Engineering for the Real World: Diversity, Innovation and Hands-on Learning

Abstract

Leaders in engineering education reform advocate integrating “real world” expertise into the undergraduate training, but these calls encompass a dizzying array of both skills and methods to develop them. The authors give form to the debate by sketching out the pedagogical value of one specific type of real world experience – practical learning with one’s hands – and situating it within in the longer historical context of the mental/manual divide that characterizes U.S. engineering practice and education. Engineering by Doing (EbD), an initiative at the Colorado School of Mines, exemplifies this kind of learning by bringing together non-traditional students, with practical skills, and traditional engineering students, with solid grounding in mathematics and sciences, to work on projects with a specific practical, hands-on element. Making the background knowledge and experiences of nontraditional students visible and valued within the curriculum has the potential to improve recruitment and retention among low income and first generation students and thereby broaden participation in engineering.