Collection

2008 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Richard Theis; patricia watkins; Angela Beck

articulate their assumptions regarding the purpose(s)of engineering education, the role of sustainability in the engineering curriculum, and therelationship between sustainability and the “ethics” and “environmental awareness” criteriaposed by the engineers’ accreditation agency (ABET 2005). Specifically, electronic dialogicjournals will be created that allow select engineering faculty to share their pedagogical ideology,to explore the relationship between the technological content that they teach and the objectivesand outcomes required by ABET, and to articulate the methods and goals they have for shapingour students’ philosophical perspectives as regards sustainability.Word count: 199

Collection

2008 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Peg Pankowski

plan for his/her program • Copies of the new college assessment forms • Handout of the power point presentation • Electronic copies of both old and new assessment formsThe power point presentation was brief and reviewed the college’s assessment plan and definedmany of the terms therein. Leadership and faculty roles were also clearly defined and timelineswere shared. Following the presentation, program directors began working to revise the oldassessment plans. The primary outcomes lacking in the old forms were several items from ABETcriterion 2. In particular, the ability to: • Function effectively on teams • Communicate effectively • Understand professional, ethical and social responsibilities2Although most program directors

Collection

2008 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Bryan Cooperrider

. Further, it is essential to include a variety of realisticconstraints, such as economic factors, safety, reliability, aesthetics, ethics, and social impact.Educators in engineering schools struggle constantly with assimilating creativity into theengineering curriculum. 20 21 Our current engineering curriculum, in fact our entire schoolingsystem, favors a convergent thinking approach. This bias is apparent early in the schoolingprocess. Roger VonOech, in his book, A Creative Whack on the Side of the Head : How You Canbe Creative tells a very poignant story. He says this : “When I was a sophomore in high schoolmy English teacher put a small chalk dot on the black board. She asked the class what it was. Afew seconds passed and then someone said, ‘a