Making Clocks: A First Year Course Integrating Professional Communications With An Introduction To Engineering

As engineering educators worry about attracting and training outstanding undergraduates, it has become important to develop strong first-year courses that introduce students to engineering as a discipline and a profession. A strong introductory course is vital because first-year engineering students arrive at the university with a variety of needs which must be addressed immediately if they are to have four productive years. Fresh out of high school, students often come to engineering school with only a hazy notion of what engineers do and what kind of knowledge engineers use. As students take up the standard requirements in calculus, chemistry, graphics, computer languages and professional communications, they frequently need to have an exciting and meaningful learning experience, a creative experience that motivates them to stay in engineering. To survive the heavy math and science load, students must also acquire new study skills; in particular, to master new abstract concepts, they need to learn how integrate the words, diagrams, and equations used to explain those concepts in their textbooks. In their communications class, fwst-year students are often frustrated to discover that the expository and interpretive writing skills learned in high school do not necessarily prepare them to write in a precise, analytical, and professional manner. But above all, fwst-year students need to acquire a framework for thinking about engineering, a framework which will help them to integrate the ideas and skills which they will acquire during their four-year education.