The Engineering Design Process: An Assessment Of Student Perceptions And Learning At The Freshman Level

An investigation into the impact of a simple team design experience in teaching the engineering design process is described. The design experience occurred early in an Introduction to Engineering course after a single lecture on the engineering design process. The design activity, necessarily simple at this stage, consisted of designing, building, and testing a drag racer, constructed from LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT parts and powered by a single rubber band. Assessment of the value of the experience focused not only on gains in student perceptions of knowledge of and confidence in applying the engineering design process, but also on actual gains in knowledge, as judged by written responses, and on the use of the engineering design process, as judged by student design step logs. Student learning was assessed through questionnaires at the beginning and end of the laboratory period. The questionnaires addressed both student knowledge and student confidence levels. In addition to assigning numerical values (on a scale from 1 to 5) to their perception of knowledge about and confidence in applying the design process, students responded to the knowledge questions with short, written statements. These statements were then scored by the investigation team and the resultant scores compared with the students’ perceptions of knowledge. The assessment data showed a significant overall increase of both student perception of knowledge (from an overall average of 2.28 to 3.06) and confidence scores (from an overall average of 3.09 to 3.66) as well as significant individual incremental increases. The assessment of student knowledge as evaluated by the investigation team showed a somewhat smaller, but still significant, increase (from an overall average of 2.35 to 2.74). Assessment of the student design logs indicated good general adherence to the design process with interesting exceptions. Detailed analysis of the assessment data revealed strengths in student preparation for the experiment as well as certain course topics, which will require more in-depth coverage in subsequent offerings of the course. An unexpected result was the finding that there is a requirement to define commonly used terminology when introducing students to the engineering design process.