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Session 3650

Integrating Humanities and Engineering Technology Education in the Classroom: A Case Study

Mark Clark, Donald McMurchie Oregon Institute of Technology

Abstract

Historically, humanities education in engineering technology curricula has been governed by accreditation requirements. Students are required to take a certain number of hours of humanities and social science classes, which are generally not integrated with the rest of the curriculum.

In light of the ABET 2000 accreditation criteria, which focus on outcomes rather than on specific course requirements, we developed an experimental course that fully integrates instruction in both history and materials science. Titled “Materials in the Modern World,” the course was offered in the Spring of 2000. This paper describes the development of the course, its advantages and disadvantages, and our plans to use what we learned to offer similar courses in the future.

I. Introduction

Humanities instruction has often been an afterthought in engineering technology education. While required by accreditation agencies, humanities courses typically are taught by faculty outside of engineering technology programs and are not integrated with engineering courses. Some schools have sought to deal with this situation by offering courses in the history of technology or Science, Technology, and Society (STS), with a humanities focus on technology. However, full integration of humanities and engineering technology courses has been rare.

In light of the outcomes-based orientation of the ABET 2000 accreditation criteria, we felt that we finally had the flexibility to integrate humanities instruction more fully into the engineering technology curriculum. We decided to develop a course that would expose both engineering technology and humanities students to technical concepts. Our hope was that this course would serve as a test for our ideas and, if successful, would be a model for changing the way humanities is taught within the engineering technology curriculum.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Clark, M., & McMurchie, D. (2001, June), Integrating Humanities And Engineering Technology Education In The Classroom: A Case Study Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9415