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Fostering Professional Practice Skills in a Redesigned Materials Science Course for Engineering Students

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Conference

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 26, 2016

Start Date

June 26, 2016

End Date

June 29, 2016

ISBN

978-0-692-68565-5

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Materials Division Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

Materials

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/p.26950

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/26950

Download Count

648

Paper Authors

biography

R. Danner Friend Norwich University

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Danner Friend received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Norwich University. He teaches a variety of different undergraduate engineering courses including Materials Science, Manufacturing, and Mechanical Engineering Tools, and he enjoys mentoring undergraduate students in aerospace-related research projects. He has recently been focusing on course and curriculum development efforts to include more creativity and innovation in engineering education.

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Abstract

There has been an increasing demand for engineering education to include more opportunities in the curriculum for students to develop the professional practice skills necessary for the modern, global workforce. Many engineering programs have included non-technical skills in freshman introduction to engineering courses and design courses such as the capstone design course in the senior year. However, there is a decreased emphasis on these important skills in the middle two years of a typical engineering curriculum, and there is an opportunity to find a place for these skills to be developed in the context of an engineering science course. In an effort to incorporate more professional skills during the middle years, a Materials Science course for Mechanical Engineering majors was redesigned to include specific learning goals that address creativity, teamwork, communication, lifelong learning, environmental impact, and societal impact. The course has for many years been taught using a traditional, lecture based approach, and the new format adopts a student-centered, active learning approach with an emphasis on project-based learning and integrative learning. While including more focus on professional skills, it was also important to ensure sufficient learning of the body of knowledge in materials science necessary for practical application in the Mechanical Engineering profession. An effort was made to align the learning goals with learning activities, assessments, and products. The course changes were also intended to increase student engagement by developing students’ intrinsic motivation with a learning environment that promoted competence, relatedness (community and purpose), and autonomy. This paper describes representative activities including projects, in-class activities, homework assignments, and tests. The methods of assessing student work are also discussed. Qualitative student feedback is reported based primarily on student surveys.

Friend, R. D. (2016, June), Fostering Professional Practice Skills in a Redesigned Materials Science Course for Engineering Students Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.26950

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