• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.26-36
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate the effect of college choice factors on withdrawal intention of first-year undergraduates in STEM majors. The data for this study were collected from a national sample of 4-year institutions that participated in Collegiate Longitudinal Study funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea during 2013-2014. The data included 1,484 students in STEM majors from 30 institutions, and this study used bivariate and multivariate analytic methods to answer the research questions. This study found that while the internal dimensions of college choice showed a negative effect on the intention to dropout, external dimensions of college choice such as college environment, financial accessibility, admission possibility had a positive effect on the intention. The findings indicate that it is necessary to pay attention to college choice for enrollment management to prevent first-year undergraduates in STEM majors from dropping out.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.37-51
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• 2020

This study examined the differential effects of High-Impact Practices(HIPs) on the career aspiration of STEM college students by gender. Through the theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory(SCCT), a two-level model analysis was conducted. A sample of 2,101 third- and fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in STEM at 38 universities, which had been collected from the National Survey on College Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes funded by the Korea Research Foundation, was used. This study found that the three HIP domains(learning with peers, faculty support, content relevancy) had different influences depending on gender. These findings suggest that HIPs can benefit the development of female students' career aspiration and have gender-differential effects on students in STEM majors. Based on those findings, this study also deduced implications about the roles of faculty members and higher-education institutions that might foster the retention of women in STEM.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.42-56
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• 2022

This study aimed to investigate the views of STEM college students on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. A total of 660 students in STEM majors at several Korean universities participated in the study. We assessed social responsibility among college students in STEM majors using the VSRoSE scale, which taps into eight different domains of social responsibility: Concern for human welfare and safety (HUMAN), Concern for environmental sustainability (ENVIR), Consideration of societal risks and consequences (CONSEQ), Consideration of societal risks and consequences (CONSEQ), Consideration of societal needs and demands (NEEDS), Pursuit of the common good (COMGOOD), Civic engagement and services (CIVIC), Communication with the public (COMMU), and Participation in policy decision-making (POLICY). Group differences in social responsibility by gender, majors, and years in school were examined. Mean scores in HUMAN, ENVIR, and CONSEQ were relatively higher than those in NEEDS, COMGOOD, CIVIC, COMMU, and POLICY. Cluster analysis identified five different groups with similar patterns of social responsibility scores. In addition to two groups with overall high and low scores across all eight factors of VSRoSE, three additional groups with different combinations of high and low scores in different factors were identified. The results indicated that students with low social responsibility are not homogeneous and these heterogeneous sub-groups of students will need tailored interventions highlighting different factors of social responsibility that they lack. Pedagogical implications of social responsibility for education were discussed.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.13-24
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• 2017

This study investigated student engagement of STEM-specialized higher education institutions in comparison with students from humanities & social science and STEM majors, respectively. By doing so, the study aimed to find the effects of the characteristics of STEM disciplines and organizational culture of STEM-specialized small-sized institutions on student engagement. The students majoring STEM disciplines, regardless of the organizational types, showed lower reflective-integrative learning experiences compared to students on humanities & social science disciplines. In contrast, students of STEM-specialized institutions reported significantly higher levels of peer relationship and student-faculty interaction in comparison with humanities & social science students and STEM students of general higher education institutions. Finally, the study suggests policy implications for STEM education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.317-324
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• 2016

This study aims to investigate the motivation for science learning of 3rd year high school students who choose different majors from their track. A total of 2,012 high school 3rd year students participated in this study. We used Science Motivation Questionnaire II (Glynn et al., 2011) to measure the students' science motivation and performed Rasch analysis, MANOVA and logistic regression analysis. First, results showed that 11.5% of students in the science track switched their pathway to a non-STEM major and 14.3% of students in the humanities track switched to a STEM major. In addition, there were gender differences in switching majors. Second, we found a significant difference in science motivation between two groups of students switching their major only in career motivation. Third, science motivation was the significant predictor of STEM major choice; in particular, career motivation was the most influential variable. Based on these results, we proposed that prediction of and paying close attention to students' career motivation are required before making decisions on which track to take.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.48-50
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• 2011

This paper deals with STEM(science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education program scheduled by ICEE (innovation center for engineering education) of Jeonju University and applied to the first-year students of high school in Jeonju. The outline of the program has been expressed, and the response of lecturers and students have been discussed. Students have experienced the various engineering topics with experiments, and had the chance to trigger to think over their majors in the future university.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.139-145
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• 2017

Background: Invasion of these invasive plants in the ecosystem threatens the habitat of endemic species, reduces biodiversity, and causes a disturbance in the ecological system. Hypochaeris radicata L. (Asteraceae), the most invasive plant in Korea, particularly in Jeju Island, invades farmlands, and autochthonous forests, resulting in the establishment of monocultures and modification of the ecosystem structure. Methods and Results: In this study was, we evaluated the biological activity of 70% ethanolic extracts from different parts of Hypochaeris radicata L. The biological activities of 70% ethanolic extracts of different parts, such as flower, leaf, stem, and root, of H. radicata were investigated. The total polyphenol content was highest in flower extracts ($50.82{\pm}3.16mg{\cdot}QE/g$). In addition, the highest flavonoid content was observed in flower extract ($15.19{\pm}2.03mg{\cdot}QE/g$). The flower extract of H. radicata exhibited stronger DPPH radical-scavenging activities, ABTS radical scavenging activities, and reducing power than the other parts. The flower extract of H. radicata was observed to have the highest tyrosinase and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activities. Conclusions: The flower extracts of H. radicata exhibited remarkable antioxidant activity as well as tyrosinase and ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory effects. These activities might be related to the phenolic compounds present in the H. radicata flower extract.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.365-372
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to improve robotics education in public education. This study was conducted with 157 secondary school teachers regardless of their gender, age and majors. The results are as follows: First, 68.2% of the respondents (81.2% of the STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)-related teachers) thought that robotics education should be included in public education because it will be a very important area in the future. Second, 73.3% of respondents (89.3% of the STEM-related teachers) agreed that robotics education will be worth teaching as a regular subject. The most important reason was that they thought the robots would be an excellent tool to initiate their class participation and increase their study motivation. Third, the results from this survey showed that the technology teachers would be the best suitable instructors for robotics education. Lastly, teachers felt a great deal of burden to teach robotics although they thought robotics education was necessary. In order to implement robotics education in public school, teachers think it is necessary to take professional training. In addition, teachers should be supported with the reduction in their workload along with sufficient fundings, educational robots such as LEGO MINDSTORMS, and newly designed teaching materials.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.43-64
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• 2014

Korea has pursued an aggressive policy of inviting more foreign-born students to its universities since the late 1990s in the wake of the globalization of education markets and its changing demographic structure. While increasingly more students from Asia come to Korea for study, more than half of the graduates return home upon graduation. Given the issues of brain drain, brain circulation, and knowledge transfer that are raised by such a high return rate, this paper examines the factors that frame the foreign students' decision on their post-graduation careers. By analyzing survey data, we report that Asian students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are more likely to return than non-STEM majors. This suggests that Korea's aggressive policies of inviting foreign-born students have contributed to brain circulation and knowledge transfer between Korea and the other Asian countries. We also find that scholarships from Korean sources and positive attitudes toward Korean culture and life increase their inclination to stay in the country upon graduation. These findings, however, raise more questions than answers, since it becomes obvious that their post-graduation decisions are highly affected by what Korea as a society provides.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.114-121
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the undergraduate research program(URP) among Korean students. URP is frequently implemented in STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) majors, and this study tested whether the participation of URP was effective in convergence competency, major satisfaction, and academic achievement. Data were collected from 101 participants and 117 non-participants of URP at an A university. The research results showed that the mean scores of convergence competency, major satisfaction, and academic achievement of the URP participating group were significantly higher than those of the non-participating group.