CETRA
Center for Educational Technology, Research and Assessment

Personnel | Recent Projects | Purpose | Advisory Committee

Personnel

Recent Projects

Removing Barriers to Success: Reducing Gender Differences in 3-D Spatial Skills. National Science Foundation. Sheryl Sorby (PI); Co-PIs Paul Charlesworth, Thomas Drummer, Kedmon Hungwe (National Science Foundation ($499,534.00 with an effective date of 10/01/04.)

The ability to visualize objects and situations in one’s mind and to manipulate those images is a cognitive skill vital to many career fields, especially those requiring work with graphical images. Evidence suggests that well-developed spatial skills are critical to success in Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Medicine, Dentistry, and many other fields. Spatial abilities have been widely studied and are known to be fundamental to higher-level thinking, reasoning, and creative processes. Unfortunately, of all cognitive processes that have been investigated, spatial cognition shows some of the most robust gender differences favoring males, especially in the ability to mentally rotate 3-dimensional objects. This has obvious implications for our attempts to encourage gender equity in technical and scientific fields. Recognizing the importance of well-developed spatial skills for technological careers, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has included benchmarks regarding the development of spatial abilities within the Pre-college Mathematics Educational Standards. Fortunately, although individuals vary in spatial performance, research has shown that most, if not all, of the component skills can be improved through training and practice. The purpose of this project is to conduct research studies to investigate how materials developed at Michigan Technological University for improving spatial skills with undergraduate engineering students can be used with college students in other scientific disciplines as well as K-12 students. The materials consist a workbook and multimedia a software package.

Optimizing the Interdisciplinary Course: Introduction to Electrical Engineering (EE) for Non-EE Majors. National Science Foundation: Principal Investigator Seyed Zekavat. CO-PI(s) Kedmon Hungwe, Glen Archer, David Nelson, William Bulleit $462,398.00 with an effective date of 09/01/04.

It is generally recognized in the academic environment that an introductory course in Electrical Engineering (EE) should be offered to the non electrical engineering (non EE) students. As a result, almost all engineering institutions offer at least one “service course” for non EE majors through the EE department. Traditionally, the content of this EE service course is a cut-and-paste combination of some of the content of courses offered to EE students. In addition, the traditional approach covers some limited topics in EE in detail, but does not cover the broad range of technologies in the field of electrical engineering. This practice is not consistent with growing interdisciplinary technologies and it does not adequately fulfill students’ future needs.

The goal of the project is to develop create an optimized 3-credit service course for all non-EE majors. The approach is based on a combination of in-class, and web-based instruction. Faculty members from different non-EE areas, professional engineers, graduate and undergraduate students have been surveyed to determine the topics and depth of coverage for the curriculum.

Purpose

Center for Educational Technology, Research and Assessment (CETRA) is dedicated to educational improvement through linkages between cutting edge scientific and engineering research to classroom teachers. CETRA provides program and project assessment and evaluation; designs instructional programs in mathematics, science, technology, and social science based on educational research; develops technology-rich instruction; and provides support for the professional development of teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Advisory Committee

Chris Anderson
Executive Director of Educational Opportunity and Special Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity, Michigan Tech

John Christianson
Chair, Science Department, Houghton High School, Houghton, MI

Shawn Oppliger
Executive Director, Western Upper Peninsula Center for Science, Mathematics & Environmental Education
Copper Country Intermediate School District

Kristin Schourek
Biology Teacher, Hancock High School, Hancock, MI

Steve Vanden Avond
Evaluator, Assoc Prof of Psychology & Dir Psychology