Creativity throughout the Curriculum: Educational Practices to Build the STEM Workforce of Tomorrow

国家的经济和安全需要一支能够设计，制造，测试和部署紧急，复杂问题的有效解决方案的工程队伍。除了发展传统的工程技能外，这些劳动力还必须获得创新和创造力方面的技能。该项目旨在通过调查工程教育的新范式来解决这一需求，该范式将科学，工程，解决问题和批判性思维的基础与创造性思维的训练相结合，这是创新的基础。该项目将设计、实施和评估体验式培训计划，以帮助工程教育工作者在大二、大三和大四课程中教授创造性思维技能。该项目的长期目标是通过新颖的教学实践来提高学生的参与度和保留率，为创新的工程队伍做好准备。该项目的智力价值包括推进有关如何培养创新劳动力的知识，调查如何专注于创新影响工程专业学生的持续性，特别是代表性不足的少数民族，并创建一个变革性的方法来工程教育，这将产生一个工程劳动力，准备解决复杂的，跨学科的问题。标准化的工具将被用来评估学生的创造力方面，包括设计自我效能，对变化的抵抗力，以及创造性思维的变化。该项目更广泛的影响包括通过出版物、会议和研讨会以及研究在全国范围内传播教学方法，这些研究可能会为工程教育工作提供信息，以扩大工程领域代表性不足的群体的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The nation's economy and security require an engineering workforce that can design, manufacture, test, and deploy effective solutions to urgent, complex problems. In addition to developing traditional engineering skills, this workforce must also gain skills in innovation and creativity. This project aims to address this need by investigating a new paradigm of engineering education that integrates the foundations of science, engineering, problem-solving, and critical thinking with training in creative thinking, which is the foundation of innovation. The project will design, implement, and evaluate an experiential training program to help engineering educators teach creative thinking skills in sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level courses. The project's long-term goal is to increase student engagement and retention through novel instructional practices that prepare an innovative engineering workforce. The intellectual merits of this project include advancing knowledge about how to train an innovative workforce, investigating how focusing on innovation affects the persistence of engineering students, particularly under-represented minorities, and creating a transformative approach to engineering education that will produce an engineering workforce that is prepared to tackle complex, interdisciplinary problems. Standardized instruments will be used to assess aspects of student creativity, including design self-efficacy, resistance to change, and changes in creative thinking. The project's broader impacts include national dissemination of the pedagogical approach via publications, conferences, and workshops as well as research that may inform engineering education efforts to broaden participation of under-represented groups in engineering fields.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.