Focus on Interactive Problem Solving in a First-Year Engineering Course

典型的工程课程强调封闭的例子和问题。虽然这些问题有助于发展趋同思维技能，但它们通常不能为提高解决工业和研究问题所必需的发散思维模式提供实践。本提案提出了一个提高一年级工程专业学生解决问题和综合技能的计划，以培养一种贯穿他们整个大学生涯和职业生涯的思维模式。这种增强将通过创新的第一年必修课程来实现。在一年级的1000多名学生中，几乎不可能实现培养发散思维技能所需的理想的一对一互动。在提议的第一年课程中，交互式计算机模块和开放式问题将与呈现出强大的启发式问题解决方法的讲座和练习结合使用。计算机模块将允许学生在决策树分支点的灰色区域做出决策，排除故障，并决定他们需要从计算机访问哪些数据。我们之前在编写互动模块方面的工作导致了我们个性化教学的发展策略。然后，学生们将分组工作，应用这些概念来解决开放式设计问题，以这样的水平写作，一年级学生将能够产生创新的解决方案。这些小组互动，需要书面报告，将提供一个框架，以提高学生的人际交往和沟通技巧。拟议的项目最初将有可能影响1000多名一年级工程专业学生。此外，开发的模块和材料将分发给全国其他工程学院。

Typical engineering courses emphasize closed-ended examples and problems. While these problems aid in the development of convergent thinking skills, they usually do not provide practice for improving the divergent thinking patterns essential for the solution of industrial and research problems. This proposal presents a plan for enhancing the problem-solving and synthesis skills of first-year engineering students to develop a mind-set lasting throughout their college careers and professional lives. This enhancement will be achieved through an innovative, required first-year course. In a first-year class of over 1,000 students, it is virtually impossible to achieve the ideal one-on-one interaction required to develop divergent thinking skills. In the proposed first-year course interactive computer modules and open-ended problems will be used in conjunction with lectures and exercises that present a robust problem solving heuristic. The computer modules will allow the students to make decisions in gray areas at branch points in decision trees, to troubleshoot, and to make decisions on what data they need to access from the computer. Our previous work on writing interactive modules has resulted in our developing strategies that individualize the instruction. The students will then work in groups to apply these concepts to solve open-ended design problems, written at such a level that first-year students will be able to generate innovative solutions. These group interactions, requiring a written report, will provide a framework to enhance the students' interpersonal and communications skills. The proposed project will initially have the potential to influence over 1,000 first-year engineering students. Further, the modules and material developed will then be distributed to other engineering colleges across the nation.