Shawn S. Jordan

Innovation corps for learning: Evidence-based entrepreneurship™ to improve (STEM) education

The Innovation Corps for Learning (I-Corps-L) is a pilot initiative from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) to study whether the NSF I-Corps model can help to propagate and scale educational innovations. The NSF I-Corps guides teams based on established strategies for business start-ups, using Blanks Lean LaunchPad and Osterwalders Business Model Canvas and associated tools, to build entrepreneurial skills that will encourage mainstream application of their emerging technologies. The overriding goal is improving student learning and success rates in key STEM courses by helping to accelerate the process of bringing effective educational innovations to scale. The project goal of I-Corps-L is to investigate the potential of the I-Corps model for fostering an entrepreneurial mindset within the education community to impact the way innovations are designed and implemented. This Work in Progress describes the features of the I-Corps-L pilot and provides preliminary indications of its applicability for propagating, scaling and sustaining education innovations. Addressing the persistent challenge in STEM education to adopt evidence-based instructional practices is an urgent need as many approaches have been tried yet the rate and extent of adoption are very low.

Should Makers be the engineers of the future

Engineers participate in the Maker movement. Some Makers do not pursue formal engineering education but both the engineering field and their own vocational advancement could readily benefit. We seek to understand Makers and how they are inclusive or exclusive of what can be expected from engineers. From the Engineer of 2020 list of characteristics (National Academy of Engineering, 2004), we highlight practical ingenuity, creativity and lifelong learning for likely opportunities to leverage the Maker experience. The mission of this research is to develop a theory, inductively grounded in data and deductively built on literature, illuminating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of Makers, describing their pathways in formal engineering education to better inform future innovations in order to improve the practical ingenuity and lifelong learning of our future engineers. Artifact elicitation interviews, based on the method of photo elicitation and critical incident technique interviews will be administered to participants. Results from the inductive and deductive analyses will be triangulated to generate a preliminary theory of Maker knowledge, skills, attitudes, and pathways. This theory, inductively grounded in data and deductively connected to literature, will describe aspects of Makers, along with how their pathways intersect with formal engineering education experiences.

Out of their world: Using alien-centered design for teaching empathy in undergraduate design courses

Designing for others is a paramount focus of teaching user-centered engineering design. This paper presents a novel engineering design brief presented to undergraduate engineering students to design for extra-terrestrials scheduled to visit their collegiate campus. Through this alien-centered design approach, students are pushed to develop empathy for a group of users quite different from themselves and to conceive and design within such an given context. A detailed plan of action is described for both cases with detailed deliverables aligned to course learning objectives. Examples of the interactions students make with their extra-terrestrial users are listed and examples of student work and final deliverables are highlighted. Reflections from the end of project are also included from students and instructors alike. The work presented here may serve as a building block to these types of successful engineering design projects in the classroom.

Might young makers be the engineers of the future

Engineers participate in the Maker movement. Some Makers do not pursue formal engineering education but both the engineering field and their own vocational advancement could readily benefit. We seek to understand Young Makers in K-12 and how might their knowledge, skills, and attitudes prepare them to pursue advanced STEM education and careers. From the Engineer of 2020 list of characteristics we highlight practical ingenuity, creativity and lifelong learning for likely opportunities to leverage the Maker experience. The mission of this research is to develop a theory, inductively grounded in data and deductively built on literature, illuminating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of Young Makers related to pathways forward to engineering and STEM-related majors and careers. By describing their pathways to or around formal engineering education will better inform future innovations in order to improve the practical ingenuity and lifelong learning of our future engineers. Artifact elicitation interviews, based on the method of photo elicitation and critical incident technique interviews will be administered to participants. Results from the inductive and deductive analyses will be triangulated to generate a preliminary theory of Young Maker knowledge, skills, attitudes, and pathways. This theory, inductively grounded in data and deductively connected to literature, will describe aspects of Young Makers, along with how their pathways forward may intersect with engineering and STEM-related majors and careers. By describing their pathways to or around formal engineering education will better inform future innovations in order to improve the practical ingenuity and lifelong learning of our future engineers.

Perceptions of success in virtual cross-disciplinary design teams in large multinational corporations

Abstract The nature of design problems facing industry today often requires the use of cross-disciplinary teams in order to maximise innovation. Three case studies were used to answer the research question: What factors contribute to the success of virtual cross-disciplinary design teams in large multinational engineering corporations? Results indicate that factors that contribute to success include the context in which teams work, the method by which teams do their work, and the media by which teams communicate. In addition, this study also found that technology facilitates, but does not take the place of, well-defined and shared processes.

Learning from the parallel pathways of Makers to broaden pathways to engineering

BackgroundMakers are a growing community of STEM-minded people who bridge technical and non-technical backgrounds to imagine, build and fabricate engineering systems. Some have engineering training, some do not. This paper presents a study to explore the educational pathways of adult Makers and how they intersect with engineering. This research is guided by the following research questions: (1) What can we learn about the educational pathways of adult Makers through the lens of constructivist grounded theory? and (2) How do the educational pathways of Makers intersect with engineering? This study relied on qualitative interviews, using artifact elicitation interviews and constructivist critical incident technique interviews, of 42 adult Makers.ResultsThrough inductive analysis of a collection of interviews with Makers, a theme emerged where Makers from different educational backgrounds and with different careers (e.g., art, STEM, business) were making artifacts that had similar purposes. We present two cases of parallel pathways, (1) musical artifacts and (2) large-scale interactive artifacts, to demonstrate the multiple, parallel life pathways that Makers take to making their artifacts and the contextual events and activities that are critical to the direction of these pathways.ConclusionsThe stories and life pathways of adult learners engaged in Making can offer valuable insight into how we might identify practices that promote the access and success of a larger and more diverse population of students for engineering. Makers are engaged in activities that embody the Engineer of 2020 (e.g., lifelong learning, creativity, and practical ingenuity). By studying Makers, we can consider the multiplicity of pathways into engineering majors and careers.

Is the engineer of 2035 a maker

Participants in this special session will: 1. Learn about the knowledge, skills, and attitudes possessed by Makers 2. Discuss the similarities and differences between Makers and Engineers 3. Discuss how Makers fit ABETs model for engineering graduates 4. Discuss how Makers fit the Engineer of 2020 model for engineering graduates 5. Leave enlightened and informed on how the worlds of Making and Engineering could collide.

Inspiring inventive genius in middle and high school students with chain-reaction STEAM Machines™

In this hands-on pre-conference workshop, participants will learn about the STEAM Machines™ program, which teaches middle and high school students the engineering design process in the context of designing and building Rube Goldberg®-style chain reaction machines.