DEM/RES: Small Group Mathematical Modeling Approaches to Improved Gender Equity in Engineering (SGMM) Project

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

The Small Group Mathematical Modeling Approaches to Improved Gender Equity in Engineering (SGMM) Project is a collaboration between the engineering and mathematics education faculty at Purdue University. The plan is to demonstrate that innovations in collegiate engineering courses have the potential to address gender differences in interest and persistence, and that the implementation is systemic. The proposed effort will be designed to address mathematical topics that have been identified as foundational to engineering and likely barriers for women in these courses, and to design environments where skills and abilities women bring to engineering are rewarded and valued. The modeling activities will be incorporated into selected early engineering courses at Purdue University, including those required of all incoming freshmen engineering students. Those involved are over 3000 engineering students (~600 women) in freshman engineering courses, all instructors in freshman engineering (including faculty and graduate assistants), and a number engineering faculty teaching sophomore level courses. During Phase I, a small technical team, realistic, modeling activity will be a required of all freshmen. The activity will be delivered via WebCT, an internet-based instructional tool [www.webct.com]. During Phase II additional realistic modeling activities will be incorporated in sophomore-level materials engineering courses. Complementary research efforts will be used to build a case study of this innovation. The purpose of the research is to inform (1) how these modeling activities are used to identify emerging student talent, (2) how the various constituencies react to the use of these activities (male and female students, instructors), (3) how these activities address the targeted mathematical areas, and (4) how students' vision of their future engineering career and their gender identity interact. The information will provide insights into the potential effects of the small technical team, realistic, modeling activities in engineering courses, the dynamics of gender-equity issues of the Purdue engineering program, and factors outside the engineering program that may influence the interest and persistence of students (especially women) in the field. The proposed project studies gender-related issues at the student, the instructor, and the programmatic level. The activities and supporting materials will be available to other universities on a web site already sponsored by Purdue University, and linked to the Purdue Women in Engineering Program web site.