Two manifolds were designed to determine phosphate concentrations. The linear range for the 2-channel manifold was 0 to 30 mg L-1, and that for the 3-channel manifold was 0 to 400 mg L-1. Optimized conditions for the determination of arsenic with molybdenum-blue method were 0.5% w/v ascorbic acid, 0.4 M sulfuric acid in the molybdate solution and 80°C reaction temperature. A method for determination of arsenic using pervaporation flow injection hydride generation with visible spectrophotometry was developed. The method was sensitive for low arsenic concentrations (≤ 10 μg L-1), with sensitivity decreasing as arsenic concentration increased. There was no heating required, and the pervaporation membrane transferred only arsine. The analytical performance of two arsenic test kits was assessed. The Alpha Environmental kit cannot be recommended for arsenic measurement in water. The Hach kit was reliable for measuring arsenic concentrations greater than 70 μg L-1. A modified reaction tube was constructed that allowed NaBH4 solution to be delivered into the reaction mixture to replace zinc powder in the Hach kit, with no loss of gases. A more quantitative way of measuring arsenic using the Hach kit was developed by measuring the B-value of the color of jpeg images of test strips taken by a desktop scanner. Leersia oryzoides grown in soil amended with 110 mg kg-1arsenic extracted up to 305 μg g-1 and 272 μg g-1 arsenic into its shoots and roots respectively, giving a shoot:root quotient (SRQ) of 1.12 and phytoextraction coefficients (PEC) up to 1.3 in greenhouse experiments. Five supervised arsenic-related projects were reported. All except one of these reports fell short of the standards acceptable for a publishable manuscript. Factors such as high expectations, competitive entrance requirements and good motivation were responsible for the publishable report. For the remaining reports, problems with working in a team, relatively low expectations and lack of motivation were responsible. A laboratory-based research subject was successfully investigated in middle school classrooms. The program had been run for four consecutive years. Collaboration with the classroom teacher ensured that the program agreed with the school curriculum. All participants recommended continuation of this program.

<p>The dramatic underrepresentation of Alaska Natives in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees and professions calls for rigorous research in how students access these fields. Research has shown that students who complete advanced mathematics and science courses while in high school are more academically prepared to pursue and succeed in STEM degree programs and professions. There is limited research on what motivates precollege students to become more academically prepared before they graduate from high school. In Alaska, Alaska Native precollege students regularly underperform on required State of Alaska mathematics and science exams when compared to non-Alaska Native students. Research also suggests that different things may motivate Alaska Native students than racial majority students. Therefore there is a need to better understand what motivates Alaska Native students to take and successfully complete advanced mathematics and science courses while in high school so that they are academically prepared to pursue and succeed in STEM degrees and professions. </p><p> The Alaska Native Science &amp; Engineering Program (ANSEP) is a longitudinal STEM educational enrichment program that works with Alaska Native students starting in middle school through doctoral degrees and further professional endeavors. Research suggests that Alaska Native students participating in ANSEP are completing STEM degrees at higher rates than before the program was available. ANSEP appears to be unique due to its longitudinal approach and the large numbers of Alaska Native precollege, university, and graduate students it supports. ANSEP provides precollege students with opportunities to take advanced high school and college-level mathematics and science courses and complete STEM related projects. Students work and live together on campus during the program components. Student outcome data suggests that ANSEP has been successful at motivating precollege participants to successfully complete advanced high school and college-level mathematics and science courses prior to high school graduation. </p><p> This study was designed to examine the motivations of Alaska Native high school students who participated in the ANSEP Precollege components to take advanced mathematics and science courses in high school or before college. Participants were 30 high school or college students, 25 of whom were Alaska Native, who were currently attending or had attended Alaska Native Science &amp; Engineering Program (ANSEP) Precollege components in high school. Self-determination theory was used as this study&rsquo;s theoretical framework to develop the semi-structured interview questions and also analyze the interviews. A thematic approach was used to analyze the interviews. The results of this study indicated that ANSEP helped the Alaska Native high school students gain a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in order to be motivated to take advanced mathematics and science courses in high school or before college. In particular, Alaska Native high school students described that relatedness was an important element to them being motivated to take advanced mathematics and science courses. More specifically, participants reported that the Alaska Native community developed at the ANSEP Building and the relationships they developed with their Alaska Native high school peers and staff played an influential role in the motivation of these students. These findings are important because research suggests that autonomy and competence are more important elements than relatedness because they generate or maintain intrinsic motivation. Alaska Native high school students reported that ANSEP was more successful in helping them gain a sense of competence and relatedness than at helping them gain a sense of autonomy. More specifically, the reason the participants did not feel ANSEP developed their sense of autonomy was because ANSEP restricted their actions during the ANSEP Precollege study sessions. </p><p> My study implies that Alaska Native students need to feel like they belong in order to be motivated to take and succeed at taking advanced mathematics and science courses. Educators and STEM program leaders should incorporate elements of belonging into the educational environments they develop for their Alaska Native students. Future research should be conducted to determine if other racial minority students need to feel like they belong in order to be motivated to take and succeed at taking advanced mathematics and science courses. </p><p> My study also indicated that Alaska Native students were motivated to take advanced mathematics and science courses by knowing ANSEP would support them in future programming because of its longitudinal approach. Funding agencies of STEM programs should consider funding programs that provide a longitudinal approach to help Alaska Native students&rsquo; sense of competence grow. Future research should include studying other STEM programs to determine if they are motivating their students to take and succeed in advanced mathematics and science courses. </p>

<p> As a consequence of an aging workforce, electric utilities are at risk of losing their most experienced and knowledgeable electrical engineers. In this research, the problem was a lack of understanding of what electric utilities were doing to capture the tacit knowledge or know-how of these engineers. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the tacit knowledge capture strategies currently used in the industry by conducting a case study of 7 U.S. electrical utilities that have demonstrated an industry commitment to improving operational standards. The research question addressed the implemented strategies to capture the tacit knowledge of retiring electrical engineers and technical personnel. The research methodology involved a qualitative embedded case study. The theories used in this study included knowledge creation theory, resource-based theory, and organizational learning theory. Data were collected through one time interviews of a senior electrical engineer or technician within each utility and a workforce planning or training professional within 2 of the 7 utilities. The analysis included the use of triangulation and content analysis strategies. Ten tacit knowledge capture strategies were identified: (a) formal and informal on-boarding mentorship and apprenticeship programs, (b) formal and informal off-boarding mentorship programs, (c) formal and informal training programs, (d) using lessons learned during training sessions, (e) communities of practice, (f) technology enabled tools, (g) storytelling, (h) exit interviews, (i) rehiring of retirees as consultants, and (j) knowledge risk assessments. This research contributes to social change by offering strategies to capture the know-how needed to ensure operational continuity in the delivery of safe, reliable, and sustainable power.</p>

<p> In 2012, 1% of the African American women who enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program four years prior graduated, amounting to 862 African American women graduating with engineering degrees. This qualitative study, anchored in interpretive phenomenological methodology, utilized undergraduate socialization with an overarching critical race theory lens to examine the manner in which African American women in engineering, such as the 862, make meaning of their experiences at predominately White institutions. </p><p> The findings of the study are important because they corroborated existing research findings and more importantly, the findings in this study emphasize the importance of faculty and institutional agent support, self-efficacy leading to motivation, academic achievement goals and the development of science identities. These factors were significant to the persistence of African American women in this study. Moreover, this study&rsquo;s findings suggest that these factors must work in concert to be most effective. The findings demonstrated that students need to develop relationships with faculty, administrators and peers. The administrators provide access to resources that assist with persistence and peers are needed for group work and academic support. The faculty relation is most important because the faculty members provide access to information, research opportunities, grades and research and industry contacts. The research also found that the women carried the responsibility of developing and nurturing the relation with the faculty. </p><p> Moreover, all of the African American women in the study acknowledge racism and sexism however, they responded to these deterrents differently. Some of the women were negatively affected while others chose to ignore the deterrents. However, with the presence of these obstacles, the study validated the notion that these African American women in engineering had a strong sense of self-efficacy which provided a foundation for the women to possess science identities: research scientist, altruistic or disruptive. With these identities, the African American women sought to engage their scientific knowledge further in graduate school, the workplace and altruistically to improve upon society. </p><p> These findings produce implications for policy and practice, suggesting that engineering colleges commit to transforming academic environments to reflect an atmosphere that is inclusive and supportive of racial and gender differences. This transformation should encompass pedagogy, curriculum, composition of faculty and student populations as well as the academic culture, allowing for a more welcoming and supportive atmosphere, where African American women can persist without concern for proving themselves because of their race or gender.</p>

Teamwork skills have been recognised as one of the key skills required for engineering graduates by industries world-wide, including in China. However, very little work on teamwork teaching has been done in the Chinese context, especially in an academic setting. This context is important as the approach to teamwork is very different in China, but effective teamwork is essential for successful engineering projects. This work researches effective ways to teach technical teamwork skills to large cohorts of engineering students in China. Research is performed in a joint Sino-British bachelor degree programme in China, and the participants are all Chinese engineering students. This work researched the applicability of successful cooperative learning practices from the West to China, by implementing them into a Personal Development Plan module that takes team working as one of its key teaching objectives. It employed quantitative statistical methods to compare different group forming methods, analyse the correlation between team performance and academic performance, and test the validity and reliability of peer rating. The effectiveness of the practice was evaluated based on the qualitative open-ended results, and the cultural appropriateness of the practice was discussed. An MBTI test was done to the students, and it was found higher frequencies of Feeling over Thinking, and Judging over Perceiving. This study also investigated the perspectives of the Chinese engineering students on team working and the way they prefer to learn. For the first time it attempted to put some tests in the group project of a technical module. This work has given a new understanding on how Chinese engineering students react in a cooperative learning practice and their perspectives on teamwork learning. It was found the inherited practices and cultural norms have a big influence on team behaviour, and there is a gap between the declarative knowledge and the skill-based outcomes. In conclusion the cooperative learning practice is generally effective leading to an improved cultural appropriated approach to teamwork teaching being proposed.

This thesis focuses on multimodal interactions for the design of a learning environment. The process of designing such systems involves studying the benefits of multimodal interactions in learning. Therefore, it analyses the structure of the interactive space between the learner and the content to be learnt, and introduces and tests a framework to structure it. It proposes that multimodal interactions can encourage rhythmic cycles of engagement and reflection that enhance learners’ meaning construction in science concepts, such as ‘forces and motion’. The framework was the outcome of an iterative process of analysis and synthesis between existing theories and three studies with learners of different ages. Through these theory-informed studies, the significance of physical manipulation of objects and symbols through the employment of multiple modalities was emphasised as a way to facilitate learners’ meaning construction, engagement and reflection.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 113-115).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 113-115). Also available in print.

<p> The United States is competing on a global level for jobs in the STEM fields but retention and graduation rates in the engineering disciplines are lower than desired. African American males make up 5 % of the population of American colleges and universities (Strayhorn, 2010) and many of those pursuing an engineering degree often are not academically prepared for a career in engineering. There are African American males who have successfully persisted in engineering; however, limited research is provided about the success of these African American males and their experiences in engineering programs. The purpose of this study was to understand factors that impact successful persistence of African American male engineering majors at a predominantly White institution. Critical Race Theory was used as a framework to gain a broader scope of the underlying themes interwoven into the fabric of American society and a better understanding of the perceptions about African American male engineering majors. A qualitative case study was conducted to understand real-world phenomena through the experiences of successful African American male engineering majors. Using constant comparative analysis technique, two major themes were identified: Overcoming challenges and social identity. Early academic experiences, developing a positive identity, and a connection to others experiencing similar challenges were found to contribute to successful persistence.</p><p>

<p> Within the confines of this study, the researcher investigated Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Engineering curriculum goals within Missouri high schools. The study measured Missouri PLTW teachers&rsquo; perceptions of various elements of the curriculum as well as state and national PLTW End of Course student assessment data to determine if a relationship existed between teachers&rsquo; perceptions of curriculum implementation and student performance, as measured through Missouri End of Course exams in various secondary engineering classes. In addition, the researcher conducted voluntary interviews with teachers, state administrators, and national representatives of PLTW to inquire about experiences with the PLTW Engineering curriculum. </p><p> Qualitatively, Missouri PLTW Engineering teachers expressed varied levels of satisfaction through a survey generated by the researcher, based upon national curriculum goals established by PLTW. Within the study, teachers&rsquo; perceptions reported students&rsquo; abilities to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems were greater than students&rsquo; abilities to design and conduct experiments, as well as to demonstrate knowledge of and responsibility for engineering issues, including ethical and professional responsibilities. The researcher attributed this perception to students&rsquo; lack of professional experience and to PLTW curriculum not providing enough opportunities for students to gain real-world relevant experience using the content and strategies learned during instructional class time. </p><p> The intention of this study was to provide a framework to review and evaluate curriculum goals established by PLTW, Inc. Originally, the researcher looked at national goals for the program to determine the outcomes of PLTW&rsquo;s educational programming. However, much of the data was post-secondary related and the researcher wanted to maintain the quantitative nature of the study. Nonetheless, research could expand upon the framework to study any state in the nation through either a mixed-methods approach or the use of a quantitative study approach. The researcher recommends further research be conducted either by PLTW, Inc., through state PLTW affiliates or by other individuals to determine future outcomes of educational curriculum offered by PLTW. This could include engineering, biomedical science, computer science, middle school curriculum offered through Gateway to Technology (GTT), or through elementary curriculum offered through Launch.</p><p>