Student-centered entrepreneurial design education to foster engineering attitudes, identities, and motivations

在改进的本科生STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构(HSI计划)的支持下，这个Track 1项目旨在调查学生对工程的态度、身份和动机，以开发与背景相关的创业设计学习模块。创业教育继续发展，并成为培养工程和其他STEM领域具有创业技能和创业精神的毕业生的教育平台。在工程学方面，创业教育计划(EEPS)通过课程和联合课程提供对创业环境的体验式接触，培养未来的工程师在现代创新经济中具有竞争力。研究证据支持EEPS对学生的各种学习结果和创业态度的好处，并注意到对学生留存的次要积极影响。尽管有这些基于研究的证据，而且在国家报告中也有值得注意的地方，但创业教育项目需要大量资源，这限制了它们在资源有限的机构中的广泛实施。然而，工程设计和创业之间的相似之处突显了在资源有限的机构中整合设计和创业教育的可能性。该项目利用创业和设计教育作为加州州立大学富勒顿分校(CSUF)的教学平台，以改善本科生对工程的态度和动机。该项目遵循基于资产的方法来创建学习体验，这些学习体验对HSI的学生通过其不同的背景和现实生活经验为教育环境带来的价值进行评估。具体来说，这项工作遵循以下具体目标：目标1：在建立情境化创业设计学习模块之前，检查影响学生对工程的态度、身份和动机的详细因素；目标2：在工程设计入门课程中开发和实施情境化创业设计学习模块；以及目标3：对创业设计学习模块的影响进行形成性和总结性评估。使用定性的焦点小组和定量的学生调查作为数据来源，该项目将使用多种方法来检查研究问题。1)哪些因素影响学生对工程的态度、身份和动机；以及2)学生对工程的态度、身份和动机受创业设计学习模块的影响有多大？这项工作将植根于有关衡量学生动机、工程态度、工程身份和其他以证据为基础的最佳实践的相关文献。该项目预计将深入了解学生在小规模背景下的态度和动机，并为这些学生建立情景学习模块。项目成果将以讲习班的形式提供，以支持不同的教育工作者进行教学。HSI计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育和HSI的能力建设。HSI计划支持的项目也将产生关于如何实现这些目标的新知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 1 project aims to examine student attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering to develop contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules. Entrepreneurship education continues to grow and become established as an educational platform for developing entrepreneurially skilled and entrepreneurially minded graduates in engineering and other STEM fields. In engineering, entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) provide experiential exposure to the entrepreneurial environment through curricular and co-curricular offerings, that prepare future engineers to be competitive in the modern-day innovation economy. Research evidence supports the benefits of EEPs on a variety of student learning outcomes and attitudes about entrepreneurship, and notes a secondary positive impact on student retention. Despite this research-based evidence and a notable mention in national reports, entrepreneurship education programs require significant resources, which limits their broad implementation at resource-limited institutions. However, the parallels between engineering design and entrepreneurship underscore the possibility of integrating design and entrepreneurship education at institutions with limited resources. The proposed project leverages entrepreneurship and design education as an instructional platform at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) to improve attitudes and motivations for engineering among undergraduate students.The project follows an asset-based approach to create learning experiences that value what students at an HSI bring to the educational environment through their diverse backgrounds, and real-life experiences. Specifically, the work is guided by the following specific aims: Aim 1: examine detailed factors that impact students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering prior to building contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules; Aim 2: develop and implement contextualized entrepreneurial design learning modules in introductory engineering design courses; and Aim 3: perform formative and summative assessments on the impacts of entrepreneurial design learning modules. Using qualitative focus groups and quantitative student surveys as the data source, the project will use a multi-methods approach to examine the research questions. 1) What factors affect students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations for engineering; and 2) in what ways and to what extent are students’ attitudes, identities, and motivations toward engineering impacted by their engagement in the entrepreneurial design learning modules? The work will be rooted in pertinent literature on measures of student motivations, engineering attitudes, engineering identities, and other evidence-based best practices. The project is expected to provide an in-depth understanding of student attitudes and motivations from minoritized backgrounds, and build contextualized learning modules for these students. The project outcomes will be delivered as workshops to support a diverse set of educators in their teaching. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.