Author(s):
First-year engineering students are typically enrolled in large enrollment introductory STEM courses across their first two semesters in college. These courses serve to teach fundamental skills and problem-solving strategies that these students need to succeed in future courses and while working as engineers. However, the content of traditional introductory courses is often disconnected from the contexts in which engineers need to apply this foundational STEM knowledge. This disconnect serves to inhibit knowledge transfer to future courses, decreases student motivation and interest, and reduce student perception of usefulness of these introductory courses. Compounding the problem, traditional introductory STEM courses present engineering students with well-structured problems with single-path solutions that do not prepare students with the problem-solving skills they will need to solve complex problems within authentic engineering contexts. When presented with complex problems in authentic contexts, engineering students find it difficult to transfer the scientific knowledge learned in their STEM courses to these solve integrated and ill structured problems.One potential solution is to teach introductory STEM courses as multidisciplinary by integrating STEM instruction with engineering design. The grounding of STEM courses in authentic engineering design contexts allows for students to connect other STEM disciplines with engineering problems. In addition, engineering design problems are often ill-structured with multiple solution paths, which allow students to develop more advanced problem-solving strategies. The purpose of our research program is to engage students in a multi-disciplinary introductory physics course. Our research team created a series of introductory mechanics labs grounded in engineering design problems. Over the course of four years, we engaged approximately 10,000 engineering students in a multi-disciplinary introductory physics course. Student experiences and outcomes were analyzed through a series case-studies, interview studies, focus-group studies, and survey-based correlational studies. The results have demonstrated that student generally perceive the multi-disciplinary labs to be more relevant to their major and career goals, as well as more interesting and motivating than traditional labs. In addition, students successfully demonstrated transfer between physics and engineering contexts, integrated physics concepts from multiple labs to complete the design project and demonstrated improved computational thinking skills. Learning outcomes appear to be facilitated through effective communication and co-regulated learning skills.The project team is currently engaged in two projects analyzing student data from an introductory physics Engineering Design (ED) lab to explore students’ ‘Ways of Thinking’ and ‘Evidence-Based Reasoning’. One project investigates the Design-Science gap, while the other explores differences between students’ ‘Ways of Thinking’ in instructor-assigned and student-constructed engineering design challenges. This research may inform strategies to scaffold student learning and advance the discourse on ‘STEM Ways of Thinking’.
Coauthors
Amir Bralin, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN; Ravishankar Chatta Subramaniam, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN; Carina Rebello, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, CN; Sanjay Rebello, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
