Developing Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Curricula in Biological Engineering

奥本大学（Auburn University）的一个多学科教师小组正在合作开发生物工程领域的跨学科新课程。来自生物系统工程、化学工程和生物科学的教师团队将与教学专家和其他利益相关者一起开发课程和创新教学技术。课程开发活动结合了创新的教学技术，旨在增加学生参与这些新课程的规模和多样性，并增加学生对社会责任的承诺。特别强调的是在生物工程中开发两个跨学科的、基于项目的螺旋课程。这两个各自的课程将有许多共同的元素，但将在现有的生物系统工程和化学工程学位课程下提供。跨学科的课程为学生提供了许多独特的机会来开展多学科的团队活动。课程将结合课程中的方法，以适应学生的不同学习风格，并将结合工作室经验，以保持高水平的学生兴趣和保留。这些新的教学和学习技术将被用于其他工程和科学课程。还将开发名为“项目设计工作室”的服务学习项目，与经济落后地区和代表性不足的群体建立联系。这些项目将在新的生物工程毕业生中建立更大的社会责任感，并为其他机构提供榜样。

A multidisciplinary group of faculty at Auburn University is collaborating to develop new cross-disciplinary curricula in biological engineering. Groups of faculty from biosystems engineering, chemical engineering, and biological sciences will join with experts in teaching and learning and other stakeholders to develop the curricula and innovative teaching techniques. The curriculum development activities incorporate innovative pedagogical techniques aimed at increasing the size and diversity of student participation in these new programs and increasing the students' commitment to social responsibility.Special emphasis is placed on developing two cross-disciplinary, project-based, spiral curricula in biological engineering. The two respective curricula will have many common elements but will be offered under existing degree programs in Biosystems Engineering and Chemical Engineering. The cross-disciplinary curricula offer many unique opportunities to employ multidisciplinary, team activities for the students. The curricula will incorporate methods in courses to embrace differentiated learning styles of students and will incorporate studio experiences to maintain high levels of student interest and retention. These new teaching and learning techniques will be advanced for use in other engineering and science curricula. Service learning programs, named Project Design Studios will also be developed to build linkages with economically-depressed regions and underrepresented groups. These programs will build a greater sense of societal responsibility among the new biological engineering graduates and serve as models for other institutions.