Reading, Writing Energy: An Nsf Ccli Project To Enhance A Freshman Core Curriculum Natural Science Course
- Conference
- Location
-
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
-
June 22, 2008
- Start Date
-
June 22, 2008
- End Date
-
June 25, 2008
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Page Count
-
14
- Page Numbers
-
13.1022.1 - 13.1022.14
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--3281
- Permanent URL
-
https://strategy.asee.org/3281
- Download Count
-
446
Paper Authors
Christine Ehlig-Economides Texas A&M University
Christine Ehlig-Economides is a full professor of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. She worked for 20 years for Schlumberger in the oil industry in more than 30 countries. Dr. Ehlig-Economides has a B.A. in Math-Science from Rice University, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Petroleum Engineering. She is currently developing education and research programs in energy sustainability. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.
Cathy Mariotti Ezrailson University of South Dakota
Cathy Mariotti Ezrailson is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of South Dakota. She received her B.S. in Geology and Comp. Science and Ashland University, her M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction: Science Education from the University of Houston. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction: Physics Education from Texas A&M University. Her specialty is in the development of interactive science curriculum models based on project/problem-based engineering design methods for K-12 and postsecondary levels. She is a former PAEMST Award winner for Texas and a TAMU MALRC Fellow.
Ramesh Talreja Texas A&M University
Ramesh Talreja is a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. He has taught for 30 years in various disciplines of materials engineering, mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering in Europe and in United States and has lectured extensively around the world. Dr. Talreja has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from University of Bombay, a MS degree in Structural Engineering from Northeastern University, and PhD and DTechSci degrees from the Technical University of Denmark. His technical expertise lies in composite materials and he is currently engaged in educational and research activities in sustainability.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Reading, Writing - Energy: An NSF CCLI Project to Enhance a Freshman Core Curriculum Natural Science Course Abstract ENGR 101 is a natural science core curriculum course offered every semester to non-engineering majors at a Research-I university in Texas. With particular emphasis on energy and its sustainability, this course aims at helping students develop critical thinking and effective communication skills to become responsible and scientifically literate citizens. Unique elements in the course design include the student population it targets, the skills and knowledge it emphasizes, and the varied conduct of the class meetings. A key learning design characteristic is the variety of learning strategies employed, including • weekly quizzes on assigned reading, • interactive lectures provided to all students as a group, • weekly recitation sessions of no more than 20 students designed to engage students in interactive discussions of current energy news and how it impacts energy sustainability, • weekly essay assignments requiring students to summarize, analyze, and synthesize material they are initially provided, and later encouraged to find for themselves, and • student-centered semester-long projects with open-ended guidelines. The diverse instructional team includes two full professors in charge of the lectures, a third full professor managing the recitations, and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and undergraduate peer teachers (UPTs) who conduct the recitation sessions. While the full professors all come from engineering disciplines, UPTs are selected from students who have previously taken the course, and both GTAs and UPTs can come from any of the university degree programs. The ENGR 101 course was piloted for the first 2 semesters only to honors sections. NSF CCLI funding for the Reading, Writing – Energy (RW-E) project is providing a mechanism to enhance the course as enrollment is opened to both honors and regular students. Students selected from those who took the course in the initial honors offerings have subsequently become UPTs for the recitation sections. The RW-E project funding includes support for an assistant professor and a PhD level graduate student from the College of Education and Human Resources. These two project participants have drafted a training program for the UPTs and GTAs to be held prior to each semester, and they convene the instructional team on a weekly basis to share experiences, share additional learning resources and discuss plans for the following week. They assist the engineering professors in charge of the course to incorporate student-centered learning strategies in line with design principles of the How People Learn 1 framework. They also conduct research on the course design and its effectiveness in achieving learning goals, emphasizing critical thinking, effective communication skills, learning from peers, and issues awareness. The RW-E project is highly beneficial to development of the ENGR 101 course. Involving learning scientists in the course design and planning has greatly enhanced its value to students.
Ehlig-Economides, C., & Mariotti Ezrailson, C., & Talreja, R. (2008, June), Reading, Writing Energy: An Nsf Ccli Project To Enhance A Freshman Core Curriculum Natural Science Course Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3281
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015