A Workshop Promoting Introduction to Engineering at Liberal Arts Colleges

该项目将举办一个研讨会，为文科院校的教师提供开设工程学入门课程所需的工具。让文理学院的学生接触工程学，将扩大一条很少被使用的进入工程学专业的途径，有可能增加该领域的性别和种族多样性。工作坊将教授文理学院理工系的教职员工介绍工程课程，并为他们提供入门所需的课程和用品。文科教师已经表示希望增加文科学生对工程学的接触，将其作为一种职业选择。长期以来，文理学院一直为法律、商业和医学等专业培养有能力、有资质的新人。理科学士学位与工程学研究生学位相结合的职业道路代表着一条对文科学生来说非常有可能获得工程学生涯好处的途径，并为工程学专业提供了潜在的注入来自文科院校所包含的性别和种族多样性的个人。工程学缺乏性别和种族多样性，值得积极探索进入该职业的其他可行途径。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该职业的途径更多。文科学生追求的职业是法律、商业和医学，但很少是工程学。工程学几乎没有从文理学院所代表的人才库中受益，部分原因是进入工程学的通常途径需要学生及早承诺攻读工程学。然而，完成科学或数学本科专业的学生可以通过完成作为硕士学位课程一部分的必要先决条件来攻读工程学研究生学位。这项提议将对一门以设计为基础的工程导论课程进行试点测试，这门课程可以由理科教师教授，适合文科学生。本课程将帮助学生意识到文科专业与工程学研究生学位相结合的选择。这条工程学的职业道路可能是一个可行的替代，以取代基本上被废弃的3-2个文科和工程学双学位课程。

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.