Supporting Diversity in Teams Through Asset Mapping

Abstract

project-Using Digital Badging and Design Challenge Modules to Develop Professional Identity. She is a member of the department's ABET and Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, as well as faculty advisor for several student societies. She is the instructor of several courses in the CBE curriculum including the Material and Energy Balances, junior laboratories and Capstone Design courses. She is associated with several professional organizations including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and American Society of Chemical Engineering Education (ASEE) where she adopts and contributes to innovative pedagogical methods aimed at improving student learning and retention.

Integrating Asset-based Practices into Engineering Design Instruction

“…This first-year course includes both lecture and lab components, which meets twice a week for 50 minutes with 35 students per section. To evaluate the impact of ABP, we implemented one specific ABP strategy called asset mapping [14], [15] in one lab section of this course, taught by the first author of the study. This section was an honors section.…”

“…Specific examples of undergraduate engineering contexts, summarized in [10], include using culturally-responsive of community-inspired design projects and course examples [11]- [13]. Another approach is to ask students to identify and categorize their strengths and assets as part of course projects, creating an individual asset map [14], [15]. Another strategy is to work with students one-on-one and in small groups to identify and draw on their funds of knowledge [16].…”

“…Preliminary findings on ABP in engineering education contexts include improved confidence in marginalized students, more equitable distribution of responsibilities, and improved management of conflicts in student teams [14], [15]. Additionally, prior work provides evidence that ABP can inform sense of belonging for marginalized students [16] and promote identity and self-efficacy [17], [18].…”

Insights and Outcomes from a Revolution in a Chemical Engineering Department

“…Ultimately, as a result of the changes, our students developed more expert-like skills related to designing [43][44][45][46], more sophisticated ethical reasoning [47,48], improved collaboration skills [44,49], and all without having a negative impact on conceptual learning. Our longitudinal analysis suggests that our approach has fostered persistence, especially among first-generation Latinx students, in part because of a focus on students' assets [50,51].…”

Motivation and Impact of Diverse Student Teams in Graduate Projects

“…To succeed in engineering practice, students must learn to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams [2] [9]. Researchers found that when working in teams, students were able to identify gaps in their professional skills in areas of communication, project management, and teamwork [10]. In addition, by working in diverse teams, students may be willing to understand and accommodate differences to facilitate better experiences and improve results [11].…”