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Developing a Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Based Competency Module for a Freshman Engineering Course

Abstract The tenets of professionalism in engineering practice require that engineers function within their areas of expertise in order to benefit society. The rapid pace of technological change in today’s economy challenges this notion of narrow focus by placing a premium on the multi-disciplinary skills of generalists rather than deeper , more narrowly focused skills of the specialists. As engineering students enter a marketplace characterized by rapid technological change, there is a growing need for educators to reconsider approaches to problem solving. New approaches would address preparing today’s engineering graduates to solve problems for a broader assortment of products and processes than past generations of engineers. In emerging areas like nanotechnology, the products and processes may involve new principles that engineers learn and apply on their own. This paper reports on a freshman engineering problem-solving module developed to broaden students’ perspectives on formulating and constructing their own student-made problems as a way to improve problem solving skills and assess knowledge of fundamental principles. The paper discusses students’ application of elementary mechanics concepts to solve problems typically found in FE review manuals. The paper also reports on laboratory exercises that help students explore notions of competency by developing their own FE assessment questions from elementary mechanics.

1. Introduction More often than not, first and second year engineering students see problem solving as merely finding answers to homework problems that lack strong connection to their experiences outside of class. For some students, the frustrations with solving problems for which they do not connect to personal experiences may be enough to cause them to withdraw from the engineering major. Others might develop a disregard for the personal meanings and neglect associations between the assigned problems and the broader concepts discussed in class. For traditional approaches to engineering education, the significance of these early connections are sometimes overlooked because deeper connections are expected to occur later when knowledge of specific facts are blended together within the curriculum to provide the foundation for life-long problem-solving skills1. The culminating capstone course is usually the point of synthesis for traditional cognitive theory based approaches to engineering education. These capstone courses are expected to help students broaden their perspectives on how to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge and how to reflect on practice. Within the last decade, employers and leading educators have been complaining that this synthesis, as it pertains to life-long learning and expertise, may not be enough for new graduates to compete in a fast changing global marketplace for engineering services. These leaders suggest that new graduates need: (a) better communications skills; (b) an ability to work in multidisciplinary teams; and, (c) an ability to leverage information technology and

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Williamson, K., & Dixon, G., & Kauffmann, P., & Abdel-Salam, T. (2006, June), Developing A Fundamentals Of Engineering (Fe) Based Competency Module For A Freshman Engineering Course Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--161