Exploring If and How Knowledge of a Humanitarian Disaster Affects Student Design Thinking

Ryan C. Campbell; Ken Yasuhara; Cynthia J. Atman; Sheri Sheppard

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Research on Engineering Design Education
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Page Count: 24
Page Numbers: 25.616.1 - 25.616.24
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21373
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21373
Download Count: 1552

Paper Authors

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Ryan C. Campbell University of Washington

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Ryan Campbell is pursuing his doctorate through the University of Washington Graduate School’s interdisciplinary Individual PhD (IPhD) program, in which he combines faculty expertise in the College of Engineering and the College of Education to create a degree program in the emerging field of engineering education. Campbell earned his M.S. in electrical engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea, and his B.S. in engineering science from Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colo. Campbell’s research interests include engineering education, ethics, humanitarian engineering, and computer modeling of electric power and renewable energy systems.

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Ken Yasuhara University of Washington

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Ken Yasuhara was a research team member for the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education’s Academic Pathways Study and is currently a Research Scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching. His research and teaching interests include engineering design, major choice, gender equity, and professional portfolios. He completed an A.B. in computer science at Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. When he finds the time, he enjoys cooking, photography, music, bicycle repair, and cycling in the Seattle rain (instead of owning a car).

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Cynthia J. Atman University of Washington

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Cynthia J. Atman is a professor in human-centered design and engineering, Founding Director of the Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching (CELT), Director of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE), and the inaugural holder of the Mitchell T. & Lella Blanche Bowie Endowed Chair at the University of Washington. She earned her doctorate in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and joined the UW in 1998 after seven years on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research in engineering education focuses on engineering design learning with a particular emphasis on issues of design context. She is a Fellow of AAAS and ASEE, was the 2002 recipient of the ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education, and received the 2009 UW David B. Thorud Leadership Award.

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Sheri Sheppard Stanford University

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Sheri Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University. Besides teaching both undergraduate and graduate design and education-related classes at Stanford University, she conducts research on weld and solder-connect fatigue and impact failures, fracture mechanics, applied finite element analysis, and engineering education. In addition, from 1999-2008, she served as a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, leading the Foundation’s engineering study (as reported in Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field). Sheppard’s graduate work was done at the University of Michigan.

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Abstract

Successful engineers increasingly need skills and knowledge beyond the technical know-how that engineering education has traditionally provided. To respond to the calls of ABET and NAE, engineering educators seek ways to emphasize and develop broad thinking. The work presented in this paper provides insight into how engineering education might broaden its coverage to better address such modern challenges as globalization, climate change, and issues of social justice. In this paper, we present new findings from a recent analysis of semi-structured interviews that were conducted during the spring of 2006 as part of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education’s (CAEE) Academic Pathways Study (APS). These interviews of third-year engineering students at a large, public research university in the western U.S. took place immediately following a short design-scoping task (the analysis of which is reported elsewhere [1, 2]) that asked students what factors they would take into account in designing a retaining wall system to contain flooding of the Mississippi River. The follow-up interviews then asked the students to reflect on their design task responses and included questions about their knowledge of Hurricane Katrina, which had occurred the previous summer, and the influence such knowledge might have had on their responses. The research question driving this analysis can be articulated as follows: In what qualitatively different ways does knowledge of a humanitarian disaster influence student thinking on a conceptually related design task? Given the qualitative nature of the data and the exploratory nature of our research question, our analysis follows a descriptive approach that incorporates elements of phenomenography and primarily aims to capture the breadth and diversity of responses. Thematic analysis of twenty-five transcripts from one institution shows that, while many students indicated their knowledge of Hurricane Katrina did not influence their design task responses, others reported ways that it affected their thinking to varying degrees. The latter group of students described four major areas of concern: people, the natural environment, the designed artifact (i.e., the retaining wall), and aspects of the design process. Interestingly, all but one of the twelve students who indicated how Katrina knowledge influenced their responses said that it caused them to consider people issues, such as the societal impacts of engineering design and the importance of protecting human life. Thus, we observe that, for those students who saw the design task as related to the events of Hurricane Katrina, knowledge of these events elicited design thinking beyond the narrow confines of purely technical considerations. One practical implication emerging from this work is that framing or associating design problem-solving with certain kinds of real-world events might improve engineering students’ capacity for broad thinking and concern for others—the kinds of competencies needed for addressing issues of sustainability, ethics, and social justice. Future work includes analysis of interview transcripts from three other institutions where these design tasks and post-task interviews were also conducted.

Citation
Format

Campbell, R. C., & Yasuhara, K., & Atman, C. J., & Sheppard, S. (2012, June), Exploring If and How Knowledge of a Humanitarian Disaster Affects Student Design Thinking Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21373

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Successful engineers increasingly need skills and knowledge beyond the technical know-how that engineering education has traditionally provided. To respond to the calls of ABET and NAE, engineering educators seek ways to emphasize and develop broad thinking. The work presented in this paper provides insight into how engineering education might broaden its coverage to better address such modern challenges as globalization, climate change, and issues of social justice. In this paper, we present new findings from a recent analysis of semi-structured interviews that were conducted during the spring of 2006 as part of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education’s (CAEE) Academic Pathways Study (APS). These interviews of third-year engineering students at a large, public research university in the western U.S. took place immediately following a short design-scoping task (the analysis of which is reported elsewhere [1, 2]) that asked students what factors they would take into account in designing a retaining wall system to contain flooding of the Mississippi River. The follow-up interviews then asked the students to reflect on their design task responses and included questions about their knowledge of Hurricane Katrina, which had occurred the previous summer, and the influence such knowledge might have had on their responses.
The research question driving this analysis can be articulated as follows: In what qualitatively different ways does knowledge of a humanitarian disaster influence student thinking on a conceptually related design task? Given the qualitative nature of the data and the exploratory nature of our research question, our analysis follows a descriptive approach that incorporates elements of phenomenography and primarily aims to capture the breadth and diversity of responses. Thematic analysis of twenty-five transcripts from one institution shows that, while many students indicated their knowledge of Hurricane Katrina did not influence their design task responses, others reported ways that it affected their thinking to varying degrees. The latter group of students described four major areas of concern: people, the natural environment, the designed artifact (i.e., the retaining wall), and aspects of the design process. Interestingly, all but one of the twelve students who indicated how Katrina knowledge influenced their responses said that it caused them to consider people issues, such as the societal impacts of engineering design and the importance of protecting human life. Thus, we observe that, for those students who saw the design task as related to the events of Hurricane Katrina, knowledge of these events elicited design thinking beyond the narrow confines of purely technical considerations. One practical implication emerging from this work is that framing or associating design problem-solving with certain kinds of real-world events might improve engineering students’ capacity for broad thinking and concern for others—the kinds of competencies needed for addressing issues of sustainability, ethics, and social justice. Future work includes analysis of interview transcripts from three other institutions where these design tasks and post-task interviews were also conducted.
AU  - Ryan C. Campbell
AU  - Ken Yasuhara
AU  - Cynthia J. Atman
AU  - Sheri Sheppard
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Exploring If and How Knowledge of a Humanitarian Disaster Affects Student Design Thinking
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21373
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21373
ER  -