share like experiences at some point in their career. Creatingauthenticity in the global engineering investigation during a short-term study abroad course, iseasier said than done. Short-term study abroad coursework with such an aim is challengingbecause to meaningfully incorporate both technical and local cultural elements requires makingstrong connection between the two, else the students compartmentalize the experiences, failing tomake gains associated with integration of both. The choice of destination location and selectionof the experiential focal point must work synergistically to both scaffold the unfamiliar anduncertain, while concurrently providing ample room for exploration, meta-examination,informed trial and error, and sufficient
in theirreflection “I found it fascinating that you can simulate the error in a way that leads to results likein the lab.” This led to increased agency over the analysis and conclusions of the experiment,unencumbered by the errors viewed as out of their control in in-person experimentation.When doing the analysis, students focused on the outcomes and grappled more deeply with theprocess. A member of the instructional team commented “I had more students come to ask forhelp because their answer didn’t make sense than I expected.” Rather than simply go through themotions and submit an irrational answer—something that did occur in the face-to-face variantwhere several students reported a heat of combustion suggesting the combustion