Define "engineering design": Understanding how freshman students develop their understanding of engineering, design, and engineering design

Abstract

Freshman engineering students often begin their studies with limited, imprecise, and minimally informed conceptions of "engineering design." A deep understanding of this term, however, is vital to an informed awareness of what engineering practice might involve and what engineers see themselves as doing. Textbooks can provide authoritative definition for the student, but these formalisms are (1) challenging for freshman students with limited engineering experience to engage with and (2) fail to capture the complexity of engineering design practices, especially in different disciplines and cultures. In this paper, we examine the efficacy of an activity, developed for a freshman engineering design course that is intended to deepen and enrich students' understanding of these terms by asking them to categorize various artifacts as works of engineering design. Starting with a simple binary question - yes or no - They move to a planar assessment - And finally to a comparative exercise as complications are introduced into the artifact set. Analyzing their pre and post-Activity definitions and student reflections on the activity allows us to explore the impact of the exercise on the students' understanding of and engagement with the concept of "engineering design.". © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.