Developing Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Curricula in Biological Engineering

奥本大学的一个多学科教师小组正在合作开发新的生物工程跨学科课程。来自生物系统工程，化学工程和生物科学的教师团体将与教学专家和其他利益相关者一起开发课程和创新教学技术。课程开发活动采用了创新的教学技术，旨在增加学生参与这些新课程的规模和多样性，并提高学生对社会责任的承诺。特别强调开发两个跨学科的，以项目为基础的生物工程螺旋课程。这两个课程将有许多共同的元素，但将在生物系统工程和化学工程现有的学位课程提供。跨学科课程提供了许多独特的机会，为学生开展多学科的团队活动。课程将纳入课程方法，以接受学生的不同学习风格，并将纳入工作室经验，以保持学生的兴趣和保留的高水平。这些新的教学和学习技术将被用于其他工程和科学课程。还将开发名为项目设计工作室的服务学习方案，以与经济不景气地区和代表性不足的群体建立联系。这些课程将在新的生物工程毕业生中建立更大的社会责任感，并为其他机构提供榜样。

A multidisciplinary group of faculty at Auburn University is collaborating to develop new cross-disciplinary curricula in biological engineering. Groups of faculty from biosystems engineering, chemical engineering, and biological sciences will join with experts in teaching and learning and other stakeholders to develop the curricula and innovative teaching techniques. The curriculum development activities incorporate innovative pedagogical techniques aimed at increasing the size and diversity of student participation in these new programs and increasing the students' commitment to social responsibility.Special emphasis is placed on developing two cross-disciplinary, project-based, spiral curricula in biological engineering. The two respective curricula will have many common elements but will be offered under existing degree programs in Biosystems Engineering and Chemical Engineering. The cross-disciplinary curricula offer many unique opportunities to employ multidisciplinary, team activities for the students. The curricula will incorporate methods in courses to embrace differentiated learning styles of students and will incorporate studio experiences to maintain high levels of student interest and retention. These new teaching and learning techniques will be advanced for use in other engineering and science curricula. Service learning programs, named Project Design Studios will also be developed to build linkages with economically-depressed regions and underrepresented groups. These programs will build a greater sense of societal responsibility among the new biological engineering graduates and serve as models for other institutions.