The role of student passions inside the engineering curriculum

Abstract

What gap exists between the kind of engineer an engineering program seeks to educate and the ways in which engineering students want their engineering education to engage them? This paper explores such a gap at Colorado School of Mines. Analysis of campus values and student passions through two surveys given in spring 2016 reveal incongruence in campus culture. The students and faculty currently value professional and financial success but aspire to value integrity, ethics and addressing complex problems. Further, surveyed students reported passions outside of engineering. However, just over half of students have been able to develop their non-technical passions at Colorado School of Mines while almost 90% believe developing those passions will make them a better engineer. To explain and rectify this mismatch, results are discussed in terms of three engineering education frameworks: culture disengagement in engineering education, the concept of “engineer and”, and calls to include the “whole” student in the learning process.