Board 109: Retention-focused, S-STEM Supported Program

Abstract

(WVU). She graduated Summa cum Laude with a BSME in 2006, earned a MSME in 2008, and completed her doctorate in mechanical engineering in 2011, all from WVU. At WVU, she has previously served as the Undergraduate and Outreach Advisor for the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department and the Assistant Director of the Center for Building Energy Efficiency. She has previously taught courses such as Thermodynamics, Thermal Fluids Laboratory, and Guided Missiles Systems, as well as serving as a Senior Design Project Advisor for Mechanical Engineering Students. Her research interests include energy and thermodynamic related topics. Since 2007 she has been actively involved in recruiting and outreach for the Statler College, as part of this involvement Dr. Morris frequently makes presentations to groups of K-12 students, as well as perspective WVU students and their families.

Board 350: NSF S-STEM Academy of Engineering Success: Reflections on a Seven-Year Journey

“…The NSF S-STEM funded AcES program research has resulted in eight conference papers and two invited presentations which focused on first-to-second year retention of AcES S-STEM Scholars, the AcES S-STEM Scholars' self-assessment of academic and professional success skills, and their feelings of institutional inclusion, engineering self-efficacy and identity [1], [2]. These results focused on attrition between the first and second years of college and indicated support for the Kruger-Dunning Effect, "a cognitive bias in which unskilled people do not recognize their incompetence in specific areas and often overestimate their abilities" [3], [4], [5]. Specifically, AcES scholars not retaining to the second year tended to enter college with unrealistic expectations: underestimating the time and effort required to succeed in their major and overestimating their ability to succeed with little effort [2], [3], [5].…”

“…Past research used surveys and individual and focus group interviews to measure AcES scholars' feelings of institutional inclusion, engineering self-efficacy and identity, and assessment of their own development of academic and professional success skills [1], [2]. Results supported the Kruger-Dunning Effect, "a cognitive bias in which unskilled people do not recognize their incompetence in specific areas and often overestimate their abilities" [3], [4], [5]. Specifically, students who did not retain to the second year tended to enter college with unrealistic expectations regarding: (1) the time and effort required to succeed in a challenging major and (2) their ability to succeed with little effort.…”

Student Impressions of Elements of a S-STEM Program

“…The PECS program consists of a variety of activities for the scholarship students. Most of these activities are not unique to the PECS program, and you can find similar S-STEM program activities at many other schools [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. As expected of an S-STEM program, these activities incorporate college-wide activities available to all students, and special programs that are made available to the scholarship students.…”