NSF Award
0603465
This project is providing technology integration and manufacturing students with critical skills to improve their overall education and make them more marketable through the creation of two courses. First, the project is creating a year long cross-disciplinary course on Integrated Learning Systems. This gives students a competitive edge and better serves the region's business needs. Students are exposed to real world challenges faced by engineers and technicians, honing critical thinking skills and problem solving techniques through valuable hands-on technical experiences. Students are working with local industry partners. The curriculum is being developed using a project-based pedagogy/androgogy created through a process of workplace research.<br/><br/>Second, the project is developing an applied general education course in mathematics, physics, and technical writing that makes the general education experience more applicable to the career pathways of technical students. The Foundations of Engineering Technology course is being adapted from the Engineering Technology Core Curriculum developed by the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence (SC ATE). This part of the project is undergoing a comprehensive evaluation by SC ATE. The project includes a comprehensive professional development component to prepare faculty to make use of project-based integrated learning pedagogies/androgogies.
