Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering I

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Riley, Smith College; Lionel Claris, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

grounded in one’s experience.An excerpt from Foucault’s Power/Knowledge discussing the “regime of truth” was used tostimulate critical thinking about the course content. In a reflective essay and class discussion,students considered the relationship between power and knowledge in thermodynamics andbeyond. Analyzing student responses to the Foucault reading and regular course reflectionsreveals a significant shift in their understanding of classroom pedagogy, an increase in criticalthinking about the course and its subject matter, and an emergence of independent ideas thatstudents pursued further in the course.IntroductionEngineering students continually confront the challenge of bridging the gap between theory andpractice, between curriculum

Conference Session

Engineering for Social Justice

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Schreier, University of Dayton; Carl Eger, University of Dayton; Margaret Pinnell, University of Dayton

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

reflectionpaper that describe how the experience affected them personally.Since its inception in 2001, the ETHOS program has sent over 30 students to five countries totake part in summer service-learning internships. Information obtained from the reflection andtechnical papers and program evaluation sheets indicate that students who have participated inthe international service-learning internships have gained perspectives on the influence ofengineering and technology in the global world. Further, these experiences have providedgrowth in technical knowledge and problem solving, and in language development and culturalawareness.Alumni Assessment StrategyAlthough the ETHOS service-learning internship program has a fairly well established methodfor

Conference Session

Questions of Identity

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Ollis, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

few forty-somethings and aneasy majority of engineering elders. Why would an “old guard” be the dominant courseinventors for this topic, when new engineering courses are typically initiated by youngerfaculty ? Why would accomplished senior researchers and a former dean and departmentheads teach a course characteristically populated by undergraduates outside theirdepartments and college? And why did no consensus technology literacy emerge at thisworkshop, when undergraduate engineering courses are famous for their uniformitywithin the US, due largely to common utilization of a few widely accepted texts in eachdiscipline? Reflection on the individual presenters showed that their academic journeys werelogically similar in origin, but not

Conference Session

Integrating H&SS in Engineering II

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

M. Pinar Menguc, University of Kentucky; Ellie Hawes, University of Kentucky; Jane Jensen, University of Kentucky; Ingrid St. Omer, University of Kentucky

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

new concepts through virtual companies. Thestudents were divided into six groups of three- or four-persons. They chose their ownfocus areas and established companies in nano-medicine, entertainment, defensivemilitary concepts, energy, arms, and novel materials. Then they explored how they couldimpact society within their choice of a nanotechnology company. They thought about thenew ideas and developments, in a similar vein to James Watt. They considered thepotential impact of the ideas beyond the obvious, reflecting on what the compassachieved. They considered the long-term impact on common people, as was the case inPompeii. Finally, they ventured into the question of “playing god!” We are sure that theygained a solid insight into a new world

Conference Session

Engineering for Social Justice

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York-Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Queens University-Kingston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

, Page 11.581.7ever recasting itself, and not to seek to halt or reverse all such changes. This does notpreclude efforts to protect endangered species per se but it does call for a carefulconsideration prior to intervention. Perhaps, after reflection, society may wish to preservegray wolves or Bengal tigers through government action while not permitting continueddredging of the Atchafalya River Basin near New Orleans, Louisiana. Biodiversityconsists of an appreciation for the place in the web of life of the various plants andanimals, a commitment to the protection of species, particularly endangered species and acommitment to conservation in concert with the dynamic nature of ecosystems. Naturalbalance encompasses an appreciation of the

Conference Session

Recent Developments in Engineering Ethics

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marilyn Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

different rules.Enron, for example, touted a 64-page code of ethics, which the company required all employees–including management–to read and then sign an oath attesting to their commitment to highethical standards. Enron took its ethics code very seriously, at least on paper, as noted in a 2000memo penned by CEO Ken Lay: “I ask that you read them [“commonsense rules of conduct”]carefully and completely and that, as you do, you reflect on your past actions to make certain thatyou have complied with the policies. It is absolutely essential that you fully comply with thesepolicies in the future.”1 Similarly, Tyco’s board of directors established as a goal “highstandards of honesty, integrity, and ethics throughout the organization.”2 Yet corporate

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Fry, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

should be able to take advantage of adding the previous section’s skills to theirpersonal toolbox. But because not all people have the same personal aptitudes, and talents, theresults can differ significantly. The following section deals with skills which, if a person has Page 11.1363.5them (or can learn them), will enhance the results of using design thinking.The characteristics of a design thinker are: 1. High Tolerance for Ambiguity 2. Curiosity 3. Visual ThinkerSome may be tempted to place these skills in the section on design thinking. However, they areseparated out here because they reflect more attributes of the

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hilkat Soysal, Frostburg State University; Oguz Soysal, Frostburg State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

, Technology, and Society-STS” programs. Engineers and scientists have beenprime movers in developing interdisciplinary STS curriculum for liberal arts studies. Ageneral overview of TLC programs in American colleges is presented in [2].Art Hobson [3] points out alarming statistics of 1990s reflecting the science education atpre-college and college level. He states that “Only 21% of our high school students takeany kind of high school physics course, let alone a course that includes socially relevanttopics. It is depressing that only 20% of all elementary school science teachers havetaken any college physics course, and only 35% took a college chemistry course. And asurvey of 1800 college campuses indicates that only 50% of the nation campuses offerany