An outcome of a 1998 forum sponsored by the National Research Council was a recognition that topics related to food production and agriculture are excellent mechanisms for integrating science topics taught in the K-12 education system and for providing many avenues for inquiry based and project based learning. The engineering design process is…

The current study evaluated an assessment designed to dually promote student understanding of the experimental method and student ability to include digital and visual qualities in their presentations of scientific experiment results. The rubric, the Media-Enhanced Science Presentation Rubric (MESPR) focuses teacher-student dialogue along the…

There is continued growth and development of outreach programs designed to increase pre-college students' awareness and understanding of engineering as a profession and as a career. These outreach programs vary in format and in the groups targeted for participation, but maintain the same fundamental goal of increasing participant knowledge of…

In this study, interdisciplinary environments were created in NSF institutes and classrooms with graduate fellows and teachers. Using a mixed methodology, we examined how experiential learning influenced participants' mathematical/scientific actions and compared differences in mathematics/science efficacy and content understanding between…

Like all learners, undergraduate research interns bring to their research internships a variety of initial ideas, opinions, expectations, beliefs and attitudes about research internships. However, there is little published research on students' preconceptions about research internships and the relationships of these preconceptions to actual…

Within the literature there has been a call for the integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Little research has been conducted to investigate the effects of integrative approaches among STEM subjects. The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from existing research on the effects of…

We describe the design and implementation of Project WISE, a multi-institutional partnership that assembles interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and high school students charged with developing STEM-focused community youth-programs. Our goal is twofold: (i.) to promote young women's interest in STEM-oriented careers through an early, positive…

SPIRIT is a three year project designed to increase high school students' interests in and their desire to pursue IT careers. This paper examines the results of the project during its second year of implementation. All student participants, and in particular female students, experienced a positive change in perception of gender stereotypes in IT…

The beginning of modern science is marked by efforts of pioneers to understand the natural world using a quantitative approach. As Galileo wrote, "the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics". The traditional undergraduate course curriculum is heavily focused on individual disciplines like biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics…

The architect for the Mauritius Auditorium project sat in his office at Larsen & Toubro's headquarters in Chennai, India, pondering the phone call he had just received from the vice president, Mr. K.P. Raghavan. The polyvalent hall of the conference center was about to be used to host its first rock concert in February 2005, but during a rehearsal…

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lags behind the rest of the world in education. Less than 25 percent of qualified high school graduates in this region will make it to the university level, mainly because most countries within the region have less than three universities. Furthermore, alternatives to universities such as two year colleges and training…

This research was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of using a LITEE multimedia case study to teaching concepts in engineering courses. The LITEE Superstar case study was implemented in an engineering Project Management course. Numerous surveys regarding student expectations, outcomes, and attitudes were collected and results are presented…

This paper investigates the effect of bringing real world case studies on college students' self efficacy, their confidence, and their motivation toward an engineering field. It was found that working with real cases increases student's motivation and maximizes their learning by becoming personally committed to course and program goals. As a…

A review of "social experiments" with adoption of multimedia-based technologies in Europe has been reported. But, there has been limited discussion on the value of multimedia instructional materials in technical disciplines. This study combines results from experiments carried out over a period of three years with multiple audiences--IT managers…

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether presenting a multimedia case study enhances the learning experience of students in an undergraduate management class. A questionnaire was administered before and after the presentation of the case study and the results showed that the multimedia case did indeed enhance the learning…