Liberal Studies in Engineering: Broadening the Path to the Profession. Phase I

这个项目解决了一个重要的需要，寻求更广泛的方法来扩大参与工程。进入工程职业的传统途径是基于一系列数学和科学的先决条件课程，这些课程已被证明是许多有兴趣和潜在能力的工程专业学生的障碍。该项目将探索开发一种基于人文、艺术和社会科学视角的本科工程学位的可能性，但也包括传统本科工程课程的内容。将举办一个研讨会，探讨为对工程事业感兴趣但进入大学时不确定其对工程的承诺程度的本科生建立本科，专业前，文学学士学位的机会。对于这些学生来说，工程学士学位可能是进入工程领域的另一种更顺畅的途径。完成学业后，这些学生可以选择在技术领域直接就业，创业，追求额外的专业培训或在工程、商业、法律或医学方面获得高级学位。在这个研讨会上，潜在的合作机构将会面来澄清目标，建议内容，并检查这样一个项目可能在各自机构采取的结构。研讨会参与者将制定一项计划，以推进项目的发展。预计将有大约50名来自不同机构类型的教育工作者参加该项目。本次研讨会是一个多阶段过程的开始，通过提供进入该学科的途径和获得学位的途径，探索和发展一个潜在的变革性步骤，以扩大工程的参与，这与传统的路径明显不同，但仍然包含类似的内容。传统上，工程教育着重强调数学和科学的先决条件，并在课程的后期以间接的方式解决更广泛的社会、经济、文化和伦理方面的问题。计划中的工程学位通识研究设想扭转这一过程，为学生提供一种从人文、艺术和社会角度学习这一学科的方法。要解决的具体问题旨在沿着教学、认识论和社会学的维度推进知识。在这项工作中需要澄清的教学问题包括确定教师以互利的方式在文科和工程学教学中有效合作的方法。认识论主题将解决学生必须知道什么才能成功地参与传统工程专业的核心工程科学的问题。社会学分析将调查制度和文化价值、信仰和规范，这些都指导和限制了项目的革新。像这次研讨会这样的倡议将确定为那些最初对工程感兴趣的人创造机会所需要的步骤和需要克服的挑战，这些人与目前已建立的学科人口统计不同。因此，它有可能为面临类似挑战的其他STEM学科提供一个模型。

This project addresses an important need to seek a wider range of approaches toward broadening participation in engineering. The traditional pathway into engineering careers is based on a series of mathematics and science prerequisite courses that have proven to be a barrier for many interested and potentially capable engineering students. This project will explore the possibility of developing a version of the undergraduate engineering degree that is based on the perspective of the humanities, arts, and social sciences but also includes content from the traditional undergraduate engineering curriculum. A workshop will be conducted to explore opportunities to establish an undergraduate, pre-professional, bachelor of arts degree for undergraduate students interested in a career in engineering but who enter college uncertain about their degree of commitment to engineering. For these students a liberal studies in engineering degree might serve as an alternative, smoother pathway into engineering. Upon completion, these students could pursue options that include direct employment in technical areas, entreprenurial endeavors, and the pursuit of additional specialized training or advanced degrees in engineering, business, law, or medicine. In this workshop potential collaborator institutions will meet to clarify objectives, suggest content, and examine the structure such a program might take at their respective institutions. The workshop participants will develop a plan to move forward with program development. It is anticipated that a diverse group of approximately 50 educators from a variety of institutional types will participate in the project.This workshop is the beginning of a multi-phase process to explore and develop a potentially transformative step in broadening participation in engineering by offering a pathway into the discipline, and route to a degree, that is markedly different from the traditional path but still encompasses comparable content. Traditionally engineering education heavily emphasizes mathematics and science prerequisite topics for beginning students and addresses the broader social, economic, cultural, and ethical aspects much later in the curriculum and often in an indirect manner. The planned liberal studies in engineering degree envisions reversing the process, offering students an approach to the discipline from a humanistic, artistic, and social perspective. Specific issues to be resolved are aimed at advancing knowledge along pedagogical, epistemological, and sociological dimensions. Pedagogical issues to be clarified in this work include identifying the means for faculty to effectively collaborate in teaching across liberal arts and engineering in a mutually beneficial way. Epistemological topics will address the question of what must students know to successfully engage the engineering sciences that are at the core of the traditional engineering major. Sociological analysis will investigate the institutional and cultural values, beliefs, and norms that both guide and constrain the renovation of programs. Initiatives such as this workshop will identify the steps needed and challenges to be overcome in creating opportunities for individuals whose initial interests in engineering are different from those of the currently established demographic of the discipline. As such it holds the potential to provide a model for other STEM disciplines facing similar challenges.