Study of the engineering method is important in order to understand our world. The environment of man is a collage of engineering problem solutions. Political alliances and economic structures have changed dramatically as a result of the telephone, the computer, the atomic bomb, and space exploration-all undeniably products of the engineering method. Look around the room in which you are now sitting. What do you find that was not developed, produced, or delivered by the engineer? What could be more important than to understand the strategyfor change whose results surround us now and, some think, threaten to suffocate, to pollute, and to bomb us out of existence? This article redresses this situation by presenting a philosophically justifiable definition of Engineering Method that is gaining wide acceptance in the United States.

Design is behavior. Therefore, it can best be understood by means of behavioral theory and must be taught in a way consistent with the theory of behavior modification. This simple fact appears to have been overlooked by most, if not all, engineering educators who teach design courses or write textbooks on engineering design. This article examines this thesis and its relationship to engineering heuristics by considering specific examples taken from current practice in engineering design education.

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