社区参与本科生经历的理解，并为寻求改善工程教育的教师和管理人员提供信息。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving curricula in engineering education through integration of experiences that equip college graduates to transition to professional practice and develop into leaders within their fields. Increasing experiences beyond traditional classroom lectures has been identified by many researchers as a significant element for improving engineering education to prepare students for their roles as engineers in the 21st century. Transforming curricula to include high impact experiences presents many challenges for faculty and administrators, and evidence of impact is needed for planning and advocating for such changes. This Engaged Student Learning Level I project will provide evidence of impact on graduates who have entered their professional career and participated in a community engagement experience as part of their educational program. The project will investigate engineering graduates who participated in the largest national engineering community-engaged learning program, Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA). Project goals include identifying outcomes and attributes of the program that promote learning and contribute to engineering undergraduate students’ professional development. EWB-USA is a strategic testbed with all projects being authentic design experiences with real users in global or domestic communities. The design teams operate in a variety of contexts as an extra-curricular club, a co-curricular experience connected to courses, or within the curriculum as a course. This allows for data to be gathered to inform a wide array of learning experiences within undergraduate education. EWB-USA is also one of the most diverse engineering programs, with women representing over 40% of the more than 5,000 student members.The project will fill gaps in the literature by answering five research questions. (1) What is the nature of how student participation in EWB-USA may bridge the experiences of formal post-secondary engineering education and professional practice?; (2) What professional competencies do alumni identify as most developed through their EWB-USA student participation relative to other educational activities?; (3) How do variations in the nature of involvement with and/or the structure of EWB-USA programs impact student learning and preparation for professional practice?; (4) How are graduates of EWB-USA perceived by other members of industry, relative to their peers?; and (5) How do the above elements relate to and impact participation and experiences of female versus male students, of students from different races and ethnicities, and among first-generation college students? The project will investigate the research questions with two related studies. The first will study graduates who had EWB-USA experience as undergraduates and the second will study their employers and mentors to provide a more complete picture of their competencies from their undergraduate experiences. Both studies will use a sequential mixed-methods approach, with a survey instrument that will inform the subsequent semi-structured interviews. The data from graduates, employers, and mentors will advance the understanding of community-engaged undergraduate experience and inform faculty and administrators as they seek to improve engineering education. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.