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Undergraduate engineering students are commonly introduced to design in their first year and tackle a more authentic design challenge during senior year, with intervening courses focused on technical problem solving. Along this trajectory, students should acquire skills related to the development of engineering requirements, which are important to the technical framing of design problems. Through the lens of framing agency, this mixed-methods study explores first-year and senior students’ knowledge of engineering requirements as they engaged problems within their respective courses. Findings suggest that learning about requirements as a framing mechanism was not well-supported across the curriculum. Implications include a need to engage students in requirements development during the middle years and improve support for iterative framing and solving activities
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Flood Causes and Mitigation Strategies for Civil Engineers
Students act as civil engineers who are assessing the viability of a new housing development along a river. Students use a map of the river and the location of the proposed development to demonstrate where erosion and deposition are occurring along the river. They interpret precipitation data to determine whether flooding will occur. Finally, they create a presentation that includes the best course of action for the city and any flood mitigation strategies necessary.
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- PAR ID:
- 10600504
- Publisher / Repository:
- Teach Engineering
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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