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2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Assessing the Impact of Incorporating the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering as a Multidisciplinary Hands-On Design Project into the Introduction to Engineering Course

Presented at First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 6: Design and Design Chanllenges

Assessing the Impact of Incorporating the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering as a Multidisciplinary Hands-on Design Project into the Introduction to Engineering Course

This evidence-based practice paper will discuss the effect of incorporating a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges themed project into the Introduction to Engineering course on first year students’ motivation, value, and perception of engineering. The NAE has identified 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering [1] and engineering students need to be prepared to help solve these challenges. Many institutions have responded to this and have established the Grand Challenge Scholars Program which aims to educate the next generation of engineers who will be prepared for these challenges [2]. However, only a selected group of students are enrolled in the program and most engineering students are not provided with the opportunities to learn about the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering. A few efforts have been made in the past to incorporate the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering in the first-year curriculum and research has shown that this has increased course effectiveness and student motivation [3-5], and has fostered student critical thinking abilities and changed their awareness of engineer’s role in the global community [6]. This work aims to observe similar effects due to the incorporation of NAE Grand Challenges into the Introduction to Engineering team design project.

At Arizona State University, the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering have been incorporated in the 2-credit Introduction to Engineering course as the subject of a multidisciplinary hands-on team design project. The three Grand Challenges that were selected for inclusion in this project were make solar energy economical, provide access to clean water, and advance personalized learning; a real world problem was formulated for each of these three areas. In the design project, student teams work through the engineering design process to design a solution to the problem, build a functional prototype of their solution, and test their prototype to demonstrate the effectiveness of their solution. Prior to the project, a jigsaw activity was used to introduce students to all of the 14 NAE Grand Challenges to provide context for the project. The impact of this novel way of incorporating the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering in the first-year curriculum on student motivation, value, and their perception of engineering and engineers’ role in the society will be assessed. A custom survey instrument based on APPLES (academic pathways of people learning engineering) [7], the engineering motivation survey [8], and the model of situational interest in classroom setting [9] will be administered to students enrolled in 5 sections of this course taught in the Fall 2015 semester. The survey will be administered once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester after students have completed the design project. Both quantitative and qualitative results will be analyzed and presented.

References

[1] National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges for Engineering. http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx

[2] Grand Challenge Scholars Program. http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/14365/GrandChallengeScholarsProgram.aspx

[3] Huettel, L. G., Gustafson, M. R., Nadeau, J. C.., Schaad, D., Barger, M. M., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., “A Grand Challenge-Based Framework for Contextual Learning in Engineering”, in American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Proceedings of, Atlanta, GA, 2013.

[4] Huettel, L. G., Gustafson, M. R., Nadeau, J. C.., Schaad, D., Barger, M. M., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., “Evidence for the Effectiveness of a Grand Challenge-Based Framework for Contextual Learning”, in American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Proceedings of, Indianapolis, IN, 2014.

[5] Corneal, L., “Use of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering as a semester-long project for an Introduction to Engineering course”, in American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Proceedings of, Indianapolis, IN, 2014.

[6] Thompson, A., Ralston, P. A., “Using the Engineering Grand Challenges to Foster Critical Thinking and Awareness of the Engineer’s Role in the Global Community”, in American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Proceedings of, Seattle, WA, 2015.

[7] Sheppard, S., S. Gilmartin, H. L. Chen, K. Donaldson, G. Lichtenstein, E. Özgür, M. Lande, and G. Toye., 2010. Exploring the engineering student experience: findings from the academic pathways of people learning engineering survey (APPLES) (TR-10-01). Technical Report CAEE-TR-10-01. Seattle, WA: Center for theAdvancement for Engineering Education, September.

[8] Brown, P. R., “Unlocking student motivation: development of an engineering motivation survey”, in American Society for Engineering Education Conference, Proceedings of, Atlanta, GA, 2013.

[9] Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Durik, A. M., Conley, A. M., Barron, K. E., Tauer, J. M., Karabenick, S. A., Harackiewicz, J. M., “Measuring situational interest in academic domains”, in Education and Psychological Measurement, DOI: 10.1177/0013164409355699

Authors
  1. Dr. Haolin Zhu Arizona State University [biography]

    Dr. Haolin Zhu earned her BEng in Engineering Mechanics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and her Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University, with a focus on computational solid mechanics. Dr. Zhu is an Associate Teaching Professor of the freshman engineering education team in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). In this role, she focuses on designing the curriculum and teaching in the freshman engineering program and the mechanical engineering program. She is also the Co-Director of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) at ASU. In this role, she focuses on student support and tracking, curriculum, program requirements, as well as programming for current students in GCSP. Dr. Zhu was also involved in the ASU ProMod project, the Engineering Projects in Community Service program, the Engineering Futures program, the Global Freshman Academy/Earned Admission/Universal Learner Courses Program, and the ASU Kern Project. She was a part of the team that designed a largely team and activity based online Introduction to Engineering course. She has also co-developed two unique MOOCs, Introduction to Engineering and Perspectives on Grand Challenges for Engineering for the Global Freshman Academy/ASU Earned Admission/Universal Learner Courses Program. Her Ph.D. research focuses on multi-scale multiphase modeling and numerical analysis of coupled large viscoelastic deformation and fluid transport in swelling porous materials, but she is currently interested in various topics in the field of engineering education, such as innovative teaching pedagogies for increased retention and student motivation; innovations in non-traditional delivery methods, incorporation of the Entrepreneurial Mindset in the engineering curriculum and its impact. She has published over 30 papers and presented at various conferences about her work. She is recognized as an Engineering Unleashed Fellow and won the Fulton Outstanding Lecturer Award for her contributions in Engineering Education.

  2. Amy Trowbridge Arizona State University [biography]

    Amy Trowbridge is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University and is co-Director of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) at ASU, recognized by National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her teaching focuses primarily on first year engineering students, and she is interested in curricular and co-curricular experiences that broaden students’ perspectives and enhance student learning, and the use of digital portfolios for students to showcase and reflect on their experiences. Amy has contributed to the development of an interdisciplinary grand challenges focused course and introduction to engineering course in both in-person and online (MOOC) formats at ASU. She is also actively involved in the ASU Kern project and Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), focused on students’ development of entrepreneurial mindset. Amy received the national 2019 KEEN Rising Star award from KEEN for her efforts in encouraging students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset. She is also a member of the current interim Executive Committee for the international GCSP Network, and mentors schools to develop GCSPs as part of the GCSP New Programs committee.

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