Caitrin Lynch

Work in progress: Building bridges in our backyards: Engineering, service learning, and our elder neighbors

A novel partnership with community organizations serving older adults creates the opportunity for engineering students to practice design in a meaningful and unfamiliar but local service learning context. Students benefit from contextualization and user-centered design lessons typical of foreign design projects. Community members gain significant relationships and pride through these interactions.

An interactive exploration of gender and computing: unpacking the student experience

Being a computer science and engineering student is experienced differently by male and female students; gendered interactions affect the development of academic and professional role confidence as well as professional identity. In this hands-on special session, participants explore concepts of gender schemas, privilege, and identity using a range of interactive activities. We have found these concepts useful in framing discussion with our students and in understanding and improving student experiences. The session introduces and obtains feedback on a Gender and Engineering Exploration Kit, which the participants are encouraged to review, use, and share at their home institutions.

Special session: An interactive exploration of Gender and engineering: Unpacking the experience

The engineering student experience is understood to differ for male and female students; gendered interactions affect the development of academic and professional role confidence, as well as engineering identity. The purpose of this session is twofold. First, we aim to introduce participants to concepts of gender schemas, privilege, and identity using a range of interactive activities, including brainstorming and structured discussion. Second, we intend to share information about and obtain feedback on a Gender Discussion Exploration Kit, which the participants will be encouraged to review, use, and share at their home institutions.

Special session: Connecting with community: Empathy, experience, and engineering with elders

A hands-on special session at the Frontiers in Education conference introduces an experiential exercise in empathy. Participants will use prostheses to simulate some of the physical disabilities that often accompany aging, then attempt everyday activities to better understand how engineered artifacts - and engineering design choices - can facilitate or hinder these tasks. The “empathy exercise” introduced here is suitable for inclusion in a wide range of engineering classrooms. It draws student attention to the importance of end user understanding and increases student understanding of the connection between engineering decisions and societal impact at a visceral level.