The project, a collaborative effort involving SUNY at Buffalo, Pennsylvania State University, and Northwestern University, is combining concepts from archaeology with advances in cyber-enhanced product dissection to implement new educational innovations that will directly address the challenging global, economic, environmental, and societal aspects in an engineering curriculum. The approach builds upon the team's previous demonstration and assessment efforts in cyber-enabled product dissection-based pedagogy by developing and disseminating scalable learning materials, strategies, and educational innovations that develop students' understanding of the broader context of engineering. Specifically, they are (1) creating integrative in-class activities and learning materials based on a cyber-enabled product for engineering design-related courses that span freshmen through senior levels; (2) developing rubrics and assessment tools in core areas to ensure sustainable deployment with national impact; and (3) conducting hands-on workshops to foster dissemination of new teaching strategies based on product archaeology through faculty development and outreach. Evaluation efforts are examining the impact on student learning through assessments embedded in the actual learning material and exercises, the extent to which their materials are adopted by others, and the factors that facilitate or impede adoption by others. Broader impacts include aggressive dissemination through faculty workshops and focused K-12 outreach efforts targeting female high school students and technology and science teachers.
