Collaborative Research: Integrating Sociotechnical Issues into Electrical Engineering Starting with Circuits

该项目旨在通过帮助工科学生解决电气工程(EE)中的社会技术问题来加强他们的准备工作，从而服务于国家利益。通常，本科工程课程强调纯粹的技术主题，但真正的工程问题涉及复杂的社会问题，需要技术和社会专业知识。大多数工程指导员都受过深厚的技术教育，他们几乎没有工程以外的经验，他们觉得自己缺乏整合非技术主题的能力。这个项目旨在通过开发电路入门课程的四个模块来帮助工程教师将社会技术问题整合到他们的课程中。每个单元都与技术电路专题相联系，每个单元都强调一个不同的社会技术问题，如电子电路部件和电动汽车电池再利用所需的冲突矿物(来自武装冲突地区的矿物，影响这些矿物的贸易)。电路通常是EE课程中的第一门课程，它招收了来自许多学科的学生。因此，激励工程教师在电路入门课程中实施这些社会技术模块，可能会对该领域产生深远的影响。这些模块的目的是在大学经历的中期实施，那时学生正在形成他们的工程身份，它们应该帮助学生实现与社会和全球视角相关的关键认证结果。该项目希望对六所院校14门课程的900多名学生的专业形成产生影响。将社会技术问题纳入基础课程，如电路，向学生发出了一个强有力的信息，即什么是该领域所重视的，这一信息可以对学生产生重大影响，特别是那些在电子工程师历史上被边缘化的学生，包括妇女和有色人种学生。一名首席调查员(PI)已经开发了一个关于冲突矿物的社会技术模块，并在该PI教授的电路课程中进行了测试。将招募一批电子工程研究生，帮助开发其他模块，使用向后课程设计的原则来创建学习目标、教学活动和课后评估，并为每个模块提供家庭作业和考试问题。这些研究生将为教授促进社会责任感的EE课程做好更好的准备。在小型私立机构(圣地亚哥大学)试行每个模块并在大型公共研究机构(密歇根大学；密歇根大学)试行后，这些模块的使用将扩大到密歇根大学和其他四家机构的其他大型电路课程。学生的反馈将被用来改进这些模块，并探索工程教师和参与其中的学生的经验。评估将侧重于这些模块在加强技术内容、促进学生的社会责任感和扰乱学生对规范文化信仰的坚持方面的有效性。在一系列不同的情况下成功地实施这些社会技术模块应该会增加广泛采用的可能性，并将为传统工程课程中社会技术模块的开发提供一个可供其他教师采用的模式。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与的学生学习跟踪，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by enhancing the preparation of engineering students through helping them address sociotechnical issues in electrical engineering (EE). Typically, the undergraduate engineering curriculum emphasizes purely technical topics, but real engineering problems involve complex social issues and require both technical and social expertise. Most engineering instructors have been educated with a deep technical focus, they have little experience outside of engineering, and they feel ill-equipped to integrate non-technical topics. This project aims to help engineering instructors integrate sociotechnical issues into their courses by developing four modules for an introductory circuits course. Each module is linked to technical circuits topics, and each emphasizes a different sociotechnical issue such as the conflict minerals (minerals sourced from an area with armed conflict that impacts the trade of those minerals) needed for electric circuits components and repurposing of electric vehicle batteries. Circuits is typically the first course in the EE curriculum, and it enrolls students from many disciplines. Thus, inspiring engineering instructors to implement these sociotechnical modules in introductory circuits courses has the potential for far-reaching influence on the field. The modules are intended to be implemented in the middle years of the college experience, when students are forming their engineering identities, and they should help students achieve key accreditation outcomes related to social and global perspectives. This project hopes to impact the professional formation of over 900 students in 14 courses across six institutions. Including sociotechnical issues in a fundamental course such as circuits sends a powerful message to students about what is valued by the field, and that message can have a significant impact on students, particularly those who have been historically marginalized in EE including women and students of color.A sociotechnical module on conflict minerals has already been developed by one of the Principal Investigators (PIs) and tested in a circuits course taught by that PI. A cohort of EE graduate students will be recruited to assist in developing other modules using principles of backwards course design to create learning objectives, instructional activities, and post-class assessments with homework and exam questions for each module. These graduate students will be better prepared to teach EE courses that promote a sense of social responsibility. After pre-piloting each module at a small private institution (University of San Diego) and piloting it at a large public research institution (University of Michigan; UM), the use of these modules will be scaled up to other large circuits courses at UM and at four other institutions. Student feedback will be used to refine the modules and explore the experiences of the engineering instructors and students who engage with them. Assessment will focus on the effectiveness of the modules at reinforcing technical content, promoting students’ sense of social responsibility, and disrupting students’ adherence to normative cultural beliefs. Successfully implementing these sociotechnical modules in a range of different contexts should enhance the likelihood of widespread adoption and will provide a model for development of sociotechnical modules in traditional engineering classes which can be adapted by other instructors. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.