How Important is the WOW Factor in First Year Engineering Courses? | Zendy

Thalia Anagnos | Zendy; Burford J Furman | Zendy; P. Hsu | Zendy; Patricia Backer | Zendy

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How Important is the WOW Factor in First Year Engineering Courses?

Author(s) -

Thalia Anagnos,

Burford J Furman,

P. Hsu,

Patricia Backer

Publication year - 2020

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Conference proceedings

DOI - 10.18260/1-2--19683

Subject(s) - teamwork , engineering education , process (computing) , class (philosophy) , task (project management) , computer science , work (physics) , work in process , mathematics education , bridge (graph theory) , engineering management , engineering , software engineering , psychology , management , systems engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , operations management , economics , operating system , medicine

This paper discusses the effectiveness of using projects with a “wow factor,” that is, engaging and challenging hands-on projects, in a freshman engineering course to excite students about engineering and to motivate student retention and persistence. The course, offered at San José State University, enrolls approximately 700 students per year in a lecture/laboratory format. Projects include a solar cell evaluation, and the design, construction and testing of a scaled wind turbine and an autonomous robot. Impact of the course content on students’ knowledge and attitudes about engineering is compared with an assessment done in 2002 using the same instrument. Impacts of these particular projects on students’ excitement about engineering and motivation to pursue engineering were measured with a new instrument. A large majority of the students report that the projects got them excited about engineering and motivated them to continue.

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