Engineering, Science, and Mathematics Education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Phil Cornwell Vice President for Academic Affairs November 10, 2014
In this talk will provide an overview of education at Rose-Hulman
A brief introduction to Rose-Hulman
The philosophy and culture
PHIL
Curriculum and pedagogy
Here is a little bit about myself From New Mexico BS from TTU, Ph.D. from Princeton I’ve been at Rose 26 years Los Alamos National Laboratory I’m married with two children
Rose-Hulman is a small residential institution founded in 1874 and located in Terre Haute, Indiana
We are in the top 20-25% of schools in the United States for our number of engineering graduates
Students • ~2200 undergraduates • ~100 MS students
Academics • • • • •
16 B.S. and 8 M.S. programs Faculty teach all classes and labs Small classes Academic rigor Lots of labs and projects
We are well regarded by our peers and receive a lot of accolades 98% placement rate for last year’s graduates Ranked #1 for schools without a PhD program for the 16th year in a row Named one of the top 10 schools in the country with the best professors Named one of the top 10 schools for median starting salaries and ROI A JEE study: “Which colleges or universities are considered leaders or innovators in engineering education?�
Mechanical Engineering is our largest department Mechanical Engineering Electrical and Computer Engineering Computer Science and Software Engineering Chemical Engineering Applied Biology and Biomedical Engineering Civil Engineering Physics and Optical Engineering Math Chemistry and Biochemistry 0
Fall 2014
100
200
300 400 Students
500
600
700
We are on a quarter system, so we have three 10 week quarters.
Fall
Winter
Spring
We have several core beliefs, the first of which is our mission
The mission of Rose-Hulman is to provide our students with the world's best undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education in an environment of individual attention and support.
I encourage faculty members to always ask themselves two questions
Cooperative learning Maple
Labs Problem based
Are we teaching the right things?
Are we teaching the right way?
Student life/extracurricular activities are recognized as being an important part of the educational experience
Competition teams
Professional societies
Performing arts
Athletics
Social organizations
The Humanities and Social Science Department helps our students be well-rounded
All students take at least 9 HSS courses (approximate total number of courses is 48)
We have a very strong office of Institutional Planning, Research, and Assessment
Assessment of student learning
Assessment of faculty development and teaching
Assessment for institutional improvement
We also have a great Center for the Practice and Scholarship of Education
Facilitates the sharing of ideas and practices (teaching workshops/seminars)
Assists in educational scholarship
Supports faculty members working to improve student learning
There are three themes in Academic Affairs
Practice
RHIT Innovation
Education
Research
Practice RHIT
??? Teamwork Technical skills Leadership skills Professional skills
I’ve thought a lot about curriculum change and have come up with this classification
Potential ∆ Impact on achieving learning objectives
High
Low
No change
Easy
“Tweaking”
Major course revision
Major curriculum revision
Difficulty of implementation
Blank slate
Hard
Level 0: Little or no changes made
This doesn’t mean there is a problem. The course may already be great.
Level 1: “Tweaking� (primarily under the control of one faculty member and may take a lot of time and effort)
Modify a lab Add some active learning
Create new homework Add a daily quiz
Add a project
Use concept maps
Add a Demo
Add videos
Use a Tablet to replace overheads
Level 2: Major course revision or minor changes threaded through several courses Ethics Communications Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4 Using PBL or formal cooperative learning in a course
Adding a lab to a course
Transforming a course to a studio format
Developing a new course
Level 3: Major revisions that affect multiple courses (often in different majors)
Integrated First-Year Curriculum in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (IFYCSEM)
Level 3: Major revisions that affect multiple courses (often in different majors) Sophomore Engineering Curriculum (as originally conceived) Traditional Curriculum
Differential Equations I
Differential Equations II
Sophomore Engineering Curriculum Fall Applied Math I
Circuits
Spring Applied Math III
Statistics Fluid and Thermal Systems
Thermodynamics
Dynamics
Winter Applied Math II
Fluid Mechanics
Conservation and Accounting Principles
Mechanical Systems Electrical Systems
Analysis and Design of Engineering Systems
Level 4: A blank state (very rare)
I’d like to share a few of our initiatives
We have a number of international collaborations
Computer Science students in Uppsala, Sweden Civil Engineering students in Ghana
We have living and learning communities such as the Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (HERE)
Approximate 40 students
The students live together in a residence hall College and Life Skills
Rhetoric and Composition
Sustainability and its Global Contexts
Introduction to Design
The student cohort takes four courses with an emphasis on sustainability
We have a living and learning community called “ESCALATE” focused on entrepreneurship
“Engineering Student Community Actively Learning Advanced Technical Entrepreneurship (ESCALATE)” Partnerships and collaborations Freshman cohort Living community
Curricular activities Extracurricular activities
50 students per cohort
Internships
Entrepreneurial Graduates • Skills • Entrepreneurial mindset • Connections • Potential for job creation
The students take four courses together as a cohort
We created four courses this summer
“Introduction to Entrepreneurship” “Rhetoric and Composition (the culture of entrepreneurship)” “Economic Thinking for Entrepreneurs” “Introduction to Design”
“Introduction to Entrepreneurship” has guest speakers
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We had an exciting summer course on one of the engineering grand challenges
10 week class/research project 3 professors 12 credit hours • Technical Communications • Science elective • Technical elective
We believe flipped and hybrid classes hold promise
Passive lectures
Content delivery online
Active engagement
Mechatronics has been flipped for many years and other classes are also using flipped and hybrid classrooms
Mechatronics
Chemistry
Our professors have made a lot of videos for numerous classes and laboratories
Examples
One way we support projects at Rose-Hulman is the Branam Innovation Center 15,000 ft2 for student competition teams Used by hundreds of students
We have developed several new courses infused with “entrepreneurial minded learning� (EML)
Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (2 courses)
Art of Engineering
Rosebotics (2 courses) 34
Later this week I’ll be talking in more detail about two other unique aspects of Rose-Hulman
Rose-Hulman Ventures
Sophomore Engineering Curriculum
I’m happy to answer any questions
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