Paper ID #14502Engineering Education: Moving toward a Contemplative Service ParadigmDr. George D. Catalano, Binghamton University Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Binghamton University Previously member of the faculty at U.S. Military Academy and Louisiana State University. Two time Fullbright Scholar – Italy and Germany. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 Ten Steps for Improving Critical and Reflective Thinking Skills in the Engineering Classroom: Moving towards a Contemplative Paradigm AbstractThe present work seeks to develop and implement
practices [38-41]. Despite the questioning of theapplication of learning style research and assessment tools in the classroom, learning styleassessment is still widely utilized in classroom settings in many different types of courses.Of the many models, there are three learning style models that are utilized in engineeringeducation [13, 16, 42, 43]. The first is Kolb’s Learning Style Model [23]. Learners are classifiedinto four types. Type 1 are concrete and reflective. They ask “why” and want to connect howcourse materials relate to their experience, interest, and future careers. Type 2 are abstract andreflective. They ask “what” and connect with information that is presented in an organized andlogical order. They will then think about the
the content and spirit of the BOK as much as possible.The BOK is a formal embodiment of what the U.S. Civil Engineering Profession values in itsstudents and practitioners.While ABET accreditation may be viewed by some as a compliance activity, at its heart is anassessment program to demonstrate continuous improvement in student learning. It is axiomaticthat students learn better when they know the expectations or goals of the particular learningactivity. In terms of performance, the program outcomes represent the faculty’s learningexpectations of the student. Since the department’s student learning outcomes (SLOs) areconstructed to reflect the ASCE BOK, they are also a representation of the profession’sexpectations of the students
. Off the six groups in the class, only two did a complete analysis of the water balloon drop incorporating both the physical device and video footage. While all groups tested their devices and redesigned them for second and third attempts, it was a little disappointing to see only two groups actually incorporate the video footage into their design recursion process. For instance, the group “Team Six” used the video footage from the first drop to see how the balloon actually broke. One member of Team Six, reflected on this process saying “the high speed camera was extremely useful in the process of designing the
inthe higher levels of learning, as it encourages students to reflect on their learning processes anddraw connections between course-work and “real-world” experiences. Specifically, ePortfoliosencourage novice engineers to consider their learning processes over time, drawing connectionsbetween coursework and their intended profession, as well as cultivating an online identity thatsupports their efforts to pursue a career in Engineering. The use of ePortfolios is one method forfostering integrative learning, focusing on the application of digital communication andassessment and awareness of self- competence. By training students to archive digital artifactsrelated to their learning, ePortfolios encourage student to draw connections between
. Through this progression they were able to master most if not all of the challengesand learning outcomes.In this paper we will look at some examples of sessions based on these learning blocks and wewill examine if the camp met the expectations of the campers based on pre- and post-activitiesfor particular learning blocks and the end of camp surveys. We will also look at their level ofengagement during activities as well as how formative assessment was built into the campthrough one of the self-reflection pieces that was part of the process.Materials and MethodsThe primary design strategies for our camp were based on the implementation of learning blocks,which were strongly focused on formative assessment strategies, Blooms Taxonomy
not trivial for a first-year student. (2) The design requirements can be structured to allow for many different designs or more highly constrained to force an outcome of more specific designs. (3) The cost of materials needed for the project is relatively low and all materials are easily obtained. The project could easily be changed by simply changing the allowable materials for construction.In both implementations, students were asked to write a short reflection on the skills acquiredafter completing the project. Reflections were categorized based on reflection themes todetermine common themes and trends. This assessment, while largely qualitative in nature,provides a snapshot of how well students internalize the
there must be a forward transmitted and backward reflected wave at adiscontinuity in the characteristic impedance in order to conserve energy. We exploit thisconsequence to calculate the attributes of the transmission line. This project can be conductedunder the pretext of a power company or communications company who want to locate faults intheir transmission lines.CharacteristicsStudents are asked to find: 1. velocity of propagation in the transmission line, 2. length of the transmission line, 3. attenuation coefficient of the transmission line, 4. impedance of an unknown termination.Initial ConditionsThis project is best presented a laboratory project. In other words, the only equipment need is anoscilloscope, function generator
grades. To determine whether studentsengaged in the kind of reflection and planning that was intended, the post-performancesubmissions from four of the nine course sections were collected and analyzed. Each of thesesections had nine teams of four, for a total of 144 students on 36 teams. All of these teams didwell enough that they did not have to submit analyses for the first two performance tests, andonly two teams were required to do an analysis for performance test four. This pattern wasconsistent with the rest of the course sections, as more than half of the teams fared poorly on thethird test, but passed the others, often with bonus points. Therefore, the analysis will focusexclusively on the responses to the third performance test
distinguishes and connects the current or actual level ofdevelopment of the learner and the next level attainable through the use of tools and facilitationby a capable adult. The authors believe that this area has to be considered carefully in thecurriculum development so that the students’ initial reluctance and hesitation are designed out.They decided to adopt a hybrid model adopting and mixing Instructivism and Constructivism.Instructivism in this context places emphasis on the educator in control of what is to be learnedand how it is to be learned, and the learner is the passive recipient of knowledge whileconstructivism emphasizes that people construct their own understanding and knowledge ofthe world through experiencing things and reflecting on
validate a sustainable design rubric to bothscaffold student application of sustainable design principles, as well as provide a tool to capturestudents’ sustainable design skills. Adapting Benson’s Model for construct validation, the first(substantive) stage included producing a set of cross-disciplinary sustainable design principlesthrough review of literature, published rating systems, and reflections from professionals.Currently, we are engaged in the structural and external stages to complete validation of theSustainable Design Rubric. In particular, we are piloting application of the rubric as a formativedesign tool in capstone design courses at various institutions to compare intercorrelationsbetween rubric items and expected performance
the form of a reflective essay. Eachstudent member of the group is required to prepare and submit a separate,individual, 4 to 5-page write-up explaining his or her experience over the fourcredit hour course. The student members are expected to identify theircontributions as well as comments on the contribution of fellow members of the Page 12.291.4particular group in question (Edgerton, Hutchings, & Quinlan, 1991; Forrest, 1990;Cerbin, 1994). They are also expected to discuss merits and demerits of the project inadditions to strengths and weaknesses of the team members (Cambridge and Williams,1998). This is of course evaluated by the instructor
, they were asked to identify anything that can affect the health and wellbeing of thesummer camp students. Upon completion, they presented this HHM to the chief risk manager forthe summer camp. In the second HHM exercise, students were given a magazine articlediscussing the consequences of the 2010 oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf15. Students were brokeninto two competing groups and each group was asked to construct a separate HHM thatillustrates the factors associated with deep water drilling risks. The two groups compared theirindividual HHMs, discussed the differences and integrated their insights into a single,comprehensive HHM. Upon reflecting on the resulting model, students were asked to identifysome conflicting stakeholder needs and
multiculturalenvironments, understand the business context of engineering, and adapt to changingconditions have become requirements for engineers in our global environment [1].Teaching ethics is increasingly a component of science and engineering professionaleducation, reflected in the growing attention paid to ethics courses by accreditingagencies, particularly in engineering as reflected by requirements such as those in theUnited States instituted by its national engineering accreditation organization, ABET.Ethics is increasingly being integrated into engineering curricula, in recognition of thecomplex professional and personal issues facing scientists and engineers in modernworkplace [2, 3]. It is essential that students understand that science and technology
process, an emphasis that distinguishes ELT from other learning theories.1According to Kolb, students must complete four learning stages in order for learning to takeplace. Learners, if they are to be effective, need four different kinds of abilities- concreteexperience abilities (CE), reflective observation abilities (RO), abstract conceptualizationabilities (AC), and active experimentation (AE) abilities. That is they must be able to involvethemselves fully, openly, and without bias in new experiences (CE). They must be able to reflecton and observe their experiences from many perspectives (RO). They must be able to createconcepts that integrate their observations into logically sound theories (AC), and they must beable to use these theories to
framework integrated into courses in several engineering disciplines, assessingwhether this framework increased student motivation and, if so, what facets of learning benefitfrom this approach.The EGC framework, as implemented here, follows a series of six stages that progress fromstatement of the problem, through exercises that teach a foundational concept using an EGCexample, to reflection on the role of engineering in addressing the problem. The framework wasimplemented in three diverse courses: a computational methods course taken by all first-yearengineering students, an upper-level signal-processing elective in electrical engineering, and adesign course for upper-level students in environmental engineering. Instructors for each of
learning is commonly referred to as learning by doing and typically involvesdiscovery and exploration with a focus on learning through experience. Extensive research hasbeen done regarding the need to shift toward experiential learning. Kolb originally identified fourmain components of experiential learning as shown in Figure 1 and also described below:11 1. Concrete Experience – The key to learning is active involvement. Kolb’s research indicates that an individual can’t simply read, watch or listen but to learn effectively they must do. 2. Reflective Observation – Reflection on the new experience while focusing on any inconsistencies between experience and understanding. 3. Abstract Conceptualization – Reflection gives
Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright© 2004, American Society of Engineering Education Term and Definition Sourceachievement or growth characterized by strong vision ofcontent, skills, and processes addressed….… a portfolio is a purposeful, systematic anthology of Ury16the student’s work over time that includes studentparticipation in selection of content, evidence of studentself-reflection, criteria for selection, and criteria forjudging merit”.We define a webfolio as a tightly integrated collection of Gathercoal1Web-based multimedia documents that includescurricular
Session 2453 Assessing Innovative, Project- Based Learning In Drexel’s Freshman Core Curriculum Aly Valentine, Valarie M. Arms, J. Richard Weggel Drexel UniversityIntroductionAlthough ABET and ASEE have cited the importance of innovation in engineering curriculumdevelopment, one of the enduring challenges is their assessment. In fact, ABET’s EC2000criteria reflect the program goals initiated by Drexel’s E4 (An Enhanced Engineering Educationfor Engineers), a program initially funded by the National Science Foundation. That programwon ABET’s
we are all already teaching students how to respond toenvironmental/sustainability issues. It is said that talk is cheap; nonetheless, it's not withouteffect, and what is left unsaid can be as important as what is spoken. Further, even if peopledoubt what you say, they'll believe (and learn from) what you do. Whether we recognise it or not,all of us are role models — for better or worse. And what we ourselves model in the classroomis as important, perhaps even more important, than what we hold up as other examples to ourstudents. It is essential that we become more self-aware and reflective practitioners.This paper considers some of the ways that we, as 'role models' in the classroom, do and couldimpact students. The context for our
-structured interview data served as the data informing this study. Theinterviews were grounded in students’ design experiences. Thus, the beginning interviewquestions were about the details of the experience, and were followed by questions about theimpacts on themselves they have seen from these experiences. This interview protocol designallows students to remember deeply about the experience and therefore, reflect more deeplyabout the impact of the experience, how they changed because of the experience, and how theyview and approach interdisciplinary design in general. The interviews were audio recorded andlasted approximately one hour. An outline with example questions of the protocol is includedbelow.Focus of Questions Example
-Portfolio at Rose-HulmanInstitute of Technology, the faculty, administration, and students have confronted theseissues; the result is a web-based portfolio system that focuses on a student’s “best work”and requires a “reflective statement” in which a student demonstrates the relevance of thework to the learning outcomes objectives. This article outlines the stages of the RosE-Portfolio development from the initial concept to its testing through a Pilot Project andthe current status of the plan. In offering the results of the project thus far, the authorsoffer suggestions on how other institutions may gauge the appropriateness of a portfoliosystem to their own student learning outcome goals.IntroductionThe current interest in the use of portfolios
teacher assumes as an adviser. Students work in groups to solve challenging problems that are original,curriculum-based, and often interdisciplinary. Students take the active role to decide how totackle a problem and what activities to pursue. Students gather information from a variety ofsources and synthesize, analyze, and derive knowledge from it. Their learning is inherentlyvaluable because it is connected to something real and involves liaison skills such ascollaboration and mediation. The most important element is reflection. Students candemonstrate their newly acquired knowledge in the final report. Students are judged by thepresentation and peer assessment. The role of teachers, unlike traditional classroom teaching,is to provide
to be posted on social networking sites and to limit students fromgetting overwhelmed by an open ended project.Following the tour, the class divided itself into groups consisting of approximately four students each. Thefour undecided majors were interspersed evenly within the groups completely of their own accord. Afterdividing into groups, and prior to receiving the assignment, the class introduced themselves and discussedwhy they chose their major. As a class, the students discussed what they thought a civil engineer was and did.In order to assess initial and final association and thereby engagement, students were asked to define what acivil engineer was and why they wanted to be a civil engineer in a reflective paper. In the reflective
immersion. Massara,Ancarani, Costabile, Moirano, & Ricotta10 claim that the immersion of the Second Life VEerases the difference between real and virtual worlds to the extent that, users’ psycho-physicalbehaviors in VR becomes consistent with real life. Meredith, Hussain, & Griffiths11 points outthat, investigators consider the Second Life VE as a synthetic world. Many “residents” of theSecond Life VE are escaping from their everyday real life into this synthetic world12 which inturn means that the VE synthetic world becomes a reality for VE users. The term ‘VirtualEnvironment’ is also known and widely used as ‘Virtual Reality’ (VR), which reflects its essenceof ‘reality’.Steuer13 asserts that “presence” and “telepresence” are fundamental
organization oftheir major fields and learning to think like practitioners in those fields, undergraduates shouldalso learn from a properly constructed major program of study “the necessarily partial vision” ofthe field and critically reflect on “the successes and limitations of any particular approach toknowledge” (p. 535).Interdisciplinary Evaluation. Despite the increase in the number of interdisciplinary programs oncollege and university campuses36, some have argued that methods and criteria to evaluate theeffectiveness of these programs are lacking or weak4,37. In order to “perform” interdisciplinaritysuccessfully, students and faculty need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness ofinterdisciplinary work. The seeds of interdisciplinary
ethical principle, teachingethical reasoning skills appropriate for sustainability is problematic. While the classic approachin professional ethics education makes intensive use of behavioral codes and retrospective casestudies, these approaches are limited in their ability to prepare students for the unfamiliar andforward-looking problems of sustainability. Moreover, the classic read-discuss-writepedagogical strategies typical of the humanities emphasize abstraction and reflection at theexpense of two modes of learning more familiar to many professionals (e.g., engineers andphysical scientists): experimentation and experience. This paper describes the results of a novelexperiential approach to ethics education that employs non-cooperative game
provides stimulus for pedagogical improvement.IntroductionStudent assessment is both a necessary and a required part of any college curriculum.1,2Typically the student has little input or control over the format or content of assessments such ashomework assignments, quizzes and tests: Self-assessments, on the other hand, give a student theopportunity and power to evaluate his or her own performance. These evaluations can take theform of reflective essays, confidence ratings of conceptual understanding, and responses to open-ended questions. Self-assessment has been defined as “the evaluation or judgment of ‘the worth’of one’s performance and the identification of one’s strengths and weaknesses with a view toimproving one’s learning outcomes.”3
), Verdasco (2) Immersion in Novel Experienced new elements of innovation due to Ella (4), Hannah Innovation Ecosystems substantive involvement in authentic innovation (1), Jessica (2), projects firsthand and reflecting on these new John (1), Sarah facets. Developed a broader understanding of the (3), Verdasco (3) innovation ecosystem. Learning from Acute Failure Experienced a failed prototype or implemented Elon (1), Esteban Failure design due to their natural approaches. They (1), Jerry
, recommendingthe departmental tactics, etc. Although originally perceived by the learners as a unique challenge,this approach effectively promoted interpersonal interactions and communications, to facilitateeffective project-related decisions. “To be honest, I thought that the beginning of the class was very hard; being told that we have this huge project to complete as a team is a huge burden, and I for one wasn’t sure how to handle it. I thought that there wasn’t a lot of direction. Looking back now, I believe that the freedom in how we did the project allowed to the team to truly grow” (a quote from a reflection journal 401107) 2) Students were asked to work in