A Workshop Promoting Introduction to Engineering at Liberal Arts Colleges

该项目将举办一个研讨会，为文理学院的教师提供他们提供工程入门课程所需的工具。让文理学院的学生接触工程学，将拓宽一条很少被人利用的通往工程专业的道路，并有可能增加该领域的性别和种族多样性。该研讨会将教授文理学院理学院的教师介绍工程课程，并为他们提供入门所需的课程和用品。文科教师已经表达了增加文科学生接触工程作为职业选择的愿望。文理学院长期以来一直为法律、商业和医学等专业提供有能力、有资格的学生。文科学士学位与研究生工程学位相结合的职业道路为文科学生提供了一条通往工程职业的高度可实现的途径，并为工程专业提供了一个潜在的注入，来自文科院校的性别和种族多样性的个人。工程领域缺乏性别和种族多样性，值得积极探索进入该行业的其他可行途径。法律、商业和医学等职业比工程更多样化，部分原因可能是进入这些职业的途径更多。文科学生追求法律、商业和医学方面的职业，但很少从事工程。工程专业从文理学院所代表的人才库中几乎没有受益，部分原因是进入工程专业的通常途径要求学生尽早承诺学习工程专业。然而，完成科学或数学本科专业的学生可以通过完成必要的先决条件作为硕士学位课程的一部分来攻读工程研究生学位。该提案将试点测试一门基于设计的工程课程导论，该课程可以由理学院教授，适合文理专业的学生。本课程将帮助学生认识到文科专业与研究生工程学位相结合的选择。这种工程职业道路可能是一个可行的替代很大程度上被废弃的3-2文科和工程双学位课程。

This project will conduct a workshop to give faculty from liberal arts colleges the tools they need to offer an introductory course in engineering. Exposing students at liberal arts colleges to engineering will expand a little used path into the engineering profession with the potential to increase the gender and racial diversity of the field. The workshop will teach faculty from science departments at liberal arts colleges to offer an introduction to engineering course and provide them with the curriculum and supplies necessary to get started. Liberal arts faculty have already expressed a desire to increase the exposure of liberal arts students to engineering as a career option. Liberal arts colleges have long supplied capable and well-qualified entrants into professions such as law, business, and medicine. The career path of a liberal arts bachelor's degree in science combined with a graduate engineering degree represents a highly achievable route to the benefits of an engineering career for liberal arts students and provides the engineering profession with a potential infusion of individuals from the gender and ethnic diversity contained in liberal arts institutions.The lack of gender and ethnic diversity in engineering merits aggressive exploration of other viable paths into the profession. Professions such as law, business, and medicine are more diverse than engineering, possibly due in part to the greater number of pathways into the profession. Liberal arts students pursue careers in law, business, and medicine but seldom engineering. Engineering has benefited little from the talent pool represented by liberal arts schools in part because the usual path into engineering demands an early commitment on the part of the student to pursue engineering. However, students who complete an undergraduate major in science or mathematics are able to pursue graduate degrees in engineering by completing necessary prerequisites as part of a master's degree program. This proposal will pilot test a design-based introduction to engineering course that can be taught by science faculty and that will be suitable for liberal arts students. This course will help students to become aware of the option of the liberal arts science major combined with a graduate engineering degree. This engineering career path could be a viable replacement for the largely disused 3-2 liberal arts and engineering dual degree programs.