Expanding Curricular Pathways into Engineering at Liberal Arts Colleges to Broaden Diversity Within the Profession

这一改善本科生STEM教育(IUSE)的项目将通过研究文理学院在帮助学生将工程作为职业选择方面可能发挥的作用，帮助增加美国工程学毕业生的数量和多样性。该项目将支持一个研讨会，以重新设想现有双学位课程的形式，即在一所文理学院学习三年，在工程课程学习两年。这种方法通常被称为3-2计划，近年来，学生们的兴趣有所下降。这个名为“文理学院环境中的工程联系”的工作坊将汇聚教员，重新构想3-2个双学位课程的选择，并为文科学院的学生开发创造性的方法，扩展进入工程学的途径。长期以来，文理学院为专业提供了数量不成比例的毕业生，包括女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔，而研讨会将有助于将这种成功扩展到工程领域。成功的工程创新越来越多地被视为需要批判性思维、沟通技能和对背景的理解，这些都是自由教育的标志。参与者，包括3-2名项目顾问，将来自物理、工程、数学、哲学等学科，来自全国各地的文科院校。研讨会将集中讨论三个主要主题。鉴于许多文科院校学生群体的多样性，文科院校对工程学的更多关注如何能激励更多的女性和其他代表性不足的群体参与到工程学中来？除了传统的3-2进入工程学的途径之外，还有什么方法可以更好地利用文科大学的环境，服务于更广泛的学生兴趣？文科院校可以开发什么样的课程和联合课程计划，以便让有兴趣从事工程和/或设计职业的学生更顺利地过渡到工程专业，并建立更好的社区？该研讨会将通过重新思考工程是什么，从而改变教师对工程教育的看法。这将导致更好地了解如何将文科文化融入工程师的教育中，以及如何更好地让文科大学生了解他们作为未来工程师的潜力。该项目包括努力将这项工作的成果传达给更广泛的高等教育界。

This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project will help to increase the number and diversity of engineering graduates in the United States by examining the role that liberal arts colleges might serve in helping students to consider engineering as a career option. This project will support a workshop to re-envision the format of established dual degree programs that combine three years of study at a liberal arts college and two years in an engineering program. This approach, frequently referred to as a 3-2 program, has seen diminished student interest in recent years. This workshop entitled: "Engineering Connections in the Liberal Arts College Environment" will bring faculty together to re-envision the 3-2 dual degree option and develop creative approaches expanding pathways into engineering for students of liberal arts colleges. Liberal arts colleges have long supplied a disproportionate number of graduates, including women and underrepresented minorities, into the professions and the workshop will help to extend this success to engineering. Successful engineering innovation is increasingly seen as demanding critical thinking, communication skills, and an understanding of context, all hallmarks of liberal education. Participants, including 3-2 program advisers, will come from physics, engineering, mathematics, philosophy, and other disciplines, drawn from the institutions of the liberal arts colleges across the country. The workshop will focus on three main topics. Given the diversity in student populations at many liberal arts colleges, how might more attention to engineering in a liberal arts college inspire more women and members of other underrepresented groups to become involved with engineering? What alternatives to the traditional 3-2 pathway into engineering might take better advantage of the liberal arts college environment and serve a wider array of student interests? What kinds of curricular and co-curricular programs can liberal arts colleges develop to build smoother transitions into engineering and better community among students interested in pursuing careers in engineering and/or design? The workshop will lead to a transformation of the way faculty think about engineering education through rethinking what it is to engineer. This will result in better knowledge of how to integrate the liberal arts culture into the education of an engineer and how to better inform liberal arts college students about their potential as future engineers. The project includes efforts to communicate the results of this work to the broader higher education community.