2024

Enhancing Biomedical Design Mindsets through Reflective Learning

Alexandra Werth (Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering)

This project aims to transform and unify the four-week design project within Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (ENGRI 1310) and the Experiential Learning Seminar (BME 2080) in order to enhance students’ attitudes, views, and beliefs surrounding Biomedical Engineering (BME) design which will be measured longitudinally from ENGRI through senior design.

The BME 2080/2081 course, along with the 4-week design project in ENGRI 1310, will be transformed using Backward design. The revamped BME 2080/2081 course will be structured into three four-week modules, with the second module closely integrated with the transformation of the ENGRI 1310 design project. Each module in the new BME 2080 will encompass the four learning objectives: Students will demonstrate enhanced metacognitive skills; Students will demonstrate the ability to apply ethical principles; Students will demonstrate the ability to apply empathetic engineering skills; and students will develop more expert-like epistemologies surrounding biomedical engineering. Evidence-based pedagogical practices will be employed to achieve these learning objectives.

2023

ENGRI 1120: Feast! Chemical and Biomolecular Processes and Products through Food

Allison Godwin (Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

This project aims to make the chemical engineering ENGRI course directly relatable and exciting by connecting it to real-world applications like creating healthier snacks, developing sustainable food sources, or optimizing food production processes. The course initially had a focus on traditional chemical engineering knowledge situated in decontextualized problem-solving. This approach is often abstract and unconnected to students’ motivations for engineering and lived experiences. This proposal engages active, problem-based learning (PBL) in a partially flipped classroom. The course is focused on chemical and biomolecular engineering (CBE) processes and products in the context of food. Food as a context is relatable and connected to students’ everyday lives. It provides tangible examples and spans cultural and historical boundaries. For these reasons, food is a more motivating context than a traditionally taught course and still provides opportunities to connect to core concepts in CBE; environmental, social, and economic considerations; quality and safety; and ethics.

Making Dynamics More Dynamic: A Research-Based Pedagogy Redesign of MAE 2030

Dmitry Savransky and Hadas Ritz (Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

MAE 2030 – Dynamics is a required course with enrollments up to 200 students. It was traditionally taught with lectures, discussion sections, required readings, and assessed with HWs and exams. Vector dynamics can be a highly challenging subject for some students, as it is amongst the first subjects that require strong integration of previous math and MAE courses. As more advanced concepts are presented, some students typically struggle due to lack of internalization of preparatory concepts.

The top-level goals of the MAE 2030 redesign were to reformulate the course to have frequent in-course knowledge-checks ins. This will be achieved with a flipped classroom with pre-recorded lectures and frequent in-class polling; automatically graded weekly computational assignments; interactive demonstrations in the MAE learning studios; and to have written homework be self-assessed by students.

2022

Redesign of BME 2210 to incorporate laboratory experience, design training, and ethics discussion to enhance student learning and experience

Mridu Sakia and Shivaun Archer (Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering)

BME 2210 – Biomaterials Foundations and Applications in Medicine is a required junior level course that was taught with traditional lectures, homework assignments, online exams, and a final paper in lieu of a final exam.  We propose a redesign of the class to include active learning components such as group discussion, a laboratory experience, and a debate. The proposed changes will be incorporated into the class through case studies of four biomedical devices and their constituent materials. Students pick a case study and as a group engage in discussions centered on ethics of the use and source of the materials. To address a question related to the biocompatibility of materials used in their specific devices, students will design and execute a laboratory experiment. The activities will be woven throughout the course to keep the students engaged.

Course Redevelopment Proposal: MSE 2060 – Atomic and Molecular Structure of Matter

Richard Robinson (Materials Science and Engineering)

MSE 2060 is a required sophomore course in Materials Science and Engineering. The class has a traditional form with an in-class lecture and at-home homework. Because of this passive learning style, the students do not see clear connections between the in-class lecture, the homework, and real-life application. The course proposal aims to update the course from straight lecturing to a more engaged, student-focused pedagogy to increase the learning and connectivity.

This will be done by incorporating active, in class learning such that the content delivery portion (lecturing) only occupies a small fraction of the time and the balance is spent discussing the concepts, working on problems, and doing hands-on lab work. In particular, along with learning the technical content of the course, the main goal is to prepare students to become self-directed learners. The plan for achieving this goal is for students to watch videos at home to prepare for class. Then during the lecture period students will have in class discussions, quizzes, demonstrations and in class problem sets. In addition, four hands-on labs will be introduced.

Design Ideation for Fluid–thermal Systems: Reimagining MAE4272 Laboratories in a Creative Framework

Perrine Pepiot (Sibley School of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering)

This project involves redesigning a required laboratory course, MAE 4272 – Fluids and Heat Transfer Laboratory. This a senior course in Mechanical Engineering, impacting approximately 150 students annually. The course was previously run using preset data from pre-designed and instrumented experiments. Students then analyzed the data and wrote reports. The redesigned course plans to engage students in designing their own experiments. They will design a wind turbine blade, 3-D print it, and then test it themselves. They will also measure forces on a real forklift that was donated to MAE. The students are expected to be more engaged in understanding the experiments, what they are measuring, and how to interpret the results.

2021

Course Redesign Proposal: EAS 3450 Environmental Geophysics

Kade Keranen (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)

This proposal is to redesign EAS 3450 Environmental Geophysics. This is a core, required course for the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Environmental Science track. This course also acts as a bridging course across the highly interdisciplinary parts of our major (soils, geochemistry, petrology, hydrology, instrumentation, coding, numerical methods). In their studies prior to this course, these topics have largely been studied in stand-alone courses and not integrated together naturally in problem-solving. In this proposal, this course will be redesigned to use active-learning methods in the first two-thirds of the course, and project-based learning methods in the final third of the course. Methods employed will include competitive trivia games, having students summarize main points of the prior lecture, and review and discussion of problems and solutions from their homework sets.

The final portion of the course will constitute guided project based learning, in which students plan and acquire a small dataset for analysis. This will be done in pairs. Students will identify a geophysical target, plan a survey over the target and demonstrate that based on expected physical property values it is detectable using their selected method. Additionally, the students will estimate the resolution of the method at the depth range of interest based on the method, the instrument parameters, the survey design, the physical properties, and expected background noise. Students will then acquire the data, process the data, and interpret the data to provide information regarding the intended target.

Course Redesign Proposal – MSE 3010/5810 Materials Chemistry

Nicole Benedek (Materials Science and Engineering)

This proposal details a plan for a significant redesign in the delivery of MSE 3010/5810 Materials Chemistry. This is a required course for all MSE major undergraduates, typically taken during junior year. The redesign will incorporate significantly more active learning into the course. In particular, along with learning the technical content of the course, the main goal is to prepare students to become self-directed learners. The fundamental element of the plan to foster self-directed learning is the development of a supportive classroom culture. First, students must feel comfortable participating in discussions, both whole-class and in pairs and study groups. This sense of comfort can be developed in part by dedicating the first class to ice-breaker activities through which students get to know each other. Second, students should feel a sense of ownership over the class and have a say in how it is run. This can be accomplished by establishing a student steering committee. Homework assignments will be designed to achieve some measure of differentiated instruction, to cater for different learning styles.

Another key element of the redesign to promote self-directed learning and metacognition is conversational learning in student study groups. In addition, clickers will be used and a weekly student check-in with the Instructor or TAs will be incorporated.