Richards, D. E., & Collura, M. A. (2015, June), Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24954

\bibitem{asee_peer_24954}
  Richards, D. E., \& Collura, M. A. (2015, June), \emph{Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.24954

Donald E. Richards and Michael A. Collura.  "Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/24954 Internet.  11 Jan, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_24954}
  Donald E. Richards and Michael A. Collura.
  "Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/24954 Internet.  11 Jan, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_24954
author = "Donald E. Richards and Michael A. Collura"
title = "Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/24954}
number = {10.18260/p.24954}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -              Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science                 Education using Theories of Student Learning                             [Paper Type -- Other]Over the last thirty years much attention has been given to improving the education of engineer-ing students; however, much of this effort has been devoted to understanding and improving theclassroom environment. Project-based courses in the first year and industry-sponsored senior de-sign projects have become increasingly common. An engineering graduate of the 1960's and1970's would surely notice a change in classroom practice, such as active and cooperative learn-ing techniques; however, the core engineering curricula still exhibit courses and a curriculumstructure that would be familiar to a graduate of even earlier years. The inertia of course contentand curricula is also demonstrated by the table of contents of popular textbooks for standard en-gineering courses. Although the look of today's textbooks (and other electronic media) are a farcry from the black-and-white stick figure drawings and 3-4-5 triangles of the past, content andorganization are largely unchanged. In a recent request for proposals entitled “RevolutionizingEngineering Departments,” the NSF’s Directorate for Engineering has identified the middle twoyears of engineering curricula, which typically focus on engineering science, as a “target point”for reform, citing the lack of attention to this segment in past reform efforts.This paper examines a unique framework for teaching engineering science courses through thelens of current theories about student learning. Many of the key ideas in this framework have re-cently been singled out as core ideas in the new K-12 Science Education Framework. Two differ-ent institutions have 30 years combined experience with using this approach, and at each institu-tion, the framework is introduced in a foundational course. These courses will be the focus ofthis paper.The foundational course at each institution is part of a larger integrated engineering-science cur-riculum that emphasizes fundamental principles, e.g. conservation of mass and momentum, andde-emphasizes traditional course boxes, e.g. fluid mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics. Stress-ing a common framework for presenting and using the fundamental principles, the course em-phasizes the construction of problem-specific solutions not just "plug and chug" procedures us-ing memorized formulas. These courses have been successfully taught for many years (10 yearsand 20 years, respectively) to sophomore engineering students from a range of disciplines. Theteaching faculty, who have a range of disciplinary backgrounds, have also benefited from thesecourses and are some of the most ardent supporters. And, as hoped, many of the ideas have beencarried into upper-division courses.Although the courses were originally developed to stress content integration, the current litera-ture on student learning, especially in engineering and physics, provides several new lenses forexamining the course content and structure. The original goal of integrating material has pro-vided a structure that focuses on threshold concepts. The underlying structure of the courses alsoseeks to promote conceptual understanding. The use of a common problem solving approach anda common structure for fundamental principles seeks to help students organize their knowledgeand move along the "novice-expert" continuum for problem solvers. These and other ideas willbe explored in this paper.                                              1 of 2The goal of the paper is to present a critical evaluation of how these courses, originally devel-oped to support an integration paradigm, have become an integral part of a curriculum becausethey are consistent with current ideas about student learning. Through this discussion, the authorsalso hope to encourage others to consider new approaches to organizing engineering courses andcurricula.                                              2 of 2
AU  - Donald E. Richards
AU  - Michael A. Collura
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Understanding a New Paradigm for Engineering Science Education Using Knowledge about Student Learning
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24954
DO  - 10.18260/p.24954
ER  -