(309f) Using Survey Data to Assess Chemical Engineering Student Acumen

Matthew J. Armstrong, Geoffrey Bull, Andrew Biaglow

1) Department of Chemistry and Life Science, United States Military Academy,

West Point, NY 10996

Using Survey Data to Assess Chemical Engineering Student Acumen

 

Engineers graduating from ABET-accredited programs are expected to be able to identify engineering problems. The skill is identified in Criterion 3 of the Criteria for Programs, which lists the required student outcomes. [1] According to student outcome (e), at the time of graduation, students will have “an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.” A considerable amount of information is available on theory and practice relating to this outcome. [2-5]. However, while most assessment protocols do a good job on formulation and solving, it is difficult to find information on the direct assessment of students’ ability to identify engineering problems. Identification is almost never directly assessed. [6]

The ability to identify an engineering problem is an important skill that has been identified by ABET as part of its accreditation criteria. Specifically, student outcome (e) in Criterion 3 requires the ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems. A great deal has been written about how engineers formulate and solve problems, but very little information is available on how engineers identify problems, even less on how this skill is assessed. For the most part, engineering programs focus on assessing formulation and solution, and assume that identification is a natural part of that process. In this presentation, we discuss a test that we have developed to directly assess our student’s ability to identify engineering problems. The results show that our students possess the ability to a degree, and that this ability develops with the amount of student experience. Furthermore, by comparing the test results from those of the students to those obtained form more experienced engineers, we are able to directly assess the degree to which our students have developed the ability. [6]

We expand the study longitudinally (30% more data) with the addition of new graduating class data from our most recent graduating chemical engineers, as well as present a novel new visual presentation strategy to show how the classes compare to previous classes, as well as how each class compares to department faculty who have taken the survey. In addition we compare our results to other departments at West Point.

References

[6] M. Armstrong, G. Bull, and A. Biaglow. Assessment of Student Ability to Identify Engineering Problems. (2016) ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Conference. Hofstra University.

http://www.hofstra.edu/academics/colleges/seas/seas-fall16-asee-conferen...