Gender has been the subject of study in engineering education and science social research for decades. However, little attention has been given to transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) experiences or perspectives. The role of cisgender or gender conforming status has not been investigated nor considered in prevailing frameworks of gender...
University-based makerspaces are receiving increasing attention as promising innovations that may contribute to the development of future engineers. Using a theory of social boundary spaces, we investigated whether undergraduate student users at two university-based makerspaces in the United States viewed these spaces as affording their development as well-rounded professionals equipped...
In order to support first-year women in engineering, a program was designed to help their transition to college and promote connection with other women. The program focused on three main areas based in research: mentor matching with mentee input, regular formal meetings in small mentoring groups, and the formation of...
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is an interdisciplinary academic field that addresses gender, sexuality, and social justice issues. The research objective of this project was to examine the attitudes of self-identified male students in introductory Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies for winter term 2016 at Oregon State University. This...
Student engagement in a course plays a vital role in a student’s ability to process and construct knowledge. Student engagement research has investigated how students engage in and out of the classroom on a macro scale, through observation and survey data collection of large student populations, which lack focus on...
As people learn new concepts, they experience a process termed conceptual change. There are several theories that attempt to explain conceptual change, and this paper uses the framework theory to explain how students learn mechanics of materials. Semi-structured interviews with ninety students were qualitatively analyzed for this research in an...
The purpose of this thesis is to explore civil engineering students’ and professional civil engineers' understanding of concepts within statics and fluid mechanics. The studies described herein begin to examine theories of situated cognition utilizing concept inventories, which are sets of multiple-choice questions where the incorrect answers are based on...
This study explored the lived experiences of graduate students in masters-level academic programs who become pregnant, whether intended or otherwise, and the sources from which they received support in their efforts to balance their dual responsibilities as students and mothers-to-be. Through a series of three, semistructured one-on-one interviews, seven participants...
The conversation regarding transgender students in the context of women's colleges is inherently complicated due to the binary gender system that the existence of women's colleges reinforce. The primary goal of this phenomenological research was to examine the lived experiences of transgender college students at U.S. women's colleges. Because the...
There is a knowledge gap concerning the outcomes of early adolescent sexual initiation (ASI). In particular, the influence of early ASI upon adult attachment is unknown. A multiple regression study was conducted to address this knowledge gap. Adult partner/spouse attachment was the criterion variable, and the predictor variables included both...