Conference Session

Design in Engineering Education Division: Design Mental Frameworks

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Francis Jacob Fish, Georgia Institute of Technology; Alexander R. Murphy, Georgia Institute of Technology; Henry David Banks, James Madison University; Melissa Wood Aleman, James Madison University; Matt Robert Bohm, Florida Polytechnic University; Robert L. Nagel, James Madison University; Julie S. Linsey, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

insight into how to foster students’ systems thinkingabilities such that students may be bettered prepared to enter the 21st century workforce.Herein, the results of a study exploring undergraduate engineering students’ mental models ofcommon, household engineered products are presented and discussed. Results come from twostudent populations, sophomores and seniors, both attending the same engineering undergraduateprogram at a medium (~20,000 students) public mid-Atlantic, liberal-arts research university.Through the comparison of sophomores to seniors, the authors look to explore how students’mental models develop over the course of an undergraduate engineering degree.The study involved the completion of an in-class activity that elicits mental

Conference Session

Best In DEED

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susannah Howe, Smith College; Robin Ott, Virginia Tech; Marie C. Paretti, Virginia Tech; Cristian Hernandez; Jessica Deters, Virginia Tech; Chris Gewirtz, Virginia Tech; Francesca Giardine, Smith College; Anne Kary, Smith College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Design in Engineering Education

-institutional study of students’ transitions fromtheir capstone (senior) design experiences into engineering work [21-24]. The sections belowdescribe the sites, participants, data collection, and data analysis.Site DescriptionsThe research study involves four different universities: two large public comprehensiveuniversities (one in the mountain west and one in the mid-Atlantic), one small public technicaluniversity in the southeast, and one small private college in the northeast. Three have a year-longcapstone design program and one has a four-semester design sequence that spans the junior andsenior years. All focus heavily on industry-sponsored projects; three also include faculty-sponsored and national-competition projects. All emphasize