Page 37 - Spring 2007

need not attend. This inadvertently discourages women and minorities from acoustics.
As a final comment on diversity issues, we note that studies have shown that populations tend to see themselves as minorities if their presence falls below about 20% of the whole. This is important because the actions of students are shaped by how they perceive their standing in a class. Thus, even when acoustics classes are welcoming and without any evident bias, the mere fact that some students see themselves as different from the norm can impact their experience neg- atively. Successful ways to counter this problem seem to cor- respond to forcing more active participation of students with one another and with the instructor. Thus, discussions in class rather than the “silent lecture” and teaming experiences on homework assignments and projects are helpful.
A game plan for attracting more students to acoustics
Based on the prior discussion, it is possible to craft a game plan for making acoustics a more attractive profession to undergraduate students. We list the key elements of such a plan below:
1. Create more, earlier, broader elective courses in acoustics. Particularly at institutions that offer fresh- man seminars, the lower level acoustics survey class offers a chance to spark an interest in students from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplinary inter- ests. It is an opportunity as well to recruit students into departments that teach acoustics. At the junior or senior level, this also permits a series of acoustics electives to flourish, each of which could be more focused and rigorous than the earlier course.
2. Develop better, more appealing textbooks. Writing a textbook is a major undertaking, but the text options available for survey courses in acoustics are not ade- quate to the task of recruiting diverse student popula- tions. Authors working together to create an innova- tive textbook with greater breadth and a nontradi- tional ordering of subjects could have a major impact on our field. Further, a group of authors working together might convince a publisher to dedicate enough resources to the project to produce some- thing flashy and Web-enabled.
3. Develop application case studies for use in acoustics classes and make them available online. Although acoustics has a large and active consulting commu- nity, there are few detailed case studies of applica- tions available for use in the classroom. Such case studies require significant lesson plan development, but creation of a host of application case studies online would make it possible to significantly broad- en the material presented in acoustics survey classes and to make it much more connected to student per- sonal experiences and concerns. One could even tai- lor such classes to the interests of the registered stu- dents.
4. Develop a Web site or multiple Web sites that supple- ment course material. There is currently no central repository for new acoustics demonstrations, for
projects in acoustics, for connections of common activities (like downloading music) to acoustics, and for in-depth discussions of acoustics professions. By gathering this material together in one or more maintained Web sites, instructors of classes in acoustics would have significantly more resources than they can easily find now. Students and profes- sionals outside of acoustics might also find such a site interesting as a way to gather information. Additionally, this could lead to an online and active job listing that works to list both people seeking employment in acoustics and companies seeking employees.
5. Commit to development of a diverse student popula- tion interested in acoustics. Making a commitment to diversity involves changing what we teach and how we teach in acoustics classes. It also requires commit- ting to regular reviews of progress or lack of progress in achieving aims through demographic studies.
Many of the items in this game plan are too large to be accomplished by a single individual and several require the investment of significant time and money for successful com- pletion. Ideally, what is needed is the activity of a committee of acoustics professionals actively interested in and engaged by acoustics education. Such a committee could begin by seeking seed funding for some demonstration work leading to federal- ly or privately supported additional work (perhaps through proposals to the National Science Foundation).
Conclusions
The breadth of acoustics is a boon and a curse. The bad news is that acoustics is neglected at the undergraduate level. The good news is that the very nature of the discipline lends itself to a wide variety of appealing and relevant applications for a diverse student body. Much can be done with hands-on projects at minimal cost. Acoustic applications are ideal for realizing desired outcomes—multidisciplinary teamwork, understanding of ethical responsibility, and the broad educa- tion necessary to understand the impact of acoustics in a global, environmental and societal context.AT
References for further reading:
1 P. Kuhl and J. Dickey, ASA membership analysis. Acoustical Society of America (1996).
2 D. R. Raichel, The Science and Applications of Acoustics (Springer, New York, 2000).
3 T. D. Rossing, F. R. Moore, and P. A. Wheeler, The Science of Sound (Third Edition) (Addison Wesley, San Francisco, 2000).
4 I. Goodman, Final report of the Women’s Experiences in College
Engineering Project (Goodman Research Group, Cambridge,
MA, 2002).
5 J. Margolis and A. Fisher, Unlocking the clubhouse: Women in
computing (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002).
6 J. Grandy, “Persistence in science of high-ability minority stu- dents: Results of a longitudinal study,” J. Higher Education 69(6),
589–620 (1998).
7 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,
Engineering Accreditation Commission, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs (1 November 2004). Retrieved from www.abet.org
Undergraduate Acoustics Students 35