Centerpiece Projects: Developing Large-scale, Interdisciplinary Design Experiences for Freshman Engineering

核心项目：为新生工程开发大规模、跨学科的设计经验

• 批准号: 0231231
• 负责人: Mark Somerville
• 金额: $ 7.49万
• 依托单位: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2005-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0231231&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Centerpiece; Projects; Developing; Large; scale

Over the last twenty years, NSF and the engineering community have called for systemic changes in engineering education, including a shift to interdisciplinary approaches, increased emphasis on teaming and communication, and greater engineering practice and design throughout the curriculum. Our project involves centerpiece projects, a substantial, motivational, design project that reinforces and integrates science and math content for the freshman year. These projects could lower the barriers associated with adoption of integrated curricula and offer synergistic reinforcement of benefits not fully exploited in other curricular approaches. Our project involves the development, implementation, and assessment of prototype curricular materials for centerpiece projects. The results of our study will be disseminated via publications, presentations, and electronic distribution. The interdisciplinary centerpiece projects are transferable to a variety of institutions, and a full development program, including beta testing at other institutions, will be pursued should the prototypes prove promising. Centerpiece projects are grounded in established pedagogical methods, address calls for interdisciplinary approaches, and are an attempt to help attract and retain members of underrepresented groups. In short, centerpiece projects represent a significant opportunity to improve retention and learning in the freshman year.

在过去的二十年里，NSF和工程界一直呼吁对工程学教育进行系统性的改革，包括转向跨学科的方法，更加重视合作和交流，以及在整个课程中更多地进行工程实践和设计。我们的项目包括核心项目，这是一个实质性的、鼓舞人心的设计项目，加强并整合了一年级的科学和数学内容。这些项目可以降低与采用综合课程有关的障碍，并协同加强其他课程方法没有充分利用的好处。我们的项目涉及核心项目的原型课程材料的开发、实施和评估。我们的研究结果将通过出版物、演示文稿和电子分发进行传播。跨学科的核心项目可以转移到各种机构，如果原型被证明是有前途的，将进行全面的开发计划，包括在其他机构进行Beta测试。核心项目以既定的教学方法为基础，针对跨学科方法的呼吁，并试图帮助吸引和留住代表性不足的群体的成员。简而言之，核心项目代表着一个重要的机会，可以提高新生的记忆力和学习能力。