The
first goal of the Engineering Education Partnership is to
develop the best educational practices in the Picker Engineering
program.
The
main objective is to incorporate the expertise of the cognitive
scientist to use learner-centered pedagogy throughout the
curriculum of the Engineering Department.
TWO
MAIN TOOLS: Reflective Narratives
and Concept Maps help students see "the
Big Picture."
REFLECTIVE
NARRATIVES
“The
narrative essay allowed me to reflect on my thoughts on
engineering and re-evaluate my choice of a career.”
“It definitely helped me to understand engineering
as a whole, as well as my part in it.”
—Students in Introduction to Engineering
Assignment:
Throughout their engineering education, students write narrative
essays describing their current views on the nature of engineering,
how they see themselves in relation to the field, and how
each course fits into their engineering education.
Purposes:
- Assess
their engineering knowledge
- Help
them draw connections between the curriculum, engineering,
and their goals and values
- Encourage
them to self-identify as an engineer
Excerpt
from student narrative:
- First version: “So after pondering my potential
life as an physicist, I decided that I wanted more social
responsibility. From the little that I've heard and read,
engineering might be the right mix of math, science, and
social responsibility.”
- Later version: “We should heed [C.P.] Snow's
warning about over-specialization, and rid ourselves of
the notion that an engineer's job is simply to design and
build machines while letting others decide where and why.”
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CONCEPT
MAPS
"I think the concept map
is in your head, where you just suddenly click: oh, everything
is linked!”
“In this class, you always know what you're doing,
and at every new chapter he goes through the concept map
and says, 'so we learned how to do this, which means we
can now do this, which relates to this, and it makes everything
make sense.' So you're able to say, 'Even if I don't understand
the math, this is what it's for.'"
—Continuum Mechanics students
What
a concept!
Concept maps are an instructional tool for understanding
how content fits together. We map out the relationship among
formulae, algorithms, procedures, and conservation laws,
and identify areas where we quantify (represented by Q)
these key properties. Purpose? To understand how an object
responds when a loading is applied.
See
a sample concept map
Our web site
navigation - a concept map!
Here
are student comments on the use of concept maps.
"[I found the concept maps] extremely helpful.
[They] help show how these formulas and concepts are related
. . ."
"Most classes just dive right in, but this actually
tells you why you're doing what you're doing—very
helpful."
"[The concept map] puts the class and semester into
an easy-to-understand form. We always know where we're going."
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