Assessing the Impact of Incorporating the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering as a Multidisciplinary Hands-On Design Project into the Introduction to Engineering Course

This evidence-based practice paper will discuss the effect of incorporating a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges themed project into the Introduction to Engineering course on first year students’ motivation, value, and perception of engineering. At Arizona State University, the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering have been incorporated into the 2-credit Introduction to Engineering course as the subject of a multidisciplinary hands-on team design project. The three Grand Challenges that were selected for inclusion in this project were make solar energy economical, provide access to clean water, and advance personalized learning; a real world problem was formulated for each of these three areas. In the design project, student teams work through the engineering design process to design a solution to the problem, build a functional prototype of their solution, and test their prototype to demonstrate the effectiveness of their solution. A custom survey instrument based on APPLES (academic pathways of people learning engineering), the engineering motivation survey, and the model of situational interest in classroom setting was administered to students at the start and end of the class to assess the impact of the Grand Challenges themed design project. Results showed that using the NAE Grand Challenges to provide real world context for the design project positively changed students’ perception of engineers’ roles and the impact of engineering solutions. Qualitative results indicate that as a result of the project, more students recognized that engineers’ roles include promoting ‘social good’ in addition to designing and creating. Although no significant impact on students’ motivation was observed, the project did have a positive impact on students’ situational interest.