2020 Virtual undergraduate Research symposium

Learning and teaching sociotechnical thinking in engineering courses at multiple levels and two universities


PROJECT NUMBER: 52

AUTHOR: Jacquelene Erickson, Electrical Engineering | MENTOR: Kathryn Johnson, Electrical Engineering

 

ABSTRACT

This research project focuses on the social-technical dualism that tends to exist within engineering education. Such practice can lead to an inaccurate portrayal of the sociotechnical complexities of engineering problem solving, especially in the workforce after college. Through assignments, faculty reflection logs, focus groups, and surveys, this research team analyzes students’ sociotechnical thinking and further analyzes ways to improve it and instill engineering habits of mind through sociotechnical integration in the classroom. Currently we incorporate interventions in 2 core engineering courses at CO School of Mines and 1 engineering course at CU Boulder.

 

VISUAL PRESENTATION

 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jacquelene is a graduating senior with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. She has greatly enjoyed working on this project in the electrical engineering department with her research team and has learned so much from everyone. After graduation, she is going to work at an engineering firm for electrical distribution design and plans to take all she’s learned to apply it in the workforce.

 


1 Comment

  1. Very interesting and important work – particularly now that students are home learning rather than in the classroom. Great job!

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