TY - JOUR
T1 - Extending STEM education to engineering programs at the undergraduate college level
AU - Zaher, Ashraf A.
AU - Damaj, Issam W.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/5/28
Y1 - 2018/5/28
N2 - Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is gaining wide attention. STEM education assimilates rigorous disciplines and requires diverse skills. Effort to promote and integrate STEM education in schools has been significant during the recent years. This paper investigates promoting students interest in STEM beyond the K-12 levels outside the US. The investigation targets the American University of Kuwait, where the educational community in general, and the students in particular, are faced with different challenges. Comprehensive proposals are suggested to extend STEM education to be part of the Engineering programs at the undergraduate level, with focus on Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. Remedies for overcoming the weak background in mathematics and sciences, for many students, are explored. In addition, parallel laboratory-based educational components are applied, for selected courses, to enhance the technological aspects via providing deep hands-on experience and exposure to real-life scenarios. Incorporating STEM education in courses/labs, academic activities, extracurricular activities, capstone design projects, internships, and satisfying accreditation requirements are addressed. A thorough discussion is presented to include analysis of best practices, evaluations, examples, and case studies from the local and regional institutions.
AB - Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is gaining wide attention. STEM education assimilates rigorous disciplines and requires diverse skills. Effort to promote and integrate STEM education in schools has been significant during the recent years. This paper investigates promoting students interest in STEM beyond the K-12 levels outside the US. The investigation targets the American University of Kuwait, where the educational community in general, and the students in particular, are faced with different challenges. Comprehensive proposals are suggested to extend STEM education to be part of the Engineering programs at the undergraduate level, with focus on Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. Remedies for overcoming the weak background in mathematics and sciences, for many students, are explored. In addition, parallel laboratory-based educational components are applied, for selected courses, to enhance the technological aspects via providing deep hands-on experience and exposure to real-life scenarios. Incorporating STEM education in courses/labs, academic activities, extracurricular activities, capstone design projects, internships, and satisfying accreditation requirements are addressed. A thorough discussion is presented to include analysis of best practices, evaluations, examples, and case studies from the local and regional institutions.
KW - ABET Accreditation
KW - And Multidisciplinary research
KW - Engineering education
KW - IEEE Student Branch
KW - STEM education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061791721&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3991/ijep.v8i3.8402
DO - 10.3991/ijep.v8i3.8402
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85061791721
SN - 2192-4880
VL - 8
SP - 4
EP - 16
JO - International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy
JF - International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy
IS - 3
ER -