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Project Based Learning Design Projects for Introduction to Engineering Design Courses

Taryn Melkus Bayles Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering University of Maryland Baltimore County

Abstract

Over the last four years, the Introductory Engineering Science (ENES 101) course has been revised from a traditional lecture and design-on-paper course, to an active learning lecture and project based learning engineering design course. The design teams are required not only to research, design, construct, evaluate, test and present their product, but also to develop a mathematical model of their product’s performance. Successful engineering design projects have included human powered pumps, water balloon launching devices, hot air balloons, wooden block transport devices, hemodialysis systems and chemically powered vehicles. ABET evaluations have been collected for this course over the last four years and this data has been used to evolve the course, as well as to formulate the design criteria for the design projects. In addition, a new “Success Seminar” component was added to one section of this course last year, and due to the positive impact on students’ academic success in the following semester, the “Success Seminar” component has been added to two sections of the course this year.

The success of the revision of the introduction to engineering design course has led to partnerships with various area high schools, where the equivalent of ENES 101 is taught in the high school environment. As a result of these partnerships, the high school students have a better appreciation of engineering and over 90 % of these high school students are majoring in engineering in college (5 – 60 % per class per high school at UMBC). UMBC has assisted the high schools in teaching summer workshops for middle school girls, establish an “Engineering Olympics” for their feeder middle schools and start FSEA (Future Scientists and Engineers of America) after school clubs. Many of the high school engineering teachers have partnered with UMBC for several NSF engineering education grants which have been awarded.

Introduction

The University of Maryland Baltimore County has undertaken various initiatives to improve engineering education and awareness. The first initiative was to revamp the Introduction to Engineering Course (ENES 101) from a traditional lecture and design-on-paper course, to an

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Bayles, T. (2005, June), Project Based Learning Design Projects For Introduction To Engineering Design Courses Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14390