The Chemical and Biological Engineering Department is pleased to present a seminar by Allison Godwin from Cornell University as part of our ChBE Seminar Series.

From, "Will this be on the exam?" to "I enjoyed learning": Motivating Chemical Engineering Education Contexts

ABSTRACT: Motivation is an essential ingredient in student learning and development. Often, traditional education methods orient students to focus on performance outcomes rather than mastery of course material. This orientation can result in students who care only about the points in a course toward their final grade (because it moves them forward in the curriculum) over developing themselves as engineers by acquiring new knowledge, skills, and abilities. These students often interpret struggle as a signal that they do not belong or that engineering is not "for them." Mastery orientations can support learning from failure and engagement with engineering content. The challenge is often how we design to support motivation in engineering courses.

This talk will describe my research trajectory from fundamental research on student identity development and motivation in engineering education to my current efforts in studying effective pedagogies and practices in chemical engineering. The talk will outline why motivation is an important and fundamental concept in designing educational environments. Three examples of curricular redesign will be discussed. First, structural changes to a sophomore materials and energy balances course. Second, an ecological belonging intervention that reshapes student's growth mindsets. Finally, a complete course redesign of an introduction to chemical and biomolecular engineering course around the context of food and incorporating mastery-based grading. The collective results of this trajectory will provide examples of how motivation shapes students' engineering trajectories and provide actionable practices to support student development better.

Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is the Dr. G. Stephen Irwin '67, '68 Professor in Engineering Education Research in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. Her research focuses on how identity, among other affective factors, influences diverse students to choose engineering and persist in engineering. She also studies how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belonging and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning to understand engineering students' identity development. She has won several awards for her research including the 2021 Journal of Civil Engineering Education Best Technical Paper, the 2021 Chemical Engineering Education William H. Corcoran Award, the 2022 American Educational Research Association Education in the Professions (Division I) 2021-2022 Outstanding Research Publication Award, and the 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Research.

Bagels and coffee will be provided at 9:30am, and the seminar will start at 9:40am. Please plan to arrive on time to grab a bagel and mingle!

*Please note that there will be no Zoom option for seminars this year.