This work in progress describes the study of a Mechanical Engineering Technology Program's experiences in the immediate aftermath of Covid-19. Covid-19 and the effects of social distancing as a precaution has had widespread and significant effects in all aspects of life, including education. As with many institutions, the Mechanical Engineering (MET) department at ___ University, has undergone a wide range of adjustments and accommodations since the campus's abrupt closure in the spring of 2020 to try and continue to deliver quality education under the given circumstances. One of the commonly identified differences between engineering technology (ET) and engineering is the focus on application. To put it in layperson's terms, ET tends towards the "hands on" approach of engineering concepts. However, Covid-19 preventative measures forced campus closures and limited access to many of the resources that made an ET education unique. Distance learning was thrust upon a population whose pedagogy was largely founded on the idea of in-person participation: No more could a student select materials after conducting material property tests; machines were not run by students learning how to carry out design instructions; FEA and CAD were not done at proper workstations but instead through balky remote access, and 3D printed models were simulated and assessed virtually. A field whose educators regularly instructed students "you try this", were all instead asking them "you watch this". The effects of Covid-19 upon various institutions are likely to be longstanding, as returning to what once was considered normal will unforeseeably never happen in totality. As part of the engineering technology community, it is important to contribute to the knowledge base regarding the collective experience. Just as novel observations may serve to identify opportunities for advancement or disparities between populations, recurring observations can add to literature validating pedagogical phenomena. This study will utilize explorative qualitative methods to gain preliminary insight into the experiences at a particular setting. A grounded theory approach to faculty and student interviews will serve as the foundation to develop hypotheses regarding effects of Covid19 on the MET program, as well as responses to said effects. Findings can be used to inform practice as society tries to move forward in the new normalcies of engineering education.

[University] has recently implemented a requirement that before any technology intended for classroom use is approved for purchase, including renewals of software, there must be an equally effective alternate plan (EEAAP) in place for that technology. The plan must answer the question “What will you do if a person with a disability gets involved in your program and is impacted by the lack of accessibility on this technology.” The plan does not require the person with a disability to have an identical classroom experience but should offer an experience that can provide a similar body of knowledge and learning opportunities as that gained by people who do not have the affected disabilities. The motivation for this requirement is compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended in 2008. When faculty at [University] were attempting to purchase a renewal for the license to their CES software, a tool that is used in materials engineering courses in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program, the [University] Accessibility Team determined that the software was not accessible to visually impaired students because it did not have text equivalents for all features, could not be fully accessed by assistive technology, nor could it be used by keyboard alone. Thus, an Equally Effective Alternate Access Plan (EEAAP) had to be developed. This paper will detail the process that faculty at [University] undertook to create an EEAAP not just for CES, but also a template that could be used when purchasing other technology used in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program. This process took several months to complete, and based on the investigation of the faculty involved, these requirements may soon be implemented across programs at other universities. The paper will also include recommendations for implementation of compliance initiatives at other institutions; specifically, strategies to minimize confusion, maximize faculty buy-in, and contribute to an inclusive, welcoming environment will be discussed.

In this Work-in-Progress (WIP) paper, we share how we address the urgent need to prepare Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers and faculty with 21 st-century teaching and learning knowledge and skills. Engineering education is now provided across all levels of learning and yet a major constraint is the number of teachers and informal educators prepared to teach engineering content. While engineering higher education faculty are likely in possession of strong discipline-specific knowledge, they often enter the workforce without formal pedagogical training. Faculty may be lacking guidance on how to develop best-practice approaches for pedagogical content knowledge or how to effectively teach students literacy within a discipline. Across our nation's educational landscape, engineering education graduate programs housed in engineering and education schools are striving to meet this ongoing demand for more and qualified engineering educators. At our university, we are looking to enter this market and develop a master's level program in engineering education focusing on providing discipline-specific, evidence-based pedagogy to students with engineering backgrounds and students with education backgrounds. This work, based on current gathered data and perspectives, raises fundamental questions about audience, purpose, and transformative approaches.

The Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory (EGCI) was the first such instrument to be developed with the intent of measuring understanding and misconception in the area of engineering graphics. As technology, methods, and standards continue to change, so too will the content and format of the EGCI. Monitoring the EGCI’s performance against current trends and practices in the area of engineering graphics can help keep the instrument a useful tool in engineering education research. One of the areas that will be observed on an ongoing basis will be the validity of the instrument. Plainly put, validity are measurements of how much an instrument is measuring the variable it claims to be. The convergent validity of an instrument speaks to how correlated two instruments are that claim to measure the same latent ability. It stands to reason then, that a new instrument would correlate positively with an established method of measurement. This study will examine the how well the EGCI correlates with class performance over a series of engineering graphics classes that have instruction on all of the topics assessed in the EGCI. Performance in the class and on the instrument will be compared and analyzed. Currently the instrument is housed on a platform that is institutionally proprietary, and is undergoing a conversion it to a platform that will ensure its sustainability for future use and improvement. The conversion is scheduled to be completed by the end of the 2018 fall semester, and this paper will contain participant data from both the fall 2018 and spring 2019 semesters.

A concept inventory is an instrument that helps identify concepts that students do not understand and identify which misconceptions are the most common. Since the development of the first concept inventory (the Force Concept Inventory in Physics education), a number of other instruments have been created in a variety of engineering subjects. For example, there are currently Concept Inventories in thermodynamics, heat transfer, and statics. The use of Concept Inventories has spurred educational reform in a wide range of settings and Concept Inventories have also been used in course development to identify potential topics for inclusion and to aid in assessment of course outcomes. At the start of this project, there was no nationally normed and validated instrument for engineering graphics so a group of graphics professionals set out to create one with support from the National Science Foundation. The engineering graphics CI is currently on its gamma (third) version of the “final” document, over five years from when we began work on it. Since Concept Inventories have existed in engineering education research for more than 20 years, there are many publications describing the methods used in creating the instruments. For this project, we followed a previously established procedure called the “Assessment Triangle.” This paper will discuss the many valuable lessons learned along the way in the creation of the graphics Concept Inventory and will also describe pitfalls to avoid for anyone wishing to develop a Concept Inventory in the future.

Spatial visualization skills are vital to many careers and in particular to STEM fields. Materials have been developed at Michigan Technological University and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College to assess and develop spatial skills. The EnViSIONS (Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success) project is combining these materials and testing them with pre-college and college students at seven institutions: Michigan Tech, Penn State Behrend, Purdue University, University of Iowa, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, and a “Project Lead the Way” course in south-central Arizona. By removing a barrier to success for students with low visualization skills, particularly women, the project leaders hope to improve the retention of these students in STEM disciplines and to enhance their success. This paper will give a brief overview of the implementations at the university level and the findings.

Previous studies found that students enrolled in introductory engineering graphics courses at a historically black university (HBCU) had significantly lower than average test scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT) when it was administered during the first week of class. Since the ability to visualize is linked with success in engineering and technology studies, changes to the courses were made that resulted in improvement of these students’ visualization abilities. Activities included the use of sketching, blocks and multimedia. It was hypothesized that improving the students’ visualization abilities would also improve their overall academic success. Retention in the major and graduation rates of minorities in STEM related fields tend to be lower than their non-minority peers, especially so at HBCUs. To assess the long-term impact of visualization remediation on student success in engineering and technology majors, data was collected on students in a test group and also those in a control group who enrolled in other sections of the engineering graphics courses. Statistics were compared for overall GPA and grades in math and physics courses. Other data gathered included whether the students were retained in the major and at the university. Significant differences were found in the students’ GPAs with higher averages earned by those students in the test group. Also a higher percentage of students in the test group were retained both in an engineering or technology major and at the university even if they did change their major.

More reliable instruments need to be developed to assess curricula and measure student learning. It is important to ensure that students properly understand fundamental concepts, as scaffolding learning on a poor foundation can have a negative cascading effect. A concept inventory is an example of an instrument that aims to assess student learning and identifying their misconceptions. Such an instrument is typically comprised of an assessment whose items are prudently chosen to test understanding of a single concept per item. The result of this careful selection of items for the Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory resulted in a 30-question multiple choice instrument that can be used to identify deep-seated misconceptions and to assess course outcomes. This paper will outline the development of the Engineering Graphics Concept Inventory, focusing specifically on developing distractors and the selection process for the items in the instrument. The instrument will provide a means to assess and streamline curricula for engineering graphics educators.

Concept Inventories (CI) are designed to measure student understanding of fundamental concepts and have been used in education reform efforts for the past several years. A CI for engineering graphics is currently being developed. The original intent of the graphics CI was that it would include both “modern” (i.e., CAD) and “traditional” (i.e., sketching, conventions, etc.) fundamental concepts. The first step in the development of the graphics CI was to create open-ended problems for students to solve to determine common misconceptions and to identify future distractors for the eventual multiple choice items. The open-ended problems for traditional topics produced a variety of responses that could be neatly categorized into common misconceptions and from which distractors could be readily identified. However, the open-ended problems for the CAD topics produced multiple responses that were difficult to categorize and interpret. Further, it was apparent that for each open-ended CAD item there were possibly dozens of correct solutions. Since optimal modeling strategies depend on design intent, different CAD packages, or manufacturing processes, judging a correct answer was sometimes impossible. During an Advisory Board meeting for the project, a series of multiple choice questions that had been developed for assessment in a high school competency exam were identified. The project team reviewed the competency exam and identified several promising candidate items for inclusion in the CI. These items were then alpha-tested with a pool of students who had prior CAD knowledge. This paper outlines the results from the alpha-testing of these CAD items and the analysis of their suitability for use in the graphics Concept Inventory.

This paper describes the initial development of a concept inventory for Engineering Graphics. As instructional methods continue to evolve in the area of graphics, there is a need for a concept inventory instrument that is able to measure the students’ misconceptions of important graphical concepts. In a 2014 Delphi study, CAD was identified as an important component of the graphics curriculum to be included in the concept inventory. There have been unanticipated challenges in the creation of multiple-choice items designed to assess the understanding of the concepts in the CAD construct. This paper is a work-in-progress describing the evolution of possible CAD items. Details documenting the evolution of a representative item will be highlighted in this paper.

A concept inventory is an instrument that helps identify concepts that students do not understand, and identify which misconceptions are the most prevailing. Concept Inventories can also be used in course design to identify potential topics and aid in assessment. Misconceptions can be deep-seated ideas and therefore challenging to overcome in terms of learning. The use of a quality inventory in engineering graphics may help address such matters. Presently, there exists no nationally normed and validated instrument that can be used in engineering graphics courses to assess misconceptions and competencies.In a previous project, a Delphi Study was used to help identify fundamental topics in the area of engineering graphics. The research team collaborated to produce items that attempted to address these concepts. Piloting these initial items helped improve the item stems and provided a starting point on the formation of distractors. Revised items were compiled into a trial instrument, from which data is being collected at the time of paper submission. Analysis will be conducted on the results of the trial instruments and further refinement will occur.

Haptic Abilities and Their Impact on Teaching and Learning in the STEM FieldsHaptic ability refers to an individual’s sensitivity to touch and the ability to combine partialtactile information about an object into a whole mental image. These abilities are important toengineers, technologists, and others in the STEM fields. The Haptic Visual Discrimination Test(HVDT) is a standardized test used to measure tactile sensitivity.Previous studies have shown that students entering into the STEM fields tend to have higherhaptic abilities, as measured by the HVDT, than the population as a whole. In one of thosestudies, a sample of over 200 freshman engineering students was found to have haptic abilities atone standard deviation above the mean expected for neurotypical adults over the age of 18. Theauthors of this paper are proposing a study to determine if college students preparing to becometeachers in the STEM fields have similar abilities as the students they will be teaching. The studywill be conducted in three phases. The goal of phase 1 is to gather additional data on incomingfreshman engineering and engineering technology students to verify previous research resultsindicating high haptic abilities based on HVDT scores. Phase 2 will focus on the testing ofcollege students who plan to become elementary or secondary STEM teachers. During phase 3we will analyze the data to determine if there is any difference among three groups – the overallpopulation of adults (data already exists), freshmen engineering students, and future STEMteachers. The results of these three phases will help to determine the focus of future research inthis area including outreach to increase knowledge of the importance of haptic activities inSTEM instruction.The paper will contain detailed information on previous research on the haptic abilities offreshman engineering and technology students and its relevance to classroom instruction,followed by a discussion of current trends in STEM education in elementary and secondaryschools. The need to assess the haptic tendencies of future STEM teachers will be addressedalong with plans for future research based on the outcomes of the HVDT testing. The importanceof precollege instruction to the success of engineering and engineering technology students willalso be discussed.

Retention in the major and graduation rates of minority students in STEM related fields tend to be lower than their non-minority peers, especially so at HBCUs. Previous studies found that students enrolled in introductory engineering graphics courses at Virginia State University, an HBCU, had lower than average test scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT) when it was administered during the first week of class. Because of the positive correlation between visualization ability and academic success in STEM courses, changes were made to the engineering graphics courses to add a variety of visualization enhancing activities including the use of sketching, blocks and multimedia. The result of these activities was improvement of the students' visualization abilities and it was hypothesized that this improvement would also positively affect the students' overall academic success.To assess the long-term impact of visualization remediation on overall student success, data was collected on the students in the test group and also those in a control group who enrolled in sections of the engineering graphics courses that did not include visualization-specific instruction. Along with retention and graduation rates, statistics are compared for overall GPA and grades earned in math and physics courses. Analysis found significant differences in the students' GPAs with higher averages earned by those students in the test group. Also a higher percentage of students in the test group were retained both in an engineering or technology major and at the university even if they did change their major.

The Haptic Visual Discrimination Test (HVDT) is a standardized and quantitative test that requires skills in tactile sensitivity, spatial synthesis and the ability to integrate partial information about an object into a whole. In this test, the subject manipulates an object in one hand without seeing it, and then selects a corresponding object on an identification chart with their free hand. The test was developed of a period of eight years and tested on both normal and disability subjects, with test-retest reliability of the HVDT between .91 and .93. The HVDT was administered to a large sample of engineering students and the mean of the resulting scores was one standard deviation above the mean of the normal population. The high instance of haptic ability in these students, who also showed high visualization ability, suggests a potential need for haptic and tactile related instruction in addition to lectures and computer-based or virtual formats.

Visualization is a significant factor in the creation of mental models and in the interaction with the often abstract concepts that are important for success in engineering and technology related majors. An ongoing study has found that a particular sample of minority engineering and technology students at a historically black university scored statistically significantly lower than average on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations when administered as a pretest in a 2D-focused mechanical drawing course. The posttest scores of these same subjects, after a semester of instruction, were still not up to average. Because of the inadequate increase in posttest scores, remediation that focused on sketching and other exercises to improve visualization was implemented in subsequent offerings of the course. The posttest scores of those students receiving remediation improved to bring the mean up to average.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Using LEGOs to Reinforce Basic Parametric Modeling Practices N. E. Study Department of Engineering, ENTC, INTC Virginia State University Abstract Incorporating design intent and the use of appropriate naming strategies are fundamental concepts of efficient parametric modeling. A class of primarily junior level engineering and technology students, most of whom were having their first experience with parametric modeling, was struggling with these basic concepts. Although the students had received instruction on the importance of naming their files, features, and sketches and incorporating design intent into their models, they were not implementing these practices into their projects. To help reinforce basic concepts and get students to realize that in the real world, more than one person may work on a design file, it was decided to introduce a LEGO modeling project into the course. This project required the students to model three or four parts of a LEGO® backhoe. The individual files were collected by the instructor and redistributed to the students so they could each assemble the complete model. If a part did not fit properly into the assembly and needed editing, each student made a decision to either fix the part or recreate it if editing was not feasible. The students were required to keep track of which parts worked, and which needed editing in order to complete the assembly. This paper focuses on the outcome of the project and includes feedback from the students on what they learned from the experience and their comments on working on a team project. Also included are graphic examples of the assembled LEGO backhoe both before and after editing the individual parts. Introduction Some of the most fundamental concepts of efficient parametric modeling are incorporating design intent through the use of dimensions/parameters and having an appropriate naming strategy for planes, features, and parts in order that future editing of the model can be accomplished by someone other than the originator. In Pro/DESKTOP, the software used in the course discussed in this paper, if the default names are not changed, each new feature, plane, or design file is named with a generic name such as; workplane1, revolution1, extrusion1, or design1. These default names do not give another user enough information to easily edit the part, as would names such as; hole pattern plane, cap profile, thru hole, or tractor tire. Also, the dimensions/parameters on the sketches are important because these parameters define the geometry and allow features to be edited. In a junior level CAD course, most students were not implementing the basic concepts of naming and fully dimensioning their sketches in their projects although they had been instructed “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society of Engineering Education”

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A plethora of literature exists to which new engineering educators can refer that will assist them succeed as scholars.Blocking out time to write every day or every week; learning to say "no"; ignoring bad reviews and heeding critical reviews; reading; writing, writing, writing; exhibiting a willingness to change; being flexible; and being reasonable are included among the suggestions the literature promotes.The intent of this paper in contrast was to provide new engineering educators with a framework for negotiating the journal publication process.In particular, the paper addresses the procedures for producing a manuscript, negotiating the review process, and negotiating the process for producing an article.The paper also identifies the more frequent manuscript shortcomings and reviewer suggestions for improving a manuscript.