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Historically, spatial ability assessments have been used to measure spatial thinking on specific constructs in students participating in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. High spatial ability is linked to greater performance in STEM courses and professional STEM career fields. A spatial ability test used commonly for this measurement is the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) developed in 1939 by the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). Unfortunately, the MCT is unable to measure the spatial ability of blind or low-vision (BLV) populations because it is only available in print with visual graphics. In 2018, a research lab from Utah State University (USU) adapted the MCT into a fully accessible tactile version, called the Tactile Mental Cutting Test (TMCT). The test was split into two parallel forms, each containing 12 different questions from the MCT. The TMCT allows for researchers to measure and understand the spatial abilities of BLV populations. The majority of BLV participants that have taken the TMCT previously have been students at rehabilitation training centers, where congenitally and adventitiously BLV people go to develop blindness skills (e.g., cane travel, Braille) and independence. Additional data has been collected at the National Federation of the Blind's (NFB) summer youth engineering programs as well as national and state NFB conventions. During the pandemic of COVID-19, many training centers across the country were closed for safety reasons, and many BLV people, like sighted people, were confined to their homes to avoid infection risk. In this paper, we compare pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID 19 (2021) TMCT assessment data from 74 BLV participants including scores and test duration between 2019 and 2022. The pre-COVID group consisted of 27 participants and the post-COVID group consisted of 47 participants. Results show a statistically significant difference in how long it took participants to complete the TMCT between the two timeframes. We hypothesize that this time difference is due to post-2021 participants experiencing general burnout and lower spatial awareness as a result of the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Students in higher education report a multitude of mental health problems. The situation seems to have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 Pandemic. In undergraduate engineering education in particular, an overall stress culture prevails caused by high academic workload, sleep deprivation, higher selfexpectations, and other factors that resulted in less time available for students to use directing their attention to their mental health and wellbeing (MHW). The prevalence of such situations has attracted recent calls for a serious effort to bring positive changes in engineering education culture. Purpose To support MHW and ultimately the success of undergraduate engineering students, the purpose of this study is to introduce a first-year happiness and wellbeing course by offering its learning goals and objectives. Specifically, the authors wish to exemplify and discuss the research process that informed the formation of the proposed course goals/objectives for such a course. Design/Method Semi-structured interviews of 8 undergraduate engineering students were conducted in the Fall of 2021 based on an earlier conceptualized framework of subjective wellbeing. Thematic analysis of the interviews was used to construct a 7 factors analytical framework of undergraduate engineering student subjective wellbeing and further identify 6 goals of a future happiness and wellbeing course. The 7 factors were also used to develop 7 open-ended survey questions that could be delivered to participants in a well-being study. Data on the 7 open-ended survey questions were then collected in the Spring of 2022 (N = 105). These results will be thematically analyzed to identify learning goals/objectives for the happiness and well-being course that could be delivered to engineering students. Following a "backward design" (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998) model for curriculum development, the identified goals/objectives will align with the discovered themes, treating them as outcomes, that the proposed course curriculum (objectives, assessments, learning experiences) will target. Krathwohl's taxonomy of the affective domain will be used in developing the learning objectives corresponding to these goals/objectives. Results The seven-factor analytical framework guided the setting up of the following 6 learning goals for the proposed happiness and wellbeing course. 1) Foster faculty-student relations beyond the typical. 2) Flourish dependent and interdependent learning skills in students. 3) Support students' efforts to access available financial resources. 4) Guide students to efficiently manage their assigned academic tasks. 5) Enable students to be healthy and contribute to an overall positive college environment. 6) Support student needs by equipping them with information retrieval skills. The learning objectives for each goal were developed from the thematic analysis of the data collected in response to the 7 open-ended questions. Conclusion Based on multiple empirical studies, we propose that implementing a fully developed MHW course has the potential to equip first-year engineering students with skills that will positively affect their MHW. This will ultimately lead towards their persistence to graduate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Mental Health and Wellbeing (MHW) research in engineering undergraduate education contexts is in its infancy. Further, to this date, no quantitative questionnaire items have been specifically constructed and validated to measure the potentially unique aspects of MHW of engineering students. In this present study, the conceptual framework for an Engineering Undergraduate Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (EUSWQ) will be proposed. This proposed questionnaire will include 35 items that correspond to 7-factors or latent variables including faculty support, learning experiences, support environment, financial support, task organization, engineering practice opportunities, and task orientation. Design/Method In the fall semester of 2021 at a Western land grant institution, 8 semi-structured interviews of undergraduate engineering students were conducted to inform the development of an MHW questionnaire that could be specifically used with engineering undergraduate students. After conducting a thematic analysis of the students' interviews, 7 factors or themes emerged that may capture the unique aspects of MHW in undergraduate engineering students. Next, these 7 factors were used to develop open-ended items for an online survey that was sent to all undergraduate students at the university. Survey data (N = 105) was collected in the Spring of 2022. Thematic analysis will be conducted on open-ended responses. Results Thematic analysis of the 8 student interviews resulted in identifying 7 factors that contributed to the subjective wellbeing of undergraduate engineering students. These factors included faculty support, earning experiences, financial support, task organization, support environment, engineering practice opportunities, and task orientation formed the analytical framework. These 7 factors will be the conceptual framework for the EUSWQ. Thirty-five items, 5 corresponding to each factor in the 7-factor framework will be identified through the analysis of the data acquired through anonymous responses (N = 105) to the 7 open-ended questions and will be proposed for validation in the paper draft. Conclusion The 7-factor conceptual framework and corresponding items proposed in EUSWQ will be the results of rigorous empirical research studies. With further testing, EUSWQ may become a useful tool to quantify and understand more completely the unique aspects of MHW of undergraduate engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ever-growing research indicating that high spatial ability correlates with student and professional success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses and career fields. A few valid and reliable testing instruments have been developed to measure specific constructs of spatial thinking in sighted populations. However, due to a lack of accessibility, most of these testing instruments are unable to be utilized by blind or low-vision (BLV) populations. As part of the Spatial Aptitude Test developed by the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) in 1939, the Mental Cutting Test (MCT) measures both spatial visualization and spatial relational reasoning. In 2018, the MCT was converted into a tactile test, called the Tactile Mental Cutting Test (TMCT), designed to allow for tactile interpretation, instead of visual interpretation, of 3-D objects and their planar cuts. The TMCT allows all persons, including BLV populations, access to a tool that can quantify spatial ability. To increase the TMCT's utility, the original format of the 25-question TMCT was split into two subtests (A & B), each containing 12 questions. In 2021, the TMCT's reliability in measuring spatial constructs of rotation, cutting plane, and proportion in BLV populations was found to be good [1]. However, to increase the precision of the results found in our pilot analysis, the research team desired a larger sample size. This paper presents a continued reliability analysis of the parallel TMCT subtests A & B with the BLV population. Data was collected from BLV participants attending National Federation of the Blind (NFB) conventions, learning centers for the blind, and STEM-oriented NFB summer camps for high school students. For our continued reliability analysis, we calculated the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for each parallel TMCT subtest with a larger sample size. The parallel TMCT subtests continued to show a high reliability as was previously calculated during the pilot analysis in 2021 [1]. These results indicate that the parallel version of the TMCT is a reliable instrument to measure spatial visualization and spatial relational reasoning in the BLV population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]