MENU
  • ASEE Logo
  • Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...
    Classified Volunteer
    Login Join
  • Join Login Volunteer Classified Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...



About
  • Overview
    • Mission, Vision, Goals
    • Public Policy Statements
    • Constitution
    • Bylaws
    • Organizational Structure
    • Investment Policy
    • Financial Policy
  • Our History
  • Staff Contacts
  • Leadership
    • Board Of Directors
    • Academy Of Fellows
    • Past Board Members
    • Advisory Committees
    • Representatives to External Organizations
    • Executive Director's Message
    • Meeting Minutes
  • Volunteer
  • Careers at ASEE
  • Privacy Statement
I Am A...
  • Member
      Login Required
    • Your Member Page
    • Membership Directory
    • Financials
    • No Login Required
    • Awards
    • Divisions, Fellows, and Campus Reps
    • Sections and Zones
    • Resources
  • Prospective Individual/Organizational Member
    • About ASEE
    • Individual Membership
    • Institutional Membership
    • Major Activities
  • Donor
  • Prospective Partner or Sponsor
  • Advertiser
  • Fellowship Seeker
    • About Fellowships
    • High School
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-Doctoral
    • Other Programs
Events
  • Conferences and Meetings
    • 2021 Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2020 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • Section & Zone Meetings
  • Council Events
    • Conference for Industry and
      Education Collaboration (CIEC)
    • CMC Workforce Summit
    • Engineering Deans Institute (EDI)
    • Research Leadership Institute (RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • EDC Public Policy Colloquium (PPC)
  • Featured Events
    • Frontiers in Education
    • NETI
    • CoNECD
    • First Year Engineering Experience
    • Workforce Summit
  • Future Conference Dates
Publications
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • eGFI
    • Division Publications
  • Journals and Conference Papers
    • Overview
    • Journal of Engineering Education
    • Advances in Engineering Education
    • Conference Proceedings
    • Section Proceedings
    • Zone Proceedings
    • PEER
    • Plagiarism
  • Monographs and Reports
  • Prism Magazine
  • Data
    • Profiles of E&ET Colleges
    • Case Study Series: Engineering-Enhanced Liberal Education
Impact
  • Public Policy Statements
  • Data Analysis
  • Annual Reports
  • Diversity
Education & Careers
  • Academic Job Opportunities
  • Course Catalog
  • Engineering Education Research and Innovation
    • Engineering Education Community Resource
  • PreK-12
    • eGFI Teachers
    • eGFI Students
  • Engineering Teacher PD Endorsement
Calendar
2020 Annual Conference
The ASEE 2020 Virtual Annual Conference content is available.
See More....
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

From Physics to Where? Diagnosing the Effect of a Discovery-based Teaching Paradigm on Continued Barriers to Women’s Entry to the Physical Engineering Science Professions (RTP, Diversity)

Presented at Modeling, Inquiry, Engineering Literacy & Argumentation

ABSTRACT: Girls and boys participate equally in Physics 11 classrooms in the Greater Victoria Region in British Columbia. Yet girls continue to comprise less than 20% of Physics 12 classrooms and less than 15% of most engineering education programs. This active research focuses on diagnosing and mitigating the invisible barriers in Physics 11 that preclude young women from continuing their studies in physics to the 12th grade and beyond. Three identified factors for the persisting gender gap in physics follow. The first factor is rooted in stereotypical beliefs about engineering as a gendered career. The second factor arises from student beliefs that there is little new to discover in physics. The third factor relates to an inability to visualize how physics applications can make the world a better place.

This paper presents an alternative to additive outreach programs prevalent in universities and engineering societies. The proposed teaching paradigm is demonstrably simple to implement, eases teacher workload, enhances student learning and creates a significant improvement in perceptions and beliefs about self-efficacy in physics, an indicator of student success and motivation. The research identifies an unanticipated impact of introducing engineering design principles into Physics 11 classrooms. Physics 11 teachers participated in developing a lesson plan that guides facilitators of learning through the discovery- or inquiry-based activity. The mixed methods research methodology included surveys, observations and interviews to generate data testing the hypothesis that connecting physics applications to scenarios derived from the students’ life experiences enhances girls’ understanding of the social benefits attainable through engineering design. The resulting teaching paradigm uses team-based, project-based learning techniques that create knowledge using processes directly applicable to engineering. The findings demonstrate trends indicating that male students may also increase in self-efficacy using this paradigm. This paper outlines the generalizable lesson plan and teaching techniques, and examines the unexpected outcomes citing numerous relevant peer-reviewed studies and reports.

Authors
  1. Prof. Katherina V. Tarnai-Lokhorst Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7674-037X Camosun College [biography]

    Katherina Tarnai-Lokhorst, P.Eng., BASc, MBA, doctoral candidate

    Kathy is a Mechanical Engineering Instructor at Camosun College and Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia. She received her BASc from UBC in 1987 specializing in aerodynamics and her MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2007. Kathy is pursuing her Doctor of Social Science at Royal Roads University, researching educational philosophies and practices prevalent in high school and introductory university physics and math courses, and developing recommendations to increase gender diversity in engineering education and the engineering profession. Kathy is the elected Vice President for Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia, and has served on several educational, policy and governance boards.

Download paper (2.45 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session

For those interested in:

  • Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology
  • K-12

  • Follow Us
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • 1818 N Street N.W. Suite 600, Washington DC 20036

  • Telephone: 202.331.3500 | Fax: 202.265.8504

  • © 2021 Copyright: ASEE.org All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.