Integrating Exposure to Nanotechnology through Project Work in a Large First-Year Engineering Course

Abstract

Kelsey Rodgers is a graduate student at Purdue University in the School of Engineering Education. Her research focus is investigating how engineers' understand, develop, and use mathematical models and simulations. Her research also focuses on feedback. She is currently conducting research in first-year engineering on the Network for Nanotechnology (NCN We report the alignment between our National Science Foundation Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education grant goals and existing first-year engineering course goals, along with the process of developing, revising, and implementing two nanotechnology interventions to fulfill these goals. Specifically, we describe how nanotechnology was integrated into a first-year engineering course that does not have exposing students to nanotechnology as a course goal, but does afford opportunities for such through its existing goals and project assignment structures. We also report findings based on analysis of this large-scale implementation that suggest greater need for training and structure to support consistency in nanotechnology opportunities presented across various instructors' sections of a single course.

How First-Year Engineering Students Develop Visualizations for Mathematical Models

“…The alignment of these course objectives to the course projects is further described by Rodgers, Boudouris, Diefes-Dux, and Harris (2016). 13 Spring enrollment in this course is typically 1300-1650 students in 12-15 sections; each section consists of up to 120 students. This course structure for the spring 2015 offering along with the numbers of students that completed the course, sections, and teaching assistants is shown in Figure 1.…”

“…The development of the two projects implemented in the course for this study are described by Rodgers, Boudouris, Diefes-Dux, and Harris (2016). 13 Within the MEA, teams had to develop one mathematical model to create a solar panel with various quantum dot (QD) materials based on provided data and some relevant equations. Within the GUI design project (i.e.…”