NSF Award
2321428
This Mid-Career Advancement (MCA) project investigates how concept mapping activities affect the technical communication skills of undergraduate students in a senior-level chemical and biological engineering laboratory course. The goal is to enhance the technical communication skills of undergraduate students by adding new concept mapping assignments to show connections between student-generated laboratory data and their written communications. By investigating the potential impact of concept mapping on students' ability to communicate technical information, this research aims to address the challenges of teaching technical communication to engineers. This project will also explore potential disparities among students and strive to create an inclusive learning environment that empowers students to have confidence in their technical communications. The principal investigator will be mentored by an experienced researcher in engineering education throughout the project. The potential benefits of this project serve the national interest for well-prepared engineering graduates with technical communication skills to join the technical workforce and expanded capacity to conduct research on engineering education. <br/><br/>Concept mapping will be implemented as a tool to support students to learn how to communicate complex technical concepts in written reports. The research questions that will be explored are: 1) How does the use of concept mapping influence students' technical communication skills in the laboratory course?, 2) What are the the impacts of concept mapping on the technical communication skills for different groups of students? 3) To what extent does the collaborative development of concept maps impact individuals' communication skills and their respective performance on communication assignments?, and 4) What is the relationship between the quality of concept maps and scores on technical communication assignments? To answer these questions, data will be collected through surveys, interviews, and assessments, which will then be analyzed for evidence of growth in technical communication skills and confidence. The findings of this project seek to contribute to the advancement of technical communication instruction, promote deeper learning and understanding, and ultimately enhance the preparation of engineering graduates. Additionally, this research has the potential to provide a valuable assessment tool for engineering educators and to facilitate the adoption of evidence-based practices in concept mapping across various institutions and disciplines. This project is supported by the NSF IUSE: EDU program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
