Can Diversity in the Undergraduate Engineering Population Be Enhanced Through Curricular Change?

Problems Associated with a Lack of Cohesive Policy in K-12 Pre-college Engineering

“…The NAE report and others (Busch-Vishniac & Jarosz, 2004) express concern that the profession of engineering is still poorly understood by the public and that misconceptions about what engineers do in practice may actually serve to discourage women and ethnic minority populations from pursuing engineering careers. Prior to STEM reform efforts, there was little incentive for engineering colleges to engage in K-12 education, and the tendency was to turn inward toward research and teaching the engineering sciences.…”

Designing for STEM Integration

“…3. The challenge must address a societal need as this has been shown to attract individuals from populations that are typically underrepresented in engineering (Busch-Vishniac, 2004). 4.…”

Implicit Bias? Disparity in Opportunities to Select Technical versus Non-Technical Courses in Undergraduate Engineering Programs

“…22 As the engineering profession changes, faculty find it desirous to include new material, "but it is rarely politically expedient to remove material from a curriculum." 23 An "engineering renaissance" and cultural change are needed, wherein "the merits of material are debated in the context of priorities, lifelong learning, and the quality of experience rather than historical biases." 23 While some engineering students desire more integration of liberal arts into their engineering curriculum, 25 other engineering students find humanities, history, arts, communication, and/or culture classes "unnecessary and irrelevant" and a waste of their time.…”

“…23 An "engineering renaissance" and cultural change are needed, wherein "the merits of material are debated in the context of priorities, lifelong learning, and the quality of experience rather than historical biases." 23 While some engineering students desire more integration of liberal arts into their engineering curriculum, 25 other engineering students find humanities, history, arts, communication, and/or culture classes "unnecessary and irrelevant" and a waste of their time. 20 This sentiment has been voiced by a number of senior engineering students at one institution who bemoan the fact that they had to "waste" their time in humanities and social science courses (even though those courses comprised only 14% of their curricula).…”