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Title: Early Engagement and Vertically-Integrated Learning: Developing Holistic and Entrepreneurially-Minded Engineers
Nationwide, 40-60% of engineering students leave their engineering major, with women and underrepresented minorities doing so at higher rates. In the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Georgia Institute of Technology in recent years, 50% of students have changed to a new major in their first two years, while roughly the same numbers have entered the program simultaneously from other engineering majors. Similar departure rates are seen in programs across the country. Reversing attrition from civil and environmental engineering is a critical need for addressing society’s grand challenges effectively. This attrition is due in part to limited discipline-focused engagement until students’ junior year. To address this, the School of CEE is providing early engagement in authentic engineering experiences and giving students the opportunity to reflect on these experiences to solidify their CEE identity. We are creating opportunities early and across the curriculum for our students to engage in interactive problem-based learning centered on the global grand challenges, while developing their technical and computational knowledge, skills, and mindset. We are also equipping our students to work effectively in teams and to apply story-driven learning to become more reflective learners. This takes the form of a “spine” of vertically-integrated courses. These innovations in the curriculum contribute to the development of holistic engineers with an enhanced sense of belonging to the discipline and a strengthened self-concept as a civil or environmental engineer. The initiative also supports the development of entrepreneurially minded engineers, that is, engineers who know how to create value for society and do so habitually. We outline these innovations in each of the four vertically-integrated courses, while emphasizing the techniques applied and how they connect to create a cohesive curriculum that engages students as engineers from the first year.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2022298
NSF-PAR ID:
10348264
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, American Society for Engineering Education
Page Range / eLocation ID:
37657
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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