Developing a Sophomore Engineering Curriculum - The Rose-Hulman Experience
Donald E. Richards
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Abstract:
In the Fall of 1995, Rose-Hulman introduced a new sophomore-level engineering
curriculum for a portion of its students. This curriculum was developed
as part of Rose-Hulman's participation in the Foundation Coalition, an
Engineering Education Coalition sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
This paper will discuss our experiences in developing the curriculum,
gaining faculty approval, and implementing the curriculum. The new curriculum
consists of eight courses representing 30 credit hours on a 10-week quarter
system, and it replaces a course in statistics, two courses in differential
equations, and the bulk of the common engineering science courses. The
engineering science thread of the curriculum is built around a five-course
sequence that stresses a common control-volume or system approach to applying
the basic conservation laws of engineering science. (This approach is
similar to that
pioneered by Charles Glover and colleagues at Texas A&M.)
This sequence includes a course introducing the conservation and accounting
ideas, three concurrent systems courses (electrical, mechanical, and fluid
&thermal), and an engineering systems course that addresses multi-disciplinary
systems. The applied mathematics thread is found in a year-long three-course
sequence. The parallel presentation of mathematics and engineering science
provides opportunities throughout the year for stressing the links between
mathematics, statistics and the engineering sciences. Rose-Hulman was
a pioneer in using computer-algebra systems in teaching mathematics and
the new curriculum will build on this student background. In implementing
the new curriculum, faculty are being encouraged to increase their use
of active and cooperative learning strategies in the classroom. Assessment
and evaluation procedures are being developed based upon goals and objectives
for individual courses and the curriculum as a whole.