Advancing Undergraduate Engineering Education: Tools to Develop Engineering Design Skills that Consider Social, Economic, and Environmental Factors

该项目旨在通过促进考虑社会、经济、环境因素的工程设计，为国家利益服务。它将通过支持主要研究人员开发的社会参与工具包的分发和改编来实现这一目标。该资源为教师提供教材，帮助工程本科生在设计解决方案和吸引客户和利益相关者时获得考虑工程问题的社会方面的技能。这些技能与美国国家工程院的21世纪挑战相一致，是当今工程师的基础。然而，这些非技术技能往往被低估或缺乏工程课程。社会参与工具包对学生学习的影响将在多个课程和不同的机构中进行测试，包括佐治亚理工学院、加州大学富勒顿分校和密歇根大学迪尔伯恩分校。研究结果将为如何根据不同的制度背景调整社会参与工具包提供信息。还计划对教师对采用社会参与工具包的态度进行研究。由此产生的社会参与工具包的调整可以产生一个重要的，可转移的资源，以支持全国的社会参与工程教育。社会参与工具包使用混合学习块方法，提供按需虚拟课程，并结合面对面指导，帮助工程专业学生在工程工作的每个阶段学习整合上下文信息（例如，物理，个人，社会，文化和社会背景）。研究部分将评估社会参与工具包对学生学习的影响，以及教师在跨机构背景和项目设置的课程中采用这些材料的影响。研究问题将通过包括调查和焦点小组访谈在内的混合方法研究来回答。通过收集和分析评估前和评估后的数据，将调查该工具包对学生学习的影响。采用和不采用社会参与工具包的工程教师都将被询问，以了解采用的障碍，并协助调整资源以适应教师的需求。预计社会参与工具包将成为促进工程项目更具包容性的工具。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by promoting engineering design that considers social, economic, and environmental factors. It will do so by supporting the distribution and adaptation of a Social Engagement Toolkit developed by the principal investigators. This resource provides instructors with teaching materials that help engineering undergraduates gain skills in considering social aspects of engineering problems when designing solutions and engaging clients and stakeholders. These skills align with the National Academy of Engineering’s 21st Century Challenges and are foundational for today’s engineers. However, these non-technical skills are often under-emphasized or absent from engineering curricula. The impact of the Social Engagement Toolkit on student learning will be examined across multiple courses and different institutions, including Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, Fullerton, and University of Michigan, Dearborn. The results will inform how to adapt the Social Engagement Toolkit for different institutional contexts. A study of the instructors’ attitudes to adoption of the Social Engagement Toolkit is also planned. The resulting adaptations of the Social Engagement Toolkit can produce an important, transferable resource to support socially engaged engineering education nationwide.The Social Engagement Toolkit uses a hybrid learning block approach to provide on-demand virtual lessons combined with in-person coaching to help engineering students learn to integrate contextual information (e.g., physical, personal, social, cultural, and societal contexts) at every phase of their engineering work. The research component will assess the impact of the Social Engagement Toolkit on student learning and instructor adoption of the materials into their courses across institutional contexts and program settings. The research questions will be answered via a mixed methods study that includes surveys and focus group interviews. The impact of the Toolkit on student learning will be investigated via collection and analysis of pre- and post-assessment data. Both engineering instructors who adopt and those who do not adopt the Social Engagement Toolkit will be queried to understand barriers to adoption and to assist the adaptation of resources to suit instructors’ needs. It is expected that the Social Engagement Toolkit will be a vehicle for promoting greater inclusiveness in engineering programs. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.