How do you teach engineering?

On Monday, Feb 5th, I will give a short presentation at Quicken, along with a few students who participated in my undergraduate fluids class in Fall 2017. I am happy and excited for the opportunity to discuss the innovations going on in my classroom with Quicken's "Future Labs" audience. I'll be discussing my innovative approaches to teaching. This opportunity to collect and share my thoughts as well as student experiences has been a good one to reflect on my teaching philosophy, which prior to now, has only been shared with various faculties as I applied for tenure-track jobs. Although it focused on 'engineers' - I think that the words I first wrote in 2009 -and edited lightly here- carry some weight when I determine, upon reflection, that I believe 'innovation' is what education is for.

What is the goal of an education? For many, it is developing mastery of a certain skills subset. People who develop mastery we might call 'doctor,' 'lawyer,' or 'accountant.' Generously, ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) precisely defines what those skills must be to call oneself an 'engineer'. It seems simple then to produce student-engineers which fit these specifications.  However, is this what I believe education is for, merely to provide students the knowledge they need? Is this the marker of a successful program? David Orr, offers this argument,

“We are accustomed to thinking of learning as good in and of itself, and students labor under the confusion that the goal of education is to stuff all kinds of facts, techniques and methods into their minds, regardless of how and with what effect it is to be used.”

Initially, I lectured under the assumption that the only goals of my teaching were to provide a solid foundation and the tools with which a student could prosper and build their future success. However, after a semester of lectures, and terrible teaching evaluations, I am discovering that I am not content merely providing the tools of the engineering trade. I’ll describe the ways I initially strove (and strive) to be a good teacher, and conclude with some remarks about how I continually hope to better my practice.

Building Knowledge 

Effective teaching, like good research, is built on three pillars. These pillars, experimentation, theoretical development, and modeling/application are the foundation upon which new ideas are generated and validated in the field of engineering. Ideas, once mastered, must be applied to critical problem-solving tasks.

For the freshman engineering student, a hands-on experiment is likely the only way to impress an understanding of a new or un-intuitive concept, while a more developed graduate student is likely to be able to imagine a ‘thought’ experiment with much the same effect. A common introductory level aerospace engineering topic is the concept of ‘total’ pressure. Using a small can of compressed air released through a small orifice, I can demonstrate the ‘working potential’ of total pressure converted to dynamic pressure. Then developing equations on the board, students learn the principles behind the demonstration they just witnessed. The final step is having the students build a model to predict future behavior, to cement understanding of these key principles.

The knowledge of how the world works are simply put, the 'rules' of the game. Textbooks are just scientific instruction manuals for life. And similar to a game where 'if you roll a double, you get another turn' - the rules of our game follow scientific logic.

 Skill Development 

Once a ‘toolbelt’ has been created - or you've collected enough 'rules' for a rudimentary game; the next step is introducing students to practical applications. 'Practical application' is another way of saying 'breaks the rules.' That is, our rule book works effectively in the 'game of life', but in actual life, things get messy. The real world is full of uncertainty and measurement error. For example, students in a lab class may have run an experiment to determine the modes of a fixed beam (wing). The simple set up asked the students to follow a series of steps to excite the beam at a range of frequencies and measure the output on an oscilloscope. Unfortunately, because the course’s lab manual featured significant hand-holding students were inhibited or prevented from being naturally inquisitive (or from making mistakes!) that would lead them to the 'wrong answer' and the potential for REAL learning. A more effective approach to this type of learning would be to pose a problem, “Find the first 3 resonant frequencies of the beam” and offer tools, function generator, distance sensor, electromagnet, beam, oscilloscope, and ask the student what they would do to perform the task. Then look at the students results from across the class (a statistical distribution, no doubt, if there isn't a step-by-step guide), and perhaps reveal the 'expert user' results. Guided inquiry and discovery enhances the student’s investment in the course and provides valuable real-world applications for students who are concrete learners. The problems with the 'fail first' based approach is that first it simply takes a LOT of time, and secondly, no one LIKES to fail. (Unfortunately for you, if you sign up for my class, expect that you will fail A LOT.)

The area of engineering is also somewhat unique in its emphasis on the ‘team.’  While this may seem like one small aspect, the majority of students don’t plan on the somewhat solitary future of a professor or sole-proprietor business. Rather, the typical engineer will work on a team, large or small, and integrate their efforts with those around them. Part of an engineering education should thus be spent on experimenting in this group dynamic. A diverse classroom, like a diverse work environment, emphasizes with students importance of considering multiple viewpoints. Group experiments and classroom participation are excellent models for this.

Learning Assessment 

To me, successful learning is the development of a strong foundation in fundamentals, as well as extensive relevant experience with the tools used to validate new ideas, and the critical thinking necessary to apply these concepts responsibly. Assessment of learning then should focus on retention and solidification of fundamentals, and enable the student to show mastery of other relevant skills. I do not focus on rote memorization of equations. A typical homework or exam will focus on a few key problems and a final problem which requires a synthesis of the key knowledge and an application which extends the course material to a deeper level of understanding.

Recently, I have also learned from WSU's office for teaching and learning, how to incorporate 're-takes' into my examination process. Where I allow students to consider their in-class exam as a 'first draft' and they retake the exam as a homework set to ensure mastery of all critical course materials.

Part of the assessment process for me also involves global learning. An open-ended student motivated group project is a chance to coordinate a large number of topics and gets the student to grasp the big picture and demonstrate how responsible (irresponsible) engineering solutions have an impact on the rest of the world.

Lifelong learning 

As cliché as the phrase ‘lifelong learning’ has become, I truly believe in being a role model to my students in this regard. My path in the educational realm continues to take me many interesting places, and I would hope my students learn from my example. To narrow a focus in engineering can lead to burn out, or worse, to an engineering colleague of mine who once told me, ‘I don’t need to worry about those things, I’m an engineer! That is why we have lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists.” This is the polar opposite of what I would consider a successful college experience. 

I hope my students critically analyze all aspects of the problem they are attempting to solve and consider the theoretical ramifications of the solution they devise. This is not an idea which can be mastered or a skill which develops without effort. Maintaining it is only truly possible by continually educating one’s self.  For me, this is a fundamental virtue, and the most important way I am a role model and educator to my students.

Lastly, I hope to impress upon them the critical value of teaching others, and explaining things in their own words, not simply by memorizing a textbook definition and regurgitating it. Each student in my class is required to teach a concept to the class, while I watch and guide them as a 'faculty consultant' - a role that I played for peers in engineering education while in grad school at Michigan. Thus far, giving control of the classroom over to students, having them take control of their own learning has been a wonderful experiment in teaching students to be innovative engineers.

Dr. Ethan Eagle is an author, professor, musician, yoga instructor, and freelance diversity and innovation consultant specializing in innovation coaching, team building, executive presence, and ally training for those in Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering (STEM). He is an award-winning lecturer and presenter. If you would like to invite him to speak to your group, you can connect with him here. Prior to starting at Wayne State University, Ethan worked at Sandia National Labs in Livermore, CA. He has provided workshops on innovation for clients of Jeff DeGraff at The Innovatrium, Ross Business School Sanger Leadership Center in Ann Arbor, MI and for Optimize Wayne in Detroit. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan.