The curriculum for many materials science and engineering (MSE) programs includes computational topics such as writing programming code or using software packages to simulate materials phenomena. Faculty agree that computational materials science and engineering (CMSE) is an essential topic for students to learn, but students’ attitudes are more varied. This paper investigates students’ CMSE motivation using the framework of expectancy-value theory. This model suggests that a persons’ motivations are influenced by both their expectancy beliefs (“Can I succeed?”) and value beliefs (“Is it worth it?”). Students’ value-based motivations were measured for programming and other course assignments such as homework. The survey was distributed in the same junior-year materials kinetics class in subsequent years, with differing results. In study 1, students were significantly less motivated to complete programming assignments than other course assignments. However, the following year, Study 2 found that there was no significant difference; students were equally motivated to complete programming and other course assignments. Furthermore, students articulated that programming skills are essential for engineers to be efficient at their jobs. The contrasting results are discussed, presenting several hypotheses for the dissimilar attitudes.
Dr. Susan P. Gentry is an Associate Professor of Teaching Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Davis. In her current position at UC Davis, she is integrating computational modules into the undergraduate and graduate materials
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