Collegiate Times

engineeringEducation021209

"I feel like teaching this subject is tapping into my own passion. For instance, I have a few senior students that I'm advising while they work with the local animal shelter," Terpenny said. "I have three dogs, and one of them was the last one adopted from that shelter, and he was the reason that I started working with it."

Another issue demanding attention from the College of Engineering is disparity between the generations of engineers and the influences that play a part in the newest generation.

"Most of the people I went to college with grew up on farms, or working on cars, or spent time in the military at one point. We all had a much different level of hands-on experience," said Griffin.

Engineering undergraduates, due to a different level of experience, are requiring a much different program of teaching than was offered in years past.

"We try to make the lectures as interactive as we can," Griffin said. "The great thing is that you can always redirect the lecture if you feel that the students aren't understanding the point that you're trying to get across."

Terpenny brings a level of interaction to her lectures, requiring students to bring computers and link into a network that is shared throughout the whole class anonymously, but still allows the students to be hands-on and connected to the lecture.

"Old talking lectures just aren't the way that students learn anymore," Terpenny said.

A second generational disconnect sits with increasing numbers of female undergraduates, forcing programs to reevaluate teaching methods to cater to both sexes.

"We needed to address the difference in learning styles of the genders," Griffin said. "Just because a girl doesn't jump into a project as quickly as a boy doesn't mean that she is not interested, it just means that she has a different approach to the situation."

One of the co-authors of the study at the Carnegie Foundation was Sheri Sheppard, whose interest in the material spans back to the early 1990s, Griffin said.

"We have been watching Dr. Sheppard's work since the mid '90s," Griffin said. "She will even be here sometime in April for a lecture, and I hope to ask her a few more questions about her findings. It's all very interesting."

Continue Reading:  « Previous12