Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul J. Weber

applications and/or technologies that embodied thetheoretical class information. In order to do so, students were required to research topics of theirown choosing and then communicate their findings to their peers, thus developing “soft skills.”The other central objective was for students to analyze the engineering design process as a wholerather than focusing on one aspect without examining the broader consequences. By examiningthe physical materials used, potential societal benefits of the product, and the practices of themanufacturing/sales companies, students were to study the impacts of these decisions anddetermine which would be sustainable. Furthermore, these objectives were carried out in such amanner that encouraged sustainable learning.The

Collection

2007 North Midwest Section Meeting

Authors

Michele H. Miller; Kari L. Jordan

tend to focus on designability and the soft skills, leaving the assessment of technical knowledge to other venues.Developing assessment tools for soft skills or process knowledge is more difficult than for staticsor thermodynamics. The faculty at University of Washington developed a comprehensiveframework for assessing design knowledge and ability [59]. They identified components (such asproblem definition, modeling, communication) of desired knowledge/ability. Then theyprepared a rubric of each component based on levels from a modified Bloom’s taxonomy.Survey and evaluation questions mapped directly to a cell in the knowledge-level matrix.Future Directions?Calls for engineering education reform cite things like innovation, global cultural