This engineering education research project will investigate synergistic learning, the processes by which students integrate disparate aspects of learning into a coherent whole. The work will be conducted through curriculum innovation over four years of an environmental engineering program at the University of Georgia. The main mechanism is establishing ?Synthesis and Design Studios? to integrate disparate knowledge from STEM, humanities, and social science courses. The project also seeks to understand the mechanisms of synergistic learning and integrating this understanding into a meta-theory that connects learning theory with engineering education. In particular the project seeks to understand the ?Ah Ha!? moments when various fragments of knowledge fall into place. The project builds on a strong link between engineering education research in the area of synergistic learning and pedagogical methods and the Synthesis and Design Studios students take for all four years of the program?s curriculum.
Have you struggled with figuring out how concepts connect or how they relate to the bigger picture? Have you taught a course and been frustrated when students did not apply concepts that they learned in previous courses? To begin to understand the answers to these questions around what we call synergistic learning, we conducted an educational research project within the context of an innovative, transdisciplinary Synthesis and Design Studio that enrolled environmental engineering, art education, and landscape architecture undergraduate and graduate students. This context afforded a unique opportunity to observe and research students’ synergistic learning experiences—the ways that disparate learning "comes together in students’ heads." This research topic is critical as the fragmentation of the curriculum is understood to be a significant barrier to high quality education but little research has been conducted, especially within the context of engineering, to better understand how students make connections in their own learning. From the qualitative data analysis, three key features of synergistic learning processes emerged and have been disseminated in a range of research publications: 1. Synergistic learning processes are, oftentimes, undergirded by deeply personal processes of student development: A number of synergistic processes were related to students making connection between, for example, aspects of their engineering learning, and ways of thinking promoted in artistic exploration. While these connections were most apparent on the level of project tasks or other concrete features of the learning experience, deeper processes of critically examining one’s own disciplinary identity and developing a genuine appreciation for other disciplinary viewpoints also often accompanied them. 2. Synergistic learning processes are intertwined with the social fabric of the learning context: In the above example of students developing an appreciation of other disciplinary viewpoints or ways of thinking, the social context often played a crucial role. For example, students’ reflections and visual journals point to the development of personal connections or trust with a group member from another discipline as a critical starting point for genuine engagement with another discipline. 3. Modeling of synergistic processes plays a key role in students’ learning: Connected to the above two points, it was observed that the students took a number of cues for their own development from the context of the class. This was particularly significant in the ways the transdisciplinary instructor team engaged with each other and with the respective disciplinary as well as the shared transdisciplinary aspects of the course. Beyond these immediate outcomes, the project also led to three key achievements related to curricular innovation in the local context. (i) In the current iteration the interdisciplinary studio course was expanded to include students from landscape architecture. This outcome and the connection to faculty members in this discipline will inform future implementations of the interdisciplinary studio course. (ii) Informed by the work in the prior NSF grant and the current project, the studio concept is currently being integrated into the design of the new program in mechanical engineering offered by the College of Engineering at UGA. (iii) Informed by the work in this project, synergistic learning is being infused into the design spine at the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University by co-PI Kellam. In addition to the achievements in terms of curriculum innovation, the project also produced significant methodological contributions. More specifically, the development and dissemination of a visual-verbal narrative analysis method to capture a richer view on students' experiences contributed to the methodological basis of the engineering education community and was published more broadly in the context of methodological developments in the field of education. This project had broader outcomes that were beyond the intended scope of this project and that emerged from the transdisciplinary research teams interactions. Drawing on the joint experience of co-teaching the interdisciplinary studio, the instructional team developed a STEAM-inspired lesson for National STEM Day at a local primary school. The lesson focused on composting and engaged students in an exploration of the process of composting and the making of seed "bombs" using native seeds. Additionally, members of the research team presented a STEAM teacher workshop at the Georgia Museum of Art that offered a STEAM education framework for elementary grades informed by the work accomplished in the project.
