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

这个改善本科STEM教育（IUSE）项目将有助于增加美国工程专业毕业生的数量和多样性，方法是研究文科院校在帮助学生将工程学视为一种职业选择方面可能发挥的作用。这个项目将支持一个研讨会，重新设想既定的双学位课程，结合联合收割机在文科学院和两年的工程项目的三年学习的格式。这种方法，通常被称为3-2计划，近年来已经看到学生的兴趣下降。该讲习班的题目是：“文科学院环境中的工程联系”将使教师们聚集在一起，重新设想3-2双学位的选择，并制定创造性的方法，扩大文科学院学生进入工程的途径。长期以来，文理学院为这些专业提供了不成比例的毕业生，包括女性和代表性不足的少数民族，而研讨会将有助于将这一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，沟通技巧和对环境的理解，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，哲学和其他学科，从全国各地的文科院校的机构。研讨会将侧重于三个主要议题。考虑到许多文理学院学生群体的多样性，如何在文理学院更多地关注工程学，激励更多的女性和其他代表性不足的群体参与工程学？ 什么替代传统的3-2途径进入工程可能会更好地利用文科大学的环境，并服务于更广泛的学生利益？什么样的课程和课外活动可以文科院校开发，以建立更顺利的过渡到工程和更好的社区感兴趣的学生在工程和/或设计追求职业生涯？研讨会将导致教师通过重新思考什么是工程师思考工程教育的方式转变。 这将导致更好地了解如何将文科文化融入工程师的教育，以及如何更好地告知文科大学生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.