Encouraging Students to See the Role of Service Courses in Their Major

Many departments are involved with service courses which support both their programs and other programs across the campus. A service course is a required or elective course taught by other programs across the campus. These can be courses such as thermodynamics which could support all engineering disciplines or it could be computer or math courses which support majors outside their respective departments. It could also be liberal arts courses, such as English or History, which support engineering majors. In these service courses, often students do not see the relevance of the course to the major or sometimes engineering faculty downplay the importance of these courses to their major. This leads to confusion by the student concerning the content of the service course and its significance to their professional development. A goal of the paper is to describe the importance of service courses to an engineering curriculum and the role that engineering service courses can play in a liberal arts curriculum. Several examples are given as well as suggested opportunities for engineering departments to service their university through technical literacy courses. A specific example of a technical service course is a course taught by the author while on sabbatical at the USAF Academy. This course was an introductory course in aeronautics required by all students at the USAF Academy. The author’s section had 23 students from majors as varied as English and History as well as Chemistry and Civil Engineering. In the syllabus 50 points (out of 1000) were allocated to instructor points to be used how the instructor viewed appropriate. For this section, the Cadets were asked to write a three page essay on how the subject of how aeronautics intersects with their chosen major. This posed a thought provoking reflection essay which was not expected in an introductory engineering class. Cadets were encouraged to talk with their advisor, other classmates, other Cadets in the major, and with the author. Several Cadets chose the latter and excellent discussions were had with the author outside of the classroom. As a result, the essays written were thoughtful and thought provoking. In a survey that was accomplished after the essays were graded and returned, many Cadets thought the essay experience was valuable and they appreciated the opportunity to reflect on the relevance of aeronautics to their major. They made connections between aeronautics and their major where previously they thought none existed. This had the effect of changing their attitude towards the course and the material, a positive