Incorporating entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) into engineering curricula has been an increasingly popular educational practice over the last decade. These practices have often been initiated, supported, and disseminated via the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), which has focused on students developing curiosity about the world around them, connecting information from a variety of sources to guide in analysis, and creating products that provide value to stakeholders. In the College of Engineering at Rowan University we have sought to strategically develop the entrepreneurial mindset in engineering students by building in EML principles – namely the KEEN 3C’s of Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value – into existing and new first and second-year design projects.
This full paper describes one such first-year project that leverages EML and Universal Design Principles as a framework for creating toys for children. In this project, students are tasked with designing an inexpensive toy for kids during hospital visits via the Little House on Wheels Hospitality Cart Program. The project is carried out in four phases where students learn how to (1) understand their intended customer and apply different brainstorming strategies, (2) conduct task and market analyses to better understand how their toy design interfaces with the customer and how it differs from similar toys, (3) carry out economic and manufacturing analyses, and (4) create a prototype of their toy through 3D modeling/printing processes.
At the conclusion of the project, students wrote a design report that was graded using an internally designed rubric, some items of which were mapped to the KEEN 3C’s. The final reports were analyzed using this rubric and results relating to entrepreneurial mindset development are discussed.
Dr. Scott Streiner is an assistant professor in the Experiential Engineering Education Department (ExEEd) at Rowan University. He received his Ph.D in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, with a focus in engineering education. His research interests include engineering global competency, curricula and assessment; pedagogical innovations through game-based and playful learning; spatial skills development and engineering ethics education. His funded research explores the nature of global competency development by assessing how international experiences improve the global perspectives of engineering students. Dr. Streiner has published papers and given presentations in global engineering education at several national conferences. Scott is an active member in the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) both locally and nationally, as well as the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).
Dr. Bodnar is an Associate Professor in the Experiential Engineering Education Department at Rowan University. Her research interests relate to the incorporation of active learning techniques such as game-based learning in undergraduate classes as well as integration of innovation and entrepreneurship into the engineering curriculum. In particular, she is interested in the impact that these tools can have on student perception of the classroom environment, motivation and learning outcomes. She was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium in 2013, awarded the American Society for Engineering Education Educational Research Methods Faculty Apprentice Award in 2014 and the Raymond W. Fahien Award for Outstanding Teaching Effectiveness and Educational Scholarship presented by American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Chemical Engineering Division in 2017.
Kaitlin Mallouk is an Assistant Professor of Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. Prior to beginning that role, she spent five years as an Instructor in the Mechanical Engineering and Experiential Engineering Education Departments at Rowan. Kaitlin has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Kevin Dahm is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. He earned his BS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (92) and his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (98). He has published two books, "Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics" and "Interpreting Diffuse Reflectance and Transmittance." He has also published papers on effective use of simulation in engineering, teaching design and engineering economics, and assessment of student learning.
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