Engineering Design Graphic Journal (ASEE - American Society for Engineering Education)
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The Effects of Adding Coordinate Axes to a Mental Rotations Task in Measuring Spatial Visualization Ability in Introductory Undergraduate Technical Graphics Courses
Get PDFThe purpose of this research study was to determine whether the presence of coordinate axes in a test of spatial visualization ability affects scores and response times on a mental rotations task for students enrolled in undergraduate introductory graphic communications classes. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Paivio's dual-coding theory (1991). Coordinate axes were added to the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test - Visualization of Rotations (PSVT) to determine whether the presence of the axes was a sufficient contextual cue for improving scores and response times. Eighty-one undergraduate students enrolled in introductory graphic communications classes during the 1997 fall semester completed a computer version of the PSVT. The instrument consisted of two parts (each part containing 30 items). Coordinate axes were added to Part 2 of instrument for the experiment group. Item responses, response times, and demographic data were collected within the instrument. The addition of coordinate axes had no significant effect on scores when differences were examined between the experimental and control groups. It appears, however, that the addition of the axes eliminated gender difference on the PSVT. There was no significant mean score difference between males and females on Part 2 of the PSVT for the experimental group. Analyses of response times indicated that more time was required to process the additional information present with the coordinate axes. There appears to be a significant learning factor that occurred during the study. Mean score increased significantly between parts 1 and 2 of the PSVT for both the experimental and control groups. Response times decreased significantly for both groups
Message from the Chair
No full textIt was a very quick year. And for our students, it was a very good year. Never has the job market been hotter for technical graduates, the potential for advancement better. It wasn't uncommon for a professor's students to receive job offers approaching or even exceeding their own academic salaries. If higher education is 3-5 years behind the curve, we should see improvement in funding... sometime. At least that's what we all hope. But while we wait, keep doing what we all do so well: prepare the world's best professionals in engineering and technology. It was a tough year. We lost a great friend in Rodger Payne. Lauri O'Brien ([email protected].)has expressed Autodesk's continuing commitment in supporting our Division and its programs and will accept many of Rodger's responsibilities. We also lost one of the great supporters of engineering graphics when George Beakley passed away this spring. George was a former Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Arizona State, a long-time graphics author, and participant in ASEE and the EDGD. It was a year of promise. We saw many new faces, both in the audience and behind the podium, at both the Midyear meeting and the ASEE ANnual. And we saw the return of several faces that we hadn't seen for a while. Welcome back! Several EDGD members have taken the initiative to secure funding to host meetings and symposia to further focus our discipline. We were able to publish a comprehensive Journal Index of the years 1975-1996, as well as institute two new Division Awards. We have members accepting positions and responsibilities within ASEE and other national and international technical societies, as well as within major corporations as part of sabbatical leave. All in all, we have an active Division. And finally, it was a year of thanks. To those people who worked so hard to keep the business of our Division running—the Executive Committee, Mary Sadowski and Judy Birchman as successive Directors of Publications, Clyde Kearns (our rock), Kim Manner and Sheryl Sorby who coordinated a successful Midyear Meeting, and Bill Ross who put together a varied and interesting program at the Annual Meeting—you made my job less daunting. To Mary Sadowski, our incoming Chair, hold the light high, leave your mark, and count on your colleagues in the EDGD to make your job easier
Message from the Editor
No full textDear Members: It's that time of year again, when we find ourselves making preparations for the Annual Mid-Year Conference. The conference chairs are preparing a program that will enlighten us, provide us with a change of scenery, and give us an opportunity to socialize and exchange ideas with our colleagues. Division members are busy writing their papers, preparing for their presentations (or at least thinking that it's time to start worrying about doing so), filing travel plans and looking forward to a few days away from campus! It should be a great time in Columbus. Hopefully, the conference will help replenish our supply of papers for the Journal. You may have notices that the last few issues have had only a few papers. We are experiencing a slow down in paper submissions. If you have a paper in process, finish it up and send it off. If you have an idea for a paper, start working on it, get those ideas on paper! The newly created Editor's award will be bestowed after this issue. All the papers included in Volume 62 will be eligible for the outstanding paper award. See Volume 62-Issue 1 for a summary of the award. Best of luck to all the authors. For the next few months, we will have a staff change for the Journal. Sue Miller, our Technical Editor, just had her second child and will be on leave until Fall. Congratulations to the Millers! In her absence, Pat Connolly, a member of the Journal review board, will take over her responsibilities for managing the review process. Sue will take his place on the review board while she's on leave. See you in Columbus
Message from the Chair
Get PDFAll Division Committees could use some new faces. Check out the Division Web Site and let me know where you are willing to help. My second Journal Chat is being written just after the successful Engineering Design Graphics Division 60th Annual Mid-Year Technical Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As I mentioned in my last chat, we are the only ASEE Division to conduct a conference on its own. In addition to yours truly being General Chair, Mike Stewart was Program Chair and published a great 176 page Proceedings. Katherine Holliday-Darr was Registration Chair and processed the 48 members and their 10 guests. Six attendees were first timers and will become new members of the Division. Jon Duff was Exhibitors/Sponsors Chair and arranged for four exhibitors: Autodesk, Schroff Development Corporation, Solidworks, and Thompson/Delmar Publishers. Twenty three Technical Presentations were made during six Technical Sessions moderated by Douglas Baxter, Ted Branoff, Aaron Clark, Retha Groom, Moustafa Tossi, and Nancy Study. The Oppenheimer Best Technical Presentation Award was won by new ASEE/EDG member Eric F. Kirton of New England Institute of Technology for his paper “Utilizing Rapid Prototyping for Architectural Modeling”. Catherine Newman and David Wittenborn, both PhD students at University of California-Berkeley and Purdue University respectively, were paper presenters who received Travel Grant Awards from the Schroff Development Corporation. A wonderful field trip was conducted to visit the faculty and students at the Stranahan High School engineering magnet program. In addition to also conducting the business of the EDG Division, the attendees had a dinner/cruise on the Inner Costal Waterway. Yours truly and my wife enjoyed the Pre-Conference Cruise and Golf Outing. Thank you to all participants and attendees for making the 60th Mid-Year one of the Division years highlights. Pat Connolly, a Chicago native, is the EDG Division Program Chair for the upcoming ASEE Summer Conference. Pat has a full complement of technical sessions planned for the division, plus an exciting off-site Division Annual Banquet. Look for details of this event in your ASEE Prime Magazine or on the ASEE Web Site. In my last chat I challenged the membership to become involved with the activities of the EDG Division. Jon Duff is a Membership Committee of one. He could use some assistants willing to develop and promote ideas for membership growth. Doug Baxter is host of the 61st Mid-Year Conference. He is looking for volunteers to be Program Chair, Registration Chair, and Session Moderators. Doug is also our 2006 Student Design Contest Chair. He can use volunteers to be judges at the competition at the Summer Conference. Frank Croft is our Division Program Director. Since Frank is about to become ASEE President, he will need an assistant to plan division meetings out to 2010. Tom Krueger is Liaison Vendors and Publishers Committee Chair. Tom could use a Publishers Assistant so that he can concentrate on identifying new vendors. Two EDG Committees currently have no one serving on them. The Liaison Industry and Manufactures Committee and the Professional and Technical Engineering Design Graphics Standards Committees both need a Chair. All Division Committees could use some new faces. Check out the Division Web Site and let me know where you are willing to help. Do not forget to vote for your 2006-2007 Division Officers. I look forward to seeing you at the ASEE Annual Conference in Chicago this summer
Message from the Chair - "Awe and Pride"
No full textIt is an interesting conundrum wherein we find ourselves in this educational world. We can focus on being outstanding educators and teachers, we can work in developing extensive research agendas and lengthy publication and presentation lists, or we can strive to develop partnerships with local, national, or even international industry partners to benefit our students and universities. All three options have relevance and importance in academia. However, is it possible to do all three at an effective level? What about two of the three? Must we focus on just one of the three areas to be truly exceptional? These are difficult questions that all of us have struggled with as we have endeavored to be our best selves. Sometimes it seems that recognition and reward for our efforts are minimal and slow in coming. Often it appears that efforts in the classroom or with industrial partners are not considered ‘as important’ as generating another conference presentation, journal article, or grant proposal. The pressure to publish in academia is widely accepted and much commented. The phrase ‘publish or perish’ is attributed to Cornell geneticist Kimball C. Atwood in 1950, and has been repeated an untold number of times over the intervening decades. The purest purpose for publications, of course, is to contribute to the body of knowledge in our field, to make others aware of what we are doing, and to share ideas that may help others. However, what this ideal seems to have degenerated to for many is the incessant pressure to provide more research funding to continue the cyclical process that keeps universities running. What a shame that so many of us are frustrated and disillusioned with the publishing process! As I think back to my early days in academia, I remember the awe and pride I felt with my first academic publication (in the Engineering Design Graphics Journal, naturally!). Over the years, I seem to have lost that feeling of accomplishment associated with succeeding at this process – it became drudgery, a task done grudgingly at best, and with open hostility and resentment at other times – again, what a shame! However, of late I seem to have found new motivation and joy in publishing, although I am not sure why. Perhaps it is because of the outstanding and enthusiastic graduate and undergraduate students that I have been able to coauthor with; maybe it is the great colleagues that provide an example of outstanding effort in all three areas mentioned above that has re-energized me; or it may just be that I have refocused myself on the ‘pure’ purposes for publishing listed above, instead of only focusing on tenure, promotion, and merit pay (all good things, too!). It is a wonderful feeling to enjoy learning new things and disseminating knowledge to others! We are fortunate to have an excellent vehicle to help us in this process. Our Journal has a magnificent history of high-level scholarship, and serves an important role in our professional success. I hope we all will continue to take advantage of the opportunity to publish in the EDGJ. We are blessed with very dedicated and committed Division members that put in many hours of service that we may have this avenue for academic growth – let’s leverage this privilege and submit articles frequently to the Journal. If we will do so, we will all continue to benefit from the process, and certainly not ‘perish!&rsquo
Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success (EnViSIONS) of Engineering and Technology Students
Get PDFSpatial visualization skills are vital to many careers and in particular to STEM fields. Materials have been developed at Michigan Technological University and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College to assess and develop spatial skills. The EnViSIONS (Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success) project is combining these materials and testing them with pre-college and college students at seven institutions: Michigan Tech, Penn State Behrend, Purdue University, University of Iowa, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, and a “Project Lead the Way” course in south-central Arizona. By removing a barrier to success for students with low visualization skills, particularly women, the project leaders hope to improve the retention of these students in STEM disciplines and to enhance their success. This paper will give a brief overview of the implementations at the university level and the findings
A Study of Current Trends and Issues for Graphics Education: Results from a Five-Year Follow-up Survey
No full textDuring the 1998-1999 academic year, a survey was conducted to look at current trends and issues in the profession of graphics education (Clark & Scales, 1999). The survey solicited information from the membership of the Engineering Design Graphics Division of American Society for Engineering Education related to their view of future areas of growth, problems that exist, and direction the profession of engineering graphics education is headed in the future. This survey, conducted in the spring of 2004, is a five-year follow-up using the same instrument, but with new categories added to provide for current trends in post-secondary graphics education. New areas added to the survey asked questions on certifications, distance education, salaries, and research interests