ABSTRACT

The University of Washington's approach to an introductory engineering design course was developed as part of the work of the Engineering Coalition of Schools for Excellence in Education and Leadership (ECSEL) sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Our course shares many features with those of our coalition partners, notably the team approach for both faculty and students, the focus on projects of an interdisciplinary and hands-on character, the heavy emphasis on oral and written presentations and on written journals, and the significant involvement of undergraduate students as peer instructors (Benenson, 1993; Calkins, Plumb, Chou, Hawkins & Coney, 1994; Kallas, Engel & Sathianathan, 1996; Regan & Minderman, 1993). There are other aspects in which our approach differs from those of our ECSEL colleagues. One challenging constraint that we faced was that students until very recently were not admitted to engineering departments until their junior year, making it rather difficult to impose curricular requirements for first-year students. This constraint has become an interesting opportunity; the new course we developed, Introduction to Engineering Design (ENGR 100), has now been accepted as satisfying a general education requirement for all students, and is taken by individuals with very diverse career aspirations and goals. We are committed to continue to develop ENGR 100 as a course of value to students of all majors, and have focused particular attention on its utility as an experience for pre-service teachers.

INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Introduction to Engineering Design (ENGR 100) was offered for the first time in 1991 and is currently targeted as a 30 student per section, four section per quarter class. It is a team oriented, project-based design course involving a diverse group of faculty and students. Each section is taught by a team consisting of an engineering professor, a graduate teaching assistant and an undergraduate 'senior peer.' The students work in a variety of teams to complete a number of design projects, research assignments and reverse engineering modules. Each section meets three times a week for a total of five hours. In addition, there is a weekly one-hour colloquium series common to all sections. The colloquium is an opportunity for students to hear from engineers in industry and research about the use of design techniques in their practice of engineering. The course introduces first year engineering students to engineering design and the field of engineering and its specialties, while offering a glimpse of the realities of the engineering profession.

ENGR 100 is open to freshmen and sophomore students of all majors and satisfies a general education requirement in the area of "Individuals and Societies," so it attracts students from a variety of backgrounds and majors.

Table 1: Student majors in ENGR 100, Fall 1988 - Winter 1996 (Adams, 1996, Table A5)

Table 1 provides a breakdown of declared majors for the first year students enrolled in ENGR 100 in the period between the Fall of 1988 and the Winter of 1996. Nearly 60% of the students in ENGR 100 had not declared an intent to major in engineering, and half of those students had designations other than science or mathematics. Science majors include students studying physical sciences, life sciences, environmental sciences, and mathematics and students in the College of Forestry and the College of Ocean and Fishery Science.

The range of majors among the students in ENGR 100 has enabled the College of Engineering to explore connections between introductory design and other degree programs. The ECSEL team at Washington is particularly interested in fostering the relationship between engineering design and education, and our introductory design course has proven to be a successful vehicle for connecting the two fields.

ENGINEERING DESIGN FOR FUTURE EDUCATORS

The Engineering 100 (ENGR 100) course offers opportunities for both engineering and nonengineering students to be involved in and exposed to the field of education. Engineering students fill the positions in each section of Teaching Assistant and Senior Peer. The Teaching Assistant position is filled by a graduate student and the Senior Peer position is filled by a junior or senior undergraduate. Each Teaching Assistant and Senior Peer work with a professor to design curricula, lead class activities and assess student work.

As part of the ECSEL renewal plan for the years 1995-2000 (Kalonji, Regan & Walker, 1996), the ECSEL team at UW is recruiting non-engineering majors interested in education for ENGR 100 to offer these students an opportunity to participate in a hands-on, cooperative learning environment. The ECSEL team is working with the College of Engineering and the College of Education to ensure the collaboration between the two colleges is a true intellectual partnership. Education students are integrated into the existing freshmen design courses as regular participants, working in groups with pre-engineering students. For these education students, ENGR 100 fulfills a requirement for application to the UW Teacher Education Program (TEP) and is under consideration for inclusion in the new Minor in Education degree. In addition, for our first pilot session in Spring 1996, we had an independent observer from the College of Education evaluate the pilot as a course for their Minor in Education program. The reviewer strongly recommended this course, emphasizing the importance of the reflective seminar in order for students to make the connections between engineering design and education.

Education students participate in a reflective seminar covering educational issues arising from this class and their applicability to K-12 environments. The reflective seminar, which is scheduled in place of the weekly engineering colloquium, provides a means for processing the experience and emphasizes the innovative teaching and learning in this course. This reflective seminar is jointly facilitated by graduate students from the College of Engineering and the College of Education, as well as contributions from faculty and ECSEL Student Leaders. The joint facilitation is a necessity, as both engineering and education issues arise. In addition, the education students tend not to have a background in education theory. The seminar topics which change quarterly to reflect the current ENGR 100 sections and the interests and backgrounds of the participants include such topics as cooperative groups, technology in education, multiple instructors, state and national standards, and assessment. As one student remarked, "It is amazing how many things [in ENGR 100] are related to education."

In keeping with ECSEL's goals to increase the number of women and minorities in its programs, the ECSEL team at Washington has established recruiting mechanisms to attract a diversity of students. In addition to contacting the College of Education information sessions and undergraduate courses for students interested in education, the ECSEL team recruits from the College of Education's Students Promoting Diversity of fice and other minority offices on campus. Flyers describing the course are also posted around campus. Despite these efforts, recruiting education students for this program remains the largest obstacle to the future growth of this program. The establishment of the UW Minor in Education degree with the inclusion of ENGR 100 should solve the recruitment issues. Until that time, individual contacts to a variety of programs and word of mouth will have to suffice.

CONCLUSION

The Introduction to Engineering Design course at the University of Washington is an innovative program with in the College of Engineering in the sense that it enables students in any field to experience the engineering design process. The College of Engineering is continuing to explore ways in which the introductory design class can be a valuable component of the curriculum of a variety of degree programs, in parallel with our efforts to continually strengthen the experience for students pursuing degrees in our eleven engineering departments.

REFERENCES

Adams, R. 1996. Attraction and Retention Tables for Cohorts: Engr 100 / Engr 110 / Math 124 and ECSEL / Non ECSEL. Unpublished manuscript, University of Washington.

Benenson, G. 1993. Closing the Gap Between Teaching and Learning: Formative Evaluation in a Freshman Design Course", Proceeding of ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Washington, DC, November.

Calkins, D. E., C. S. Plumb, D. Chou, S. E. Hawkins, and M. B. Coney. 1994. A Technical Communication Based Freshman Design Course. Proceedings of ASEE Annual Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, June.

Kallas, N., R. Engel, and D. Sathianathan. 1996. Teaching Design Skills in the Freshman Engineering Curriculum. Proceedings of ASEE Annual Conference, CD - publication, Session 1253.

Kalonji, G., T. Regan, and M. L. Walker. 1996. The Evolution of a Coalition: ECSEL's Programs for Years 6- 10. Proceedings of Frontiers in Education Conference, Salt Lake City, November.

Regan, T. M. and P. A. Minderman. 1993. Engineering Design for 600 Freshmen: A Scale-up Success. Proceedings of ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Washington, DC, November.

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