Category: Students

Feedback on Michigan Tech’s Online Teaching Training

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart
Michelle Jarvie-Eggart

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart (EF), Thomas Freeman (CTL), Janet Staker Woerner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, PhD student Mary Benjamin (environmental engineering) and MiCUP undergraduate researcher Luis Fernandez-Arcay of Grand Valley State University surveyed the faculty who completed Michigan Tech’s online teaching training from 2019 through 2021 to determine how that training changed their approach to the design of a course, a lesson and their teaching in general.

The group’s work, published in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, found that the training provided essential pedagogical and instructional design education absent in most PhD programs, resulting in self-reported improvements in both online and in-person instruction. Additionally, the experience of learning online increased faculty empathy for students.

Jarvie-Eggart, M., Freeman, T., Woerner, J. S., Benjamin, M., & Fernandez-Arcay, L. (2023). Learning to Teach Well in Any Format: Examining the Effects of Online Teachers’ Training on University Faculty Teaching. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v23i2.5808

Student Advice on Incorporating Academic Grace into Online Courses

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, Mary Raber, Brett Hamlin, and Amy Hamlin (EF), Marika Seigel (Provost/PHC), Thomas Freeman (CTL) and Michael Meyers (Physics) are co-authors of an article published in Studies in Engineering Education on December 19, 2022.

The article is titled “Weaving Academic Grace into the Fabric of Online Courses and Faculty Training: First-Year Engineering Student Advice for Online Faculty During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Faculty Responses in Studies in Engineering Education.”

PhD candidate in engineering education Amanda Singer of Ohio State University is also a co-author of the article.

This work examines the advice students had for faculty teaching online during the pandemic, as well as instructional responses suggested by faculty. It highlights essential student needs from faculty for understanding, flexibility and patience, which are defined as academic grace, and makes suggestions for incorporating academic grace into online courses.

Jarvie-Eggart, M., Singer, A., Seigel, M., Raber, M., Freeman, T., Hamlin, B., … Meyers, M. (2022). Weaving Academic Grace into the Fabric of Online Courses and Faculty Training: First-Year Engineering Student Advice for Online Faculty During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Faculty Responses. Studies in Engineering Education, 3(1), 99–126. DOI: http://doi.org/10.21061/see.88

Sky Hempel has Exceptional Enthusiasm as a Student Leader

Sky Hempel
Sky Hempel

Outstanding students, staff, and a special alumni were honored Friday (April 16, 2021) during Michigan Tech’s 27th Annual Student Leadership Awards Virtual Ceremony.

Sky Hempel was honored for Exceptional Enthusiasm as a Student Leader. Sky has served as a LEarning with Academic Partners (LEAP) Leader for the past two years. She is responsible for 24 students in the engineering fundamentals course and guides and monitors their work on in-class activities. Sky has shown passion and commitment to her students by listening and going the extra mile to meet with them outside of class. She is so enthusiastic that she is intentionally placed in the 8 a.m. section to motivate the students. Her nominator wrote, “Whenever I think of Sky, I just smile. She is full of sunshine, positivity, and energy. Sky is an excellent choice for this year’s Exceptional Enthusiasm as a Student Leader Award.”

By Student Leadership and Involvement.

Play 27th Annual Student Leadership Awards video
Preview image for 27th Annual Student Leadership Awards video

27th Annual Student Leadership Awards

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart on How to Succeed as a Freshman

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart
Michelle Jarvie-Eggart

Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, a Michigan Tech graduate and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Fundamentals, along with environmental engineering students, Amanda Singer and Jason Mathews, discuss the transition for first year students and tools that can make the transition easier.

Jarvie-Eggart, M. E., & Singer, A. M., & Mathews, J. (2019, July), Advice from a First Year Paper presented at 2019 FYEE Conference , Penn State University , Pennsylvania. https://peer.asee.org/33674

Extract

Much attention is paid to the transition from high school to college. Students who have recently gone through this transition may have some of the best advice to offer in-coming first year students.

Themes which emerged in this study, which corroborate other research include: time management, utilizing resources, hard work, class attendance, social activates and persevering through lower grades.

First and Second Year Business and Engineering Students Collaborate in Fall Class

UN Sustainable Development GoalsFor the past two years, students in “Introduction to Business” (BUS1100) and “Engineering Modeling and Design” (ENG1102) worked on project design teams to develop innovative solutions to a challenging problem. Mary Fraley (EF) and Jon Leinonen (CoB) developed this collaborative experience with design thinking guided by Mary Raber (PHC).

The students applied design thinking steps to empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test solutions centered on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Engineering Grand Challenges.

Students focused on topics including alternative energy, transportation, better medicine and others. The teams worked through design thinking collaboratively as was the intention for the project in addition to managing individual business and engineering tasks such as marketing plans and advertising as well as 3D modeling and hazard analysis, respectively.

To celebrate the finale of the semester-long project, design teams presented their work in a design exposition to be evaluated by faculty and staff from across campus.

Based on the judging, numerous awards will be conveyed to the project teams after the fall break. Because the design exposition occurred on the same day as the Idea Hub Open House, some design boards that exemplified the range of projects were also displayed at the open house.

By Mary Fraley.

eCYBERMISSION Team Has Fun at Nationals

Yooper Lights 2019LAKE LINDEN — Lake Linden’s eCYBERMISSION team reported back to the district board Monday about its recent trip to Nationals.

“We didn’t win, but we had fun at the competition,” said Olivia Shank, who competed alongside Rebecca Lyons, Chloe Daniels and Jenna Beaudoin.

To aid students walking to or from school in the dark, the team, named Yooper Lights, designed LED reflectors for students to attach to their backpacks.

This year, the Yooper Lights are working with Tech’s chapter of Society of Women Engineers, (SWE), which got a grant to make electrical engineering kits for fifth- and sixth-graders.

“Michigan Tech is really excited about it too, because they will use it for their alumni,” said coach Gretchen Hein.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese.

SWE Members Take Professional Development Trip

Members of the Michigan Tech Chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Zoé Ketola, Zoe Wahr, Mackenzie Brunet, Eve Kaczkowski, Michaela Fung, Katy Ploch and Sophie Owen along with their adviser, Gretchen Hein (EF) travelled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to participate in a professional day sponsored by SWE-WI. On Saturday (April 6, 2019), they toured Plexus Corporation and in the afternoon, attended sessions related to K-12 outreach, diversity, product management, transitioning from technical to management, global Engineering teams and SWE membership. The keynote speaker was Michigan Tech alumna Angela Johnston ’00, who works for Kimberly-Clark Corporation as a technical strategist. The group also visited with Andrea Falasco ’12, current SWE-WI president working for Oshkosh Defense. The students enjoyed the sessions, networking with the SWE-WI members and learning about Angela’s career path.

Angela Johnston '00
Angela Johnston ’00

Andrea Falasco '12
Andrea Falasco ’12

Engineering Students 3D Print Toys for Teaching

3D Printed Bath Toys
3D Printed Bath Toys

This week Mrs. Jarvis’ four-year-old preschool class had the opportunity to learn about the letter R. R stands for rain, which means the students had a lesson on the water system.

To help teach the lesson, first year Michigan Tech engineering students made 3D printed bath toys.

“Our criteria for design was they had to float and they had to be self-righting, and they had to have an ascetic appeal to preschoolers- that would be judged by a panel of experts,” said Michigan Tech Senior Lecturer, Michelle Jarvie – Eggart.

Read more and watch the video at WLUC TV6 News, by Megan O’Connor.

Related:

A (Tub) Toy Story

Engineering World Health’s Team Teaches STEM in Haiti

Michigan Tech students work with Haitian students on STEM activities at HUT Outreach.
Michigan Tech students work with Haitian students on STEM activities at HUT Outreach.

Over the fourth week of May 2018, Engineering World Health’s (EWH) team of Michigan Tech students participated in teaching the first high school class ever held at the HUT Outreach center in Les Cayes, Haiti. Haitian students were exposed to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) topics like electronic circuits, forces, and bridges through hands-on learning lessons.

Students in Haiti often drop out of school in the sixth grade, with a diminishing retention rate thereafter. HUT Outreach is trying to break that statistic, and the Michigan Tech team got to be part of changing how these students viewed education.

In a typical Haitian class, the teacher delivers lessons by writing on a blackboard for hours while the students passively take notes. The first activity of their first day of STEM learning involved a health lesson on how germs were spread. The students were asked to stand up and run around the room as part of the learning exercise. They were notably reluctant to participate.

Using persistence and enthusiasm, the Michigan Tech team inspired the learners so much that students would arrive early to get a jumpstart on the fun lessons.

Michigan Tech team member Megan Byrne was recruited and trained as a peer mentor through the newly established first-year engineering LEarning with Academic Partners (LEAP) program. LEAP is implemented by the Department of Engineering Fundamentals, which provided support for the Haiti trip.

I would like to thank you so much for your generous donation to our Haiti trip. We were able to spoil the kids in our program, as well as tell them about why we love engineering and Michigan Tech. Many students told us they would like to be engineers one day, and one student even told us he would like to come to Michigan Tech. Your donation allowed us to bring a smile to so many faces, and inspire passion for education. Giving them MTU gear at the end of the week was an amazing way to wrap up our lessons and give them something to remember the past week by. LEAP Leader Megan Byrne

EWH inspires, educates and empowers young engineers, scientists and medical professionals from more developed parts of the world to use their engineering skills to improve global health.  Michigan Tech is an EWH University Chapter, and Byrne is the vice president of the local chapter. LEAP Leader Megan Byrne had more to say about the experience:

Being a LEAP Leader helped me prepare for my trip to Haiti because I gained so much knowledge in preparing group learning lessons. Our EWH team wanted the students to learn the theory of series and parallel circuits, forces to build bridges, first aid, and how to build water filters. This was a challenge for us because the students had not been exposed to any of these topics or hands-on learning, and they also spoke a different language. Thanks to our Haitian translator, Wesley, and the experience I gained through the LEAP program at Michigan Tech, I had experience with taking a creative twist to difficult lessons to help the students gain understanding of some cool engineering topics in a way that would be impactful to them. As a matter of fact, the lessons we taught in Haiti were very similar to a LEAP sessions that I would facilitate in the Engineering Fundamentals department at Tech. I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained in not only my coursework, but also in facilitation of peer learning through the LEAP Leaders program. Because of my experiences here, I have had the great opportunity to share my education with those students who may have never had the opportunity, had we not been able to go to Haiti. If we even inspired one student to continue their education one day, the whole trip would be worth it. I believe that the key to solving many of the challenges in Haiti starts with education. It’s been incredible to be a small part in that.