Session: IMECE Undergraduate Research and Design Exposition

Paper Number: 121128

121128 - How Engineering Self-Efficacy Develops Through Experiential Education 

Contemporary engineering education is conducted in the classroom, with this study we aimed to see the effects of experiential learning on engineering students by comparing two organizations that offer experiential learning opportunities. We focused on engineering self-efficacy because it plays a significant role in the motivation of engineering students and how they perceive their current and future success as an engineer. By isolating practices that are beneficial to the development of self-efficacy in engineering students, one would be able to adjust the classroom environment to better help students learn engineering topics. For this study, our population came from Hot Wheelz and RIT Racing Formula SAE, two organizations that build performance vehicles, because they have differing organizational and social structures that can be analyzed to see their influence on students’ development.  Hot Wheelz is a predominantly female organization with a horizontal structure, which is known to foster collaboration. RIT Racing is predominantly male with a hierarchical structure which has more internal competition than the horizontal structure. We surveyed 45 students (23 from RIT Racing and 22 from Hot Wheelz) using five-point Likert scales, and we asked questions about self-efficacy and technical development to see if the students were building on those skills as we had hypothesized. If the students were not building on these attributes we would look into why that was the case, however, if they were building on them we could look into what causes that development. Next, team culture and social environment were investigated to see differences due to a particular team structure. The results were analyzed for mean response and then statistical significance was calculated using Student’s t-test. We looked at both teams as a whole and by gender. When comparing the organizations to one another, levels of self-efficacy are consistent between them and they are scored very highly, with Hot Wheelz averaging 4.46 and RIT Racing averaging 4.35 on the Likert scale (between somewhat agree and strongly agree). This was also seen in technical development but with a few exceptions in electrical skill, fabrication skill, and how highly they rated their technical abilities, where both teams scored considerably low when compared to other questions in the section. We asked if the students felt their organization had a strong sense of community and on average Hot Wheelz agreed with that 16.35% more than RIT Racing which was statistically significant. Hot Wheelz also agreed they were comfortable sharing personal issues 21.68% more than RIT Racing. Although cultural and organizational differences in the two teams do not affect levels of self-efficacy, they still have a profound impact on students’ perceptions of the social and cultural aspects of the team. Knowing this allows for a more in-depth understanding of what some demographics may value for them to build self-efficacy. This project was supported by NSF REIF #2106346.

Presenting Author: Evan Mock Rochester Institute of Technology

Presenting Author Biography: Evan Mock is a third-year mechanical engineering undergraduate student at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is currently involved in engineering educational research focused on the development of self-efficacy through student organizations.

Authors:

Evan Mock Rochester Institute of Technology
Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard Rochester Institute of Technology
Michael Schrlau Rochester Institute of Technology