Spatial Skills and their Relationship to Creativity and Innovation in Undergraduate Engineering Design

该项目旨在通过提高工程创新来服务于国家利益。它将通过探索空间思维技能如何促进工程设计的成功来实现这一目标。技术解决方案的设计，使人类社会适应和繁荣是工程实践的一个关键方面。为了使工科学生成为成功的专业工程师，本科工程教育必须帮助他们精通设计，这需要创造性和灵活地思考问题的最佳解决方案的能力。该项目团队将进行新颖的、潜在的变革性研究，以调查辛辛那提大学新生和大四学生的空间技能和设计能力之间的相互作用。这项研究将考察良好发展的空间技能如何有助于整体设计方法的使用，从而为设计问题提供更好的解决方案。团队还将进行探索性研究，以检验可视化技能水平较弱和较强的学生在团队工程设计作业中的经验和互动。这个项目将利用完善的程序来描述学生所采用的设计过程。空间技能将使用现有的、可靠的空间认知测试来衡量，包括心理旋转测试。开放式工程问题的解决方案将根据质量和创造性使用既定的规则进行评判。项目团队还将检查完成指定设计任务的学生制作的工件。将采用混合方法来回答三个研究问题：1)高空间可视化技能的学生与低空间可视化技能的学生在设计过程中有什么不同（如果有的话）？这些差异对大一新生和高年级学生来说是一样的吗？2)设计工件的整体质量与空间技能之间的关系是什么？设计方案的创造性是如何与空间技能相关联的？3)与高视觉化者相比，低视觉化者的设计体验有何不同？当队友的空间技能水平不同时，这些体验会发生怎样的变化？该项目有可能填补在理解空间思维技能如何促进工程设计成功方面的重大空白。本研究将为未来发展教育干预措施以改善工程本科学生的设计成果奠定基础。由于女性的空间技能可能不太发达，因此这个项目的结果可能与女性工科学生的设计经验特别相关。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 improving engineering innovation. It will do so by exploring how spatial thinking skills contribute to the success of engineering designs. The design of technological solutions that enable human society to adapt and thrive is a critical aspect of engineering practice. To prepare engineering students for success as professional engineers, undergraduate engineering education must help them become proficient at design, which requires the ability to think creatively and flexibly about optimal solutions to problems. This project team will conduct novel and potentially transformative research to investigate the interactions between spatial skills and design abilities among freshmen and seniors at the University of Cincinnati. This research will examine how well-developed spatial skills may contribute to the use of a holistic design approach that produces better solutions to design problems. The team will also conduct exploratory research to examine the experiences and interactions of students with weaker and stronger visualization skill levels in a team-based engineering design assignment. This project will utilize well-established procedures for characterizing the design process employed by students. Spatial skills will be measured using existing, reliable tests of spatial cognition, including mental rotation tests. Solutions to open-ended engineering problems will be judged on quality and creativity using established rubrics. The project team will also examine the artifacts produced by students who complete assigned design tasks. A mixed methods approach will be employed to answer three research questions: 1) What is the difference (if any) between the design processes enacted by students with high spatial visualizing skills versus low skills? Are these differences the same for first-year students as they are for seniors? 2) What is the relationship between the overall quality of the design artifacts produced and spatial skills? How is the creativity of the design solution related to spatial skills? and 3) What is the difference between the design experiences of low visualizers compared to high visualizers? How do these experiences change when spatial skill levels of teammates differ? The project has the potential to fill a significant gap in understanding about how spatial thinking skills contribute to engineering design success. This research will lay the foundation for future work to develop educational interventions to improve design outcomes for undergraduate engineering students. Since women are more likely to have less developed spatial skills, the results from this project may be particularly relevant for the design experiences of engineering students who are women. 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.