A First-Year engineering spatial skills enhancement program: Implementation, effectiveness, and gender differences

Maxine Fontaine, Alexander John De Rosa

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Research indicates that women and under-represented minorities (URM) display lower levels of competence in the ability to visualize spatially, a malleable cognitive skill that is connected with success in engineering. To identify and assist first-year engineering students with low spatial ability, we launched a spatial skills enhancement program as part of the Engineering Graphics course. All first-year engineering students (N=465) were required to take the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) to assess spatial ability. Students who scored below 70% were encouraged to participate in a 4-week spatial skills training workshop. The success of the workshop is notable based on (voluntary) participation level, as well as differences in pre- A nd post-workshop test scores for all students, but particularly women and URM students. After completion of the workshop, the overall pass rate for firstyear students increased from 53% to 89% for women, and from 83% to 91% for men. The overall pass rate for URM increased from 55% to 82%, and from 77% to 92% for non-URM students.

Original languageEnglish
StatePublished - 14 Apr 2019
Event2019 Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity, CoNECD 2019 - Crystal City, United States
Duration: 14 Apr 201922 Apr 2019

Conference

Conference2019 Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity, CoNECD 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCrystal City
Period14/04/1922/04/19

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