Why Not STEM? A Study Case on the Influence of Gender Factors on Students’ Higher Education Choice

The gender gap in STEM-related job positions is a fact, and it is closely related to the low percentage of women studying STEM degrees. This poses a problem because Europe, as well as the United States and the rest of the developed countries, keep demanding the best engineers and scientists to continue developing innovative products. This problem can thus be approached by answering, firstly, the following question: Why are women not studying STEM degrees? In this paper, we summarize the factors, found in literature, that influence students—both boys and girls—to not study STEM, particularly engineering, computer sciences and technology. We study these influence factors in a sample of N = 338 students from a secondary school placed in the south of Spain; we carry out a survey in order to find out if those students fill out the same answers other researchers have found and published in the related literature. Our main conclusions are as follows: The results confirm that the number of women in technical courses decreases when the level of the course increases; the lack of role models is not an impediment for girls to feel comfortable; unlike boys, girls will not choose engineering, even if their scoring in STEM is good; and we found that girls and women see themselves as not capable of studying an engineering degree more than boys and men do. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the situation regarding the gender gap in STEM fields in ages in which both girls and boys must choose their future studies.

Contribution of Project-Based Learning on Social Skills Development

The scope of this chapter is to describe and share experiences of two industrial engineers that had practiced project-based learning (PBL) during their engineering degree. Currently, authors look backward with a different perspective related to PBL as they are working as industrial engineers in different areas for 10 years in a multinational environment. Such experiences provide to the students the opportunity of developing soft skills that would be difficult to obtain following a traditional expositive lecture, more focused on individual work. Several challenges and advantages of learning by doing with PBL prepare students and contribute for their professional life because this kind of learning is closer to the professional daily life. In this chapter, four main experiences faced by the authors as engineering students are reported. Furthermore, the importance of experience like that and its contribution for the professional life is explained from the authors' point of view.

LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR BASIC CONCEPTS OF MECHANICS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEGREE PROGRAMS. MEXICAN EXPERIENCE

У цій статті представлені результати педагогічного дослідження, метою якого було встановлення обсягу концептуальних карт, здійснених за допомогою CMapTools під час вивчення основних понять класичної механіки студентами-металургійними інженерами в Національному політехнічному інституті Мексики та визначення шляху як такі поняття засвоюються. Автор виявив, що студенти, створивши концептуальні карти з основними поняттями механіки за допомогою CMapTools з гарною якістю контенту, оціненого за допомогою рубрики семантичної оцінки, покращили своє розуміння цих понять згідно з опитувальником Force Concept Inventory (FCI) та підвищили свою мотивацію. вивчати ці аспекти механіки. Тому створення концептуальних карт за допомогою CMapTools позитивно впливає на значне вивчення основних понять класичної механіки.

The Gender Gap in Engineering Education During The COVID-19 Lockdown: A Study Case

Higher education in Spain, especially in Madrid, was suddenly and unex-pectedly shut down on March 9th 2020 because of the beginning of the COVID-19 first wave emergency. In engineering education, where practical laboratories are a relevant part of the educational process, professors followed different approaches (sometimes concurrently), designed after only three or five days of discussions. Although, globally, the obtained results are ac-ceptable considering the situation, after informally analyzing the data and observing the post-lockdown students’ profile, it emerges clearly that some collectives have suffered a higher impact than other. The objective of this work is to analyze if the performance of women in engineering courses, spe-cifically in computer engineering, is different from male students. The study case is carried out at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, particularly, in the computer engineering degree. Furthermore, if a statistically relevant differ-ence is discovered, the final causes of this worrying situation will be studied. Official academic results were analyzed. Besides, more than one hundred surveys among students were developed. Results clearly show a deterioration in all indicators for all collectives and students, comparing the performance during the lockdown and the performance of previous years. However, this impact is not homogenous, and results also show how there is, actually, a gender gap placing women in engineering education during the lockdown (an after) in a disadvantaged situation

The Use of Computed Tomography as a Teaching Resource for the Teaching of Structural Concrete in the Degree of Civil Engineering

This paper shows a teaching experience related to the use of computed tomography in the teaching of concrete for undergraduate students of the civil engineering degree. This experience reveals that computed tomography is a powerful tool to facilitate the understanding of all those aspects related to the microstructure of concrete, thus facilitating comprehension of the correlation between the microstructure and its macroscopic response. In addition, students showed a greater motivation and interest in the subject, which promotes better academic learning. A pilot test was carried out to evaluate the viability of these practices and to analyze the teaching impact of this activity. The results show that students were very interested in the use of new technologies in teaching and, more particularly, in the use of computed tomography. The students satisfactorily received the project. A greater motivation of the students in the subject was also observed, which resulted in better grades when compared with those of previous courses. The results reveal that the average grade of the students rose by around 8%, and a higher percentage of students achieved higher scores when compared to the previous five years.

Virtualización Integral de Asignaturas de Expresión Gráfica en los Grados de Ingeniería = Comprehensive Virtualization of Graphic Expression Subjects in Engineering Degrees

El principal objetivo de este trabajo ha sido la virtualización de diferentes asignaturas del departamento de Expresión Gráfica de la Escuela de Ingenierías Industriales, entre las que se encuentran: Instalaciones Industriales y Comerciales II, Aplicaciones Informáticas para la Ingeniería e Ingeniería Gráfica. Las dos primeras se imparten en todos los Grados de Ingeniería de la Rama Industrial y la tercera, en el Grado de Ingeniería Mecánica y como asignatura optativa en el Grado de Ingeniería Electrónica y Automática. Para ello se han utilizado herramientas como OBS Studio, Zoom, Socrative o Moodle, empleadas para la elaboración de video tutoriales con resolución de problemas, cuestionarios, rúbricas y pruebas de evaluación, etc. La aplicación de las metodologías docentes descritas, así como la virtualización de los contenidos, han contribuido a mejorar y facilitar el aprendizaje por parte de los estudiantes, y han recibido una muy buena valoración y aceptación por parte de los alumnos.AbstractThe main objective of this project has been the virtualization of different subjects of the Department of Graphic Expression of the School of Industrial Engineering, among which are: Industrial and Commercial Installations II, Computer Applications for Engineering and Graphic Engineering. The first two are taught in all Engineering Degrees of the Industrial Branch and the third, in the Mechanical Engineering Degree and as an optional subject in the Electronic and Automatic Engineering Degree. For this, tools such as OBS Studio, Zoom, Socrative or Moodle have been used for the development of video tutorials with problem solving, questionnaires, rubrics and evaluation tests, etc. The application of the teaching methodologies described, as well as the virtualization of the contents, have contributed to improve and facilitate learning by students, and have received a very good evaluation and acceptance by students