The maker movement is a growing social phenomenon that is being embraced in various fields, including education. There are many advantages to incorporating making into education, especially in engineering design, such as supporting real-life application of knowledge, multidisciplinary collaboration, problem-solving and teamwork. Elements that have not been looked at in the literature are the impacts of these making elements on students, more specifically on their feelings of inclusion in making and engineering environments. The extent of the impacts of making on project outcomes and teamwork in project-based learning engineering design courses are also contested. This thesis fills those research gaps by exploring students’ feelings and behaviours in a university makerspace and cornerstone engineering design courses. The general objectives are to study the effects of the makerspace as well as team dynamics and personality traits on student perception and behaviour in the Faculty of Engineering, specifically in cornerstone engineering design courses. This will be achieved by exploring factors that lead to feelings of inclusion in making and engineering, identify reasons students participate in these communities and exploring factors that influence team performance in a project-based engineering design course. Three studies are then conducted to meet these objectives. The first study found that in both the making and engineering contexts, connecting with the identity, participation and distinctiveness were identified as themes that provide reasons for feeling or not feeling included. Sustained involvement was identified as being an important factor in leading to increased feelings of inclusion. The second study found a difference between men and women, where the adjusted project grade for male students can be in part explained by some personality traits, but no traits were found to be significant for female students. The average team conscientiousness was also found to be a predictor of the team project grade. The last study found that the course has an equalizing effect on feelings of inclusion for students in engineering. Making seems to have the same effect as engineering for male students; however, not for females. Adjusted project grade was also found to be a significant predictor of the change in scores for all students’ feelings of inclusion in making and for the female students’ feelings of inclusion in engineering.

The General Engineering Program exists at Virginia Tech to provide curriculums that engage, challenge and support entry-level engineers. One important part of this initiative is helping students identify with a specific engineering branch, and overtime develop an identity within it. Yet, there exists little research on what entry-level engineers believe it means to be an engineer, especially during these stages of early formation and continual shifting. In order to generate insight on this topic we developed a contextual inquiry method to help inquire into engineering identity. Two participants were placed in an online chatroom and allowed to talk for ten minutes, with one trying to answer the question 'Am I talking to an engineer or not?' and asked to give their reasoning. Comparisons allow entry-level engineering students to articulate their beliefs on what characteristics, behaviors and personalities make up their cohort -- thus exposing their ideas about identity. Moreover, this methodology also provides opportunities for participants to critique their own bias and further develop and expose their opinions on identity. Additionally, our findings showcase the complexity around student's perceptions of engineers. For example, participants' responses pointed to: many sources that inform identity, the difficulty of identifying what is uniquely engineering, how identity is impacted by the ideal image of an engineer, that identity is a spectrum, and that identity varies with respect to associations and time. As a result, through our inquiry and representation of results we demonstrate the validity of our methodology as a HCI research tool along with the power of narrative forms of representation. / Master of Science / The General Engineering Program exists at Virginia Tech to provide curriculums that engage, challenge and support entry-level engineers. One important part of this initiative is helping students identify with a specific type of engineering, and overtime develop an identity within it. Yet, there exists little research on what entry-level engineers believe it means to be an engineer, especially during their freshmen year of college when they are still forming and changing their ideas about engineering identity. In order to generate insight on this topic we developed a methodology to help inquire into engineering identity. Two participants at a time were placed in an online chatroom and allowed to talk for ten minutes, with one trying to answer the question ‘Am I talking to an engineer or not?’ and asked to give their reasoning. Comparisons allow entry-level engineering students to articulate their beliefs on what characteristics, behaviors and personalities make up their cohort -- thus exposing their ideas about identity. Moreover, this methodology also provides opportunities for participants to critique their own assumptions about engineering identity and further develop and expose their opinions on identity. Additionally, our findings showcase the complexity around student’s perceptions of engineers. For example, participants’ responses pointed to: many sources that inform identity, the difficulty of identifying what is uniquely engineering, how identity is impacted by the ideal image of an engineer, that identity is a spectrum, and that identity varies with respect to associations and time. As a result, through our inquiry and representation of results we demonstrate the validity of our methodology as a Human Computer Interaction research tool along with the power of using written stories to represent results.

The National Research Council (2010) reports that minorities and women are consistently overlooked as a critical source of STEM talent and expertise, and are a segment of the population that must be sought after if the U.S. is to meet the educational, industry and military demands of tomorrow. These three entities (education, industry and military) are key stakeholders in the preparation of a strong STEM workforce, and each is heavily vested in the recruitment of the most talented individuals. Despite the military's ongoing efforts, specifically those of the Department of the Air Force (DAF), the armed forces continue to fall short in recruiting and retaining women and minorities in engineering (National Research Council, 2010). This qualitative, phenomenological study is informed by Gee's (2000) theory of four interconnected perspectives of identity, Erickson's (1962) Psychosocial Theory of Development, Godwin's (2016) engineering identity development, Kummel's (2018) military identity, and Lent et al.'s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and sought to answer the following research question: How do Department of the Air Force (DAF) Women Of Color (WOC) Developmental Engineers (DE) describe the lived experiences that have affected and shaped their engineering identity development and enabled them to become DAF WOC DEs? The current state of knowledge about and understanding of the many ways in which WOC become DE in the DAF and develop their engineering identity are complex but amenable to further review and intervention solutions. Many of the issues addressed in the literature review remain unaddressed or insufficiently addressed: the need for self-belief, competent and compassionate educators, science learning experiences with engineers, role models, STEM motivation and identity, shared military meaning for engineers, affiliations with minority engineering programs, and a range of support including family, financial, emotional and educational. Purposeful sampling was used to intentionally find the people who have experienced the phenomenon of being a WOC Developmental Engineer (DE) in the DAF to best articulate their lived experiences and inform the research study (Creswell and Poth, 2018). Criteria for participation included identifying as a woman or female, being a member of the DAF (USAF or USSF), carrying the 62E Developmental Engineering Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC), and belonging to one of the following ethnic or minority groups: American Indian/Native Alaskan, Asian, Black or African American, identified as more than one race, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Island, Hispanic or Latino. Six women responded to the solicitation and were interviewed. The research participants for this study are adult female members of the DAF, active duty or retired. DAF comprises both the United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Space Force (USSF). The key points from the findings suggest four major themes, closely aligned with the work of Gee (2000), in understanding the dynamic nature of identity as an important analytic tool for how people perform or see themselves in society, in school, in learning, and in life. The four major perspectives/themes are nature identity e.g., female; institutional identity e.g. DAF; discursive/discourse identity e.g. recognition; and affinity identity e.g. developmental engineering. Based on the experiences of these women, developing an interest in STEM or engineering along with setting a goal early in life is key to becoming an engineer. Additionally, various learning experiences supported by a strong math foundation played a role in developing an interest in engineering, especially hands-on experiences. Having a strong math foundation was important to developing engineering identity. Math helps students think abstractly, develop critical thinking skills, and enables them to deal with hard, ill-defined problems. Math is also an area where students need encouragement and are likely to struggle and need help. Connecting math to real world situations and applications helps with interest and as Alma puts it, math can "activate the curiosity of the mind". Critical choices were made to get scholarships and to join ROTC enabling them to earn an engineering degree and providing a pathway to the DAF. Essentially, learning experiences including having a strong math foundation, interests/goals, support/self-belief, and critical choices supported these women in developing their engineering identity. Having the support of family and teachers and encouragement are also keys to self-belief and perseverance. Within this, conscientiousness is also seen because the women set a challenging goal and then took the necessary steps to achieve that goal. They were diligent in their learning experiences and very achievement oriented. The women valued having a cohort for encouragement and support. Recognizing that both the military and engineering will enable a career and not just a job seemed critical to these women. There was a need to be financially independent so engineering and the military provided this. Whether it was deciding to be an engineer or deciding to be an engineer in the DAF, seeing minority women in leadership roles was critical for pivotal decisions. Seeing women of color in the military in leadership roles served as a source of inspiration for some of the participants and fostered certain decisions. Once into their career, the desire to stay technical served as a recognition of who they are as engineers and led to new goals and decisions. The participants did not allow the military to strip them of their identity but they fought to have impressive careers. Several implications and recommendations are presented for how to get more Women of Color into the engineering career field and into the DAF. Recommendations were distilled to recruiting, encouragement and mentoring, exposure, utilizing various platforms to showcase representation, developing partnerships with ROTC and local schools, and ensuring visuals on television and in movies. / Doctor of Philosophy / The National Research Council (2010) reports that minorities and women are consistently overlooked as a critical source of STEM talent and expertise, and are a segment of the population that must be sought after if the U.S. is to meet the educational, industry and military demands of tomorrow. Despite the military's ongoing efforts, specifically those of the Department of the Air Force (DAF), the armed forces continue to fall short in recruiting and retaining women and minorities in engineering (National Research Council, 2010). This study sought to better understand how six DAF Women of Color (WOC) Developmental Engineers (DE) describe the lived experiences that have affected and shaped their engineering identity development and enabled them to become DAF WOC DEs. Understanding how these WOC developed their engineering identity will provide insight into improving DAF recruiting strategies for this demographic. Each woman agreed to meet for a semi-structured interview via zoom. This qualitative, phenomenological study is informed by Gee's (2000) theory of four interconnected perspectives of identity, Erickson's (1962) Psychosocial Theory of Development, Godwin's (2016) engineering identity development, Kummel's (2018) military identity, and Lent et al.'s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT). Recommendations are directed to DAF and are heavily weighted toward education/learning experiences and mentorship.

Retention of engineering students to graduation and career is important business for both United States (U.S.) industries and engineering education institutions alike. Industries need competent engineers dedicated to working in the field of engineering beyond graduation in order to achieve business success and national economic growth, while engineering education institutions need retention to graduation to achieve their own business goals. This dissertation took a three-pronged approach to identifying relationships between depth and specificity of engineering and response factors related to graduation and career retention of engineers. Occupational alignment, graduate school decisions, and engineering identity were evaluated for relationships with specificity or depth of discipline within engineering degrees to evaluate if increasing the depth or specificity increased the response factors. Using historical data analysis, occupational alignment and graduate school decisions were both found to be influenced by specificity of discipline. Traditional engineering disciplines were found to report the most occupational alignment after graduation, while specific engineering disciplines were more likely to attend graduate school after graduation. Additionally, for all students reporting graduate school attendance, all specificities were most likely to align their graduate degree discipline to their undergraduate degree discipline. A national survey of undergraduate engineering students revealed that engineering identity is related to depth of discipline. Students enrolled in more specific engineering curriculum, in the form of a discipline-specific major with a concentration, reported higher engineering identity. However, the discipline-specific depth of discipline followed closely behind, indicating the impact of depth of discipline is small. The largest difference in scores between the two depths of discipline was found in students' reports of a construct termed "interest". Ultimately, this dissertation found statistically significant relationships between depth and specificity of discipline and occupational alignment, graduate school decisions, and engineering identity. Though these findings are statistically significant, they were incremental, meaning depth and specificity of discipline should not be considered the main factor of influence.

No description available.