Interactive First-year Engineering Seminar Series

Abstract

Six years ago, a Seminar Series was implemented in the Engineering Strategies and Practice course for first-year engineering at the University of Toronto. The learning objectives of the seminar series are to teach students communication as an engineer, independent learning, and systems thinking. Additionally the seminar series creates a forum for faculty, and other professional mentors, to imbue a passion for learning in a more intimate environment than is normally associated with first-year courses. The interactive seminar series has proven popular with both the students and the 40+ volunteer seminar leaders recruited from academia, industry, the local community, and non-profit organizations. These seminar leaders mentor their students through a discussion of the technical, social, environmental, economic, legal, ethical, political, and/or human factors associated with an engineering-related topic of the seminar leader's choosing. The past, present, and future of the seminar series will be discussed in this paper. By measure of self-reported growth the learning objectives are being met and as such the seminar series is considered a success. It is predicted to continue, with goals of continuous improvement, for years to come.