Curricular innovations are difficult to implement and sustain. Many innovations were developed through the NSF-funded Engineering Education Coalitions in the early 1990’s; however, few survived the end of funding or the loss of the key innovators. This paper considers the experience of one institution and the long-term success of one of these curricular innovations. In this paper, we argue that the long-term survival and success of this curriculum can be traced to the general framework presented in the foundational course in the curriculum and its positive influence on the faculty members who have taught (and are teaching) the course. To support this argument, we will present the results from a survey of the faculty members who have taught this founda-tional course.
Phillip Cornwell currently teaches at the United States Air Force Academy and is an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989 and his present interests inc
Dr. Donald E. Richards is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology where he taught courses in the thermal-fluid sciences. He earned his mechanical engineering degrees from Kansas State University (BS), Iowa State University (MS), and The Ohio State University (PhD). After serving on the faculty at The Ohio State University, he joined Rose-Hulman in 1988 and retired in 2017. As part of Rose-Hulman’s participation in the NSF-funded Foundation Coalition, he helped develop Rose-Hulman’s innovative Sophomore Engineering Curriculum that was first offered in 1995. His textbook "Basic Engineering Science — A Systems, Accounting, and Modeling Approach" is a foundational text in this curriculum. In 1998, he joined Kenneth Wark as co-author of the 6th edition of "Thermodynamics" published by McGraw-Hill. In addition to teaching, he also served two years as the Director of the Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education at Rose-Hulman.
Glen Livesay is a Professor of Biology and Biomedical Engineering; he co-developed and co-teaches the biomedical engineering capstone design sequence at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Glen’s educational research interests include student learning styles, increasing student engagement with hands-on activities, and more recently, creativity & design. He has received an NSF CAREER award and served as a Fellow at the National Effective Teaching Institute.
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