Alliance member, author (see here), and EotF2.0 Advisory Board member, Jay Brockman (University of Notre Dame), passes along the following important announcement:

REFORMING THE FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE
August 2-4, 2009 (Sunday-Tuesday, US)

http://www.nd.edu/~engineer/ReformingFirstYear

Purpose of the workshop: To equip attendees with both a development process and access to resources needed to design and implement a successful project-based, introductory engineering program, tailored to their institutions.

Locations:

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (Lead Site)
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA
California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA
University of California, Merced CA
University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Description: Working in breakout teams at each site, attendees will explore best practices for a range of issues involved in the development of a first-year engineering program.  Plenary sessions featuring keynote speakers from academia and industry will be linked by video conference.  Topics to be explored will include:

• What is an effective process for developing a transformative and sustainable course or program that will meet the needs of stakeholders in your institution?
• What are the key issues to building a bridge for students between high school and an engineering major in college?
• How can you effectively use projects to create an “authentic” engineering experience in a first year course?  What are the advantages of this approach?  How can we assess work in such a course?
• What are some of the existing best practices in first-year engineering courses and how can we best facilitate sharing of this material?

Who should attend?

• Instructors and administrators of four-year college engineering programs for first-year students
• Instructors and administrators of two-year college programs that feed into bachelor’s degree programs in engineering
• Developers and instructors of high school pre-engineering programs
• Representatives of government, industry, and funding organizations who want to support and help to shape introductory engineering programs and curriculum

For more information or to register:  visit  http://www.nd.edu/~engineer/ReformingFirstYear

For additional questions, contact:

Notre Dame site participants:  Jay Brockman  jbb@nd.edu 574-631-8810
California site participants:  Stephanie Couch  scouch@cenic.org 916-440-8800
Australia site participants:  Roger Hadgraft  roger.hadgraft@unimelb.edu.au 03-8344-4226

Sponsors:

The Alliance for Promoting Innovation in Engineering Education (APIE2)
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
Australasian Association for Engineering Education
The Corporation for Educational Network Initiatives in California (CENIC)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
K-20 California Education Technology Collaborative
National Science Foundation
University of Notre Dame
The University of Melbourne, Melbourne School of Engineering

One Response to “Reforming the first year engineering experience”

1. iFoundry says:

   May 27, 2009 at 3:57 pm

   [...] iFoundry friend, Jay Brockman, at the University of Notre Dame announces an important workshop on Reforming the First Year Engineering Experience.  The full announcement is posted over at the Alliance for Promoting Innovation in Engineering Education website (www.apie2.org) here. [...]