TY - JOUR
T1 - The broader impacts of an additive manufacturing course at three large universities
AU - Maloney, Patricia Ann
AU - Cong, Weilong
AU - Zhang, Meng
AU - Li, Bingbing
N1 - Funding Information:
However, despite AM’s increasing importance to the U.S. economy, we found (via of a survey of approximately 60 other colleges of engineering) that almost no universities have a permanent undergraduate course on it. Thus, we have created and implemented such a course at our universities with NSF support (grant number redacted). This paper documents the effects of an additive manufacturing course on two discrete sets of students: (1) the undergraduates who took the course and (2) the middle and high school students who visited our labs. This course was designed to teach engineering undergraduates the principles of additive manufacturing and was supported by funds from NSF IUSE grant 1712311. It has been simultaneously run during the spring semester for the past three years at Texas Tech University (a Carnegie high research productivity and Hispanic Serving Institution), Kansas State University (a Carnegie high research productivity and land grant school), and California State University, Northridge (a public state school that focuses on teaching first-generation and other underprivileged students). Currently, nine semesters of data (three years at three schools) have been collected, as well as data from the middle and high school students who visited our labs.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education 2020.
PY - 2020/6/22
Y1 - 2020/6/22
N2 - This paper documents the effects of an additive manufacturing course on two sets of students: (1) the undergraduates who took the course and (2) the middle and high school students who visited our labs. At the time of the conference, nine semesters of data (three years at three schools) will have been collected, as well as data from the middle and high school students who visited our labs. Overall, our research questions were: (1) what is the effect of this course on the content knowledge of (a) enrolled undergraduates and (b) middle and high school students? And (2) what is the effect of this course on the attitudes towards engineering and self-efficacy in engineering for (a) enrolled undergraduates and (b) middle and high school students? To determine the answers, our longitudinal matched-pairs data collection was conducted. In short, as measured by t-test, all students improved on content knowledge (p<.01), but female students improved slightly more than male students (+9.89 versus +9.01, respectively). Undergraduates did not change their minds about the factors that are important in engineering, although they did significantly change their self-efficacy ratings in some skills because of the course. In particular, undergraduates rated themselves higher in teamwork, creativity, and technical skills, which reflect the content and focus of the course. Additionally, we brought multiple field trips of middle and high school students into our labs for outreach. Using a simplified version of the metric described above, we can see that all students improved on content knowledge.
AB - This paper documents the effects of an additive manufacturing course on two sets of students: (1) the undergraduates who took the course and (2) the middle and high school students who visited our labs. At the time of the conference, nine semesters of data (three years at three schools) will have been collected, as well as data from the middle and high school students who visited our labs. Overall, our research questions were: (1) what is the effect of this course on the content knowledge of (a) enrolled undergraduates and (b) middle and high school students? And (2) what is the effect of this course on the attitudes towards engineering and self-efficacy in engineering for (a) enrolled undergraduates and (b) middle and high school students? To determine the answers, our longitudinal matched-pairs data collection was conducted. In short, as measured by t-test, all students improved on content knowledge (p<.01), but female students improved slightly more than male students (+9.89 versus +9.01, respectively). Undergraduates did not change their minds about the factors that are important in engineering, although they did significantly change their self-efficacy ratings in some skills because of the course. In particular, undergraduates rated themselves higher in teamwork, creativity, and technical skills, which reflect the content and focus of the course. Additionally, we brought multiple field trips of middle and high school students into our labs for outreach. Using a simplified version of the metric described above, we can see that all students improved on content knowledge.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095789500&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85095789500
VL - 2020-June
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
SN - 2153-5965
M1 - 11
Y2 - 22 June 2020 through 26 June 2020
ER -