This engineering education research initiation grant seeks to understand how engineering student learning experiences in requisite mathematics courses impact how students learn engineering design. The principle investigator will use a verbal protocol study, which has been used successfully in understanding design thinking in past studies.
The broader significance and importance of this project is in the way it can inform both undergraduate engineering education as well as the national discussion on mathematics at the K-12 level. The researcher has proposed a strong plan to widely disseminate the results of the project that includes outreach to K-12 educators through workshops. Since design is closely tied to innovation, the impact on preparation of the technical workforce in the United States is potentially important. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of transforming the frontiers through preparation of an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise. Additionally NSF's goal of innovating for society is enabled by supporting the development of innovative learning systems.
