Though there is great demand for talent to fill the vast and varied job opportunities in STEM fields, a staggering 75 percent of students talented in math and science decide not to pursue STEM in college, according to one study. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this education and workforce development challenge, one helpful way to support students’ STEM interests…
Join the Engineering Education Students’ Society at the University of Calgary on Wednesday, March 18 at 8pm ET to discuss: What Does it Mean to be An Engineer? Those of us in engineering education are sometimes considered to be outliers or outsiders for not pursuing more technical and conventional job opportunities. But is an engineer in project management still an engineer?…
In the last decade, the popularity of student maker and innovation spaces at colleges and universities has grown exponentially, especially among students majoring in STEM fields. These types of spaces are often used to supplement classroom-based courses or provide students with a place to work on projects that may not have a natural home in a research lab. Innovation spaces…
If birds of a feather, flock together, then how do we make engineering ed better? Stale stereotypes of engineering as a haven for rare birds persist, and continue to perpetuate an image of an environment that is not welcome to other birds, or even rarer- female and colorful birds. After all, a sense of belonging is a fundamental avian motive. It also happens to be…
We started as a three passionate students studying at the University of Calgary, focusing on research topics related to Engineering Education (EngEd). As graduate students, we quickly learned most conversations and introductions start with an inquiry about our area of study. When we answered “engineering education research,” this would often lead to engaging conversations with people who either already had…
Guest post blog by James Trevelyan, January 2015 My new book “The Making of an Expert Engineer” is based on extensive studies of several hundred engineers in four countries, several of them true experts in their own domains. An unfortunate reality exposed by this research is that engineering education has become almost completely divorced from practice for three main reasons:…
Big Beacon invites students to join in our monthly Twitter Chats focused student-centered issues! We want to engage students in our conversations to transform engineering education. We want to bring student voices to a platform that listens to students’ thoughts and experiences and cherishes them. Students for a Whole New Education is aimed that bringing together students across the world…
This is a guest post written by Jeanna Heeraman who worked in collaboration with the Telegraph Jobs team to launch a new STEM and aerospace resource called “Women in Space”. Demand for engineers in the UK has never been stronger with Engineering UK predicting a requirement of 87,000 new engineers per annum for the next decade. In this context, it is…
What's in it for me? A non-engineer's perspective on the call for change within engineering. This week's chat will be co-hosted by me, Erica Lee Garcia @engineeryrlife, and Alan Ham from the Engineers without Canada venture Engineers of Tomorrow @eotewb. We will discuss the implications of a healthy, diverse, whole-minded engineering profession, full of Whole New Engineers, and the specific benefits…
Join Dave Goldberg, President of Big Beacon for a twitter chat on the role of courage in transforming engineering education. We will get started on Wednesday, October 8th at 8:00 pm, Eastern Time (hashtag: #bigbeacon). Meet the Host: Dave Goldberg David E. Goldberg is president of the non-profit Big Beacon and also a noted computer scientist, civil engineer and professor emeritus at the University…