Title
Developing Creativity, Communication, and Teamwork in Engineering
Location
I
Session Type
Presentation
Session Abstract
Future engineers will need to address problems through multiple lenses and consider solutions that stray from the most efficient linear consideration. A new trend has begun during the past decade to bring students from the liberal arts and sciences in with engineering to learn together in problem-solving teams rather than teaching strictly within the disciplinary context. To prepare future generations, the expanding of expectations though experimentation with new curricula that intersects a variety of educational areas with a goal to enhance student competency in creativity, communication skills, and teamwork is essential. Described are the findings from a study funded by the National Science Foundation to explore learning of electrical engineering students through a collaboration between engineering and music curriculum. The varied processes of problem-solving involved in each discipline brought an awareness of possibilities to the students. Students discovered options for problem-solving that included: (a) pursuing options beyond a normal framework or structure within their own discipline, i.e. considering creative alternatives that might generate an improved outcome; (b) deliberation of notions beyond their own that influenced the direction of the problem-solving process; and (c) recognition that effective communication requires consideration of another’s beliefs, understandings and intentions, as well as flexibility within these considerations.
Creative Commons License
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Recommended Citation
Burrack, Frederick
(2017).
"Developing Creativity, Communication, and Teamwork in Engineering,"
International Symposium for Innovative Teaching and Learning.
https://doi.org/10.4148/2573-4911.1001
Developing Creativity, Communication, and Teamwork in Engineering
I
Future engineers will need to address problems through multiple lenses and consider solutions that stray from the most efficient linear consideration. A new trend has begun during the past decade to bring students from the liberal arts and sciences in with engineering to learn together in problem-solving teams rather than teaching strictly within the disciplinary context. To prepare future generations, the expanding of expectations though experimentation with new curricula that intersects a variety of educational areas with a goal to enhance student competency in creativity, communication skills, and teamwork is essential. Described are the findings from a study funded by the National Science Foundation to explore learning of electrical engineering students through a collaboration between engineering and music curriculum. The varied processes of problem-solving involved in each discipline brought an awareness of possibilities to the students. Students discovered options for problem-solving that included: (a) pursuing options beyond a normal framework or structure within their own discipline, i.e. considering creative alternatives that might generate an improved outcome; (b) deliberation of notions beyond their own that influenced the direction of the problem-solving process; and (c) recognition that effective communication requires consideration of another’s beliefs, understandings and intentions, as well as flexibility within these considerations.
https://newprairiepress.org/isitl/2017/Presentations/1
