Nadia Kellam

Engineering Education as a Complex System.

This paper presents a theoretical basis for cultivating engineering education as a complex system that will prepare students to think critically and make decisions with regard to poorly understood, ill-structured issues. Integral to this theoretical basis is a solution space construct developed and presented as a benchmark for evaluating problem-solving orientations that emerge within students’ thinking as they progress through an engineering curriculum. It is proposed that the traditional engineering education model, while analytically rigorous, is characterised by properties that, although necessary, are insufficient for preparing students to address complex issues of the twenty-first century. A Synthesis and Design Studio model for engineering education is proposed, which maintains the necessary rigor of analysis within a uniquely complex yet sufficiently structured learning environment.

An Interdisciplinary Design Studio: How Can Art and Engineering Collaborate to Increase Students’ Creativity?

creativity often has been associated with the arts, although creativity also is essential for innovative discoveries and applications in science and engineering. in this article, a pilot study is presented about an investigation concerning how creativity is fostered in an art education course in conjunction with an undergraduate engineering course, through visual arts experiences and instruction using creative problem solving strategies. through emphasizing creative strategies and ways of thinking developed through art, such as resistance to closure, tolerance of ambiguity, visualization, and use of metaphor (Eisner, 2002), interdisciplinary collaborations of art with other disciplines, such as engineering, can become very successful.

Steam as Social Practice: Cultivating Creativity in Transdisciplinary Spaces.

12 In the wake of the economic recession and increasing competition from developing economies, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has emerged as a national priority. To art educators, however, the pervasiveness and apparent exclusivity of STEM can be viewed as another instance of art education being relegated to the margins of curriculum (Greene, 1995). Taking a different perspective, we find it helpful to look past STEM as a vehicle for promoting economic growth and international competitiveness and view it as a means toward overcoming the compartmentalized disciplinary approach to education (Holley, 2009). Considered in this way, STEM is about collaboration. In an educational setting, this means taking subjects that have previously been taught in isolation and weaving them into an integrated curriculum—a transdisciplinary endeavor that has the potential to lead to exciting and unexpected outcomes that can transcend the traditional goals of disciplinary education to address questions of social practice. Recently there have been calls to expand STEM education to include the arts and design, transforming STEM into STEAM in the K-20 classroom (Maeda, 2013). Like STEM, STEAM education stresses making connections between disciplines that were previously perceived as disparate. This has been conceptualized in different ways, such as: focusing on the creative design process that is fundamental to engineering and art (Bequette & Bequette, 2012); emphasizing the role of creative and synthetic thinking to enhance student interest and learning in science and mathematics; and showing the value in exploring the science and mathematics that underpin different artistic techniques (Wynn & Harris, 2012). In this article, we describe how a collaboration between art education, engineering, and landscape architecture led us to conceptualize STEAM as a social practice that reflects concerns for community engagement and ecological sustainability. Figure 1. An engineering student explains how art offers a different modality of ‘doing’ in a Transdisciplinary Design Studio. OOur nation’s success depends on strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation... And that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today—especially in science, technology, engineering, and math [STEM].

The faculty perspective on holistic and systems thinking in American and Australian mechanical engineering programmes

This research effort examined current mechanical engineering educational programmes in America and Australia to determine the degree of holistic, systems thinking of each programme. Faculty from ten American universities and ten Australian universities participated in online surveys and interviews. Resulting data analysis and interpretation suggest that holistic, systems thinking is present in both American and Australian engineering educational programmes, although it is more prevalent in Australian programmes. Specific examples of educational opportunities (courses, projects, extracurricular activities, research experiences) that integrate complex systems study are described in the full paper. This study is currently limited a small sample size within two countries, but it would be very useful to expand the study to a larger population and to include European sites to gain a fuller picture of the state of holistic, systems thinking in higher education.

Benchmarking the Integration of Complex Systems Study in Mechanical Engineering Programs in the Southeastern United States

Complex systems study, defined as an understanding of interrelationships between engineered, technical, and non-technical (e.g., social or environmental) systems, has been identified as a critical component of undergraduate engineering education. This paper assesses the extent to which complex systems study has been integrated into undergraduate mechanical engineering programs in the southeastern United States. Engineering administrators and faculty were surveyed and university websites associated with engineering education were examined. The results suggest engineering administrators and faculty believe that undergraduate engineering education remains focused on traditional engineering topics. However, the review of university websites indicates a significant level of activity in complex systems study integration at the university level, although less so at college and department levels.

Seeing Experiences of Interdisciplinarity Through Student Artwork

This paper explores visual response methods as a representation of student learning in a college-level interdisciplinary curriculum integrating art and engineering. The visual response methods, specifically visual journals and postcards, are examples of authentic assessment and alternative data collection methods embedded in a mixed-methods (qualitative dominant) practitioner research case study. In the paper, we focus on different means for analyzing these visual responses (e.g., through hermeneutic analysis, document analysis, and narrative analysis) and deliberate the contribution of diverse analysis methods to the researchers’ understanding of students’ experiences of interdisciplinarity in this course.

A network model of distributed and centralized systems of students

The body of knowledge in active and cooperative learning lacks an analytical model to determine the emergent patterns of distributed (active, student centered) and centralized (traditional, teacher centered) networks of students. To address the complexity of learning systems a network modeling approach based on Social Network Analysis and Ecological Network Analysis is proposed as an appropriate scientific construct for developing analytical techniques for studying and understanding learning systems. Models were developed, designed, and interpreted for two configurations, one with four actors and another with 16 actors. A preliminary analysis was performed on a 12 actor model to determine the optimal cluster size to maximize indirect effects within the system. In the future, network models can be utilized to further understand learning systems through network properties that are not directly observable. It is the aim of the authors to provide an additional lens to view, assess, and optimize student learning.