Development and evaluation of a classroom activity to promote integration of engineering with other academic disciplines

Abstract

This innovative practice full paper assesses an engineering classroom activity featuring integration. Engineers are a part of a broad community that contributes to the rapidly changing and growing technological innovations demanding contributions from multiple branches of engineering and academic disciplines. Therefore, the ability to recognize and understand interdisciplinary connections between engineering and all academic disciplines is critical for students’ academic success and professional preparedness. There is a need to develop novel classroom activities that enable students to recognize such connections. To that end, the objective of this research was to (a) develop a hands-on, student-led, classroom activity that can help students make interdisciplinary connections and (b) assess the impact of the activity on students’ perception about the interdisciplinary connections. A two-session classroom activity was designed in which students worked in teams and mapped different areas of study within mechanical engineering (ME) as well as seven non-engineering academic disciplines (NEAD) to real world, complex technological innovations such as virtual reality goggles, drones, and 3D printers. During the activity, active learning tools such as concept maps and jigsaw method were utilized. A total of 49 sophomore, ME students from a four-year university participated in the activity and associated assessments. All students participated in two surveys administered at the beginning and end of the activity to rate their motivation and excitement towards ME areas of study and seven NEAD, and their believed level of importance and relevance of the ME areas of study and NEAD to product development. The quantitative data analysis showed statistically significant increases in multiple survey items, showing an overall success of the activity in increasing students’ awareness of connections within and outside of engineering. The lack of changes in some survey items guide us towards areas and topics that need improvement to teach the relevance and integration of all disciplines to students. In future, these quantitative findings will be coupled with qualitative data from students’ retrospective reflection on the activity, student focus group, faculty interviews, student learning assessments and students’ concept maps to optimize the activity, assess student learning and finalize assessment instruments so the activity can be widely adopted by educators.