Massachusetts Bay Community College

Freshman engineering experiences are critical from the perspective of overall development of students and student retention.These experiences can be particularly challenging to design owing to the differences in student backgrounds, and in levels of prior knowledge/preparation in fundamental scientific concepts.This paper presents an approach for redesigning a freshman engineering design course to introduce students to the fundamentals of the engineering design process through guided and independent scientific inquiry into the problem, and approaches, materials and methods used for solving problem.New course modules draw from current social contexts such as health, sustainability and issues impacting human and social dynamics.Problems are open-ended and creativity and communication are emphasized.Specific examples of redesigned course modules, formal and informal student feedback and plans for future work are offered.

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted individuals across the world and disrupted societal systems, including educational institutions. The aim of the current cross-sectional survey of U.S. social work students was to describe: (1) students’ experiences of COVID-19-related stress, academic stress, and access to supports; (2) changes in academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; and (3) factors that contributed to a change in academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An independent samples t-test identified an increase in students’ academic stress following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and multivariate regression determined factors contributing to levels of student stress, including program support and access to academic resources. Implications for social work programs’ responses to disasters are discussed.

This paper describes the development and implementation of an online working drawing review video and online assessment tool. Particular attention was paid to dimensioning and ASME ANSI Y14 standards with the goal of improving the quality of the working drawings required in final design project reports. All members of freshmen design teams in the fall 2008 semester were required to watch this video and pass an online assessment before they could turn in their final design project reports. The School of Engineering maintained scanned copies of design project reports for the fall 2006 and 2007 semesters. A separate working drawing assessment rubric was developed and used to evaluate the working drawings for these semesters so that a comparison could be made with the project working drawings submitted for the fall 2008 semester. The working drawing review videos and the online assessment tool are available on request for Engineering Design Graphics (EDG) faculty members.

The manufacturing industry has been thriving recently after decades of defection offshore and outsourcing. The manufacturing industry in the state of Massachusetts is particularly strong. Massachusetts and other US states report shortage of enough skilled workforce to fill advanced manufacturing positions such as robotics operators, programmers, CNC programmers, CAD operators, and QA personnel, to name a few. The labor shortage is attributed to the lack of STEM pipeline of students who are interested to pursue STEM careers including manufacturing. This paper describes an innovative approach of how to re-train non-technical majors (liberal arts graduates) for a second career to join the manufacturing workforce. The paper focuses on the formative evaluation of the approach. It covers the evaluation instruments including survey forms, data collection, data analysis, and insightful conclusions. The formative evaluation is conducted by a professional external evaluation organization and administered to the first cohort in a three-year NSF funded program.

Declining breastfeeding rates and the aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes has blurred the distinction between breastmilk and formula. Claims that infant formula is safe, economical, easy to use, and nutritionally complete are challenged in this article, the intent of which is to raise the awareness of health workers to the non-publicized side of infant formula. Non-proprietary, referenced data is provided to illustrate that formula and breastmilk are not the same thing, and that health outcomes of infants who consume each may be different. Guilt is often cited by health workers as a reason to avoid informing parents about the risks of artificial feeding. Suggestions are offered for addressing this reasoning.

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