2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As part of a larger initiative to transform the K-12 STEM curriculum at a small-sized school for girls, a Computer Science and Engineering (CS&E) Department was formed to support the growth of course offerings and increase students’ participation in STEM. At the Upper School level (grades 9th - 12th), the pre-transformed curriculum offered three computer programming courses designed to introduce students to the Python, Java Script, and Java languages. Building on this strength, the goal of the transformed program was to develop mission-aligned engineering electives to increase students’ participation in and awareness of engineering. If accepted, we will report on student enrollment and feedback, as well as an analysis of student artifacts to answer the question: To what extent do interdisciplinary engineering courses enhance students’ participation in and awareness of the diverse field of engineering?

The mission of the school is to empower girls to be confident, intellectual, and ethical leaders who advance the world. Aligned with the mission, three trimester-long engineering electives were developed. This paper will report on two of the courses: Engineering & the Arts (EA) and Engineering & the Lived Experience (ELE). The curricular design of both courses was informed by a theoretical framework that leaned on research that described and evaluated innovative, pre-college engineering courses (e.g. Farmer et. al., 2012). While EA was originally designed and taught in partnership with the Visual Arts Department, ELE was not originally offered in partnership with another academic department. After an unsuccessful first offering of ELE, we learned that students wanted another interdisciplinary experience. As such, we revamped the ELE curriculum in partnership with the Physical Education (PE) Department to offer a mission-aligned interdisciplinary course.

The EA course is co-taught by CS&E and Visual Arts faculty members. The purpose of the course is to have students live at the intersection of engineering and the arts by exploring principles of structural engineering and elements of art. Students learn the criteria, content, and skills needed to critique structures through scientific, symbolic, and social lenses. Students design, prototype, iterate and communicate pieces of structural art that represent the structural engineering and elements of art taught throughout the course. They are trained on various tools in the Innovation and Fabrication Labs; such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and power tools. The overarching goal of the course is to enhance students’ STEM literacy, engineering habits of mind, and awareness of various engineering fields.

The ELE course is co-taught by CS&E and PE faculty members. The course engages students in exploring and critiquing innovations through a human-centered lens. Specifically, students embark on a journey to answer the question: To what extent are biofeedback devices designed to serve me and people like me? Following this question, students learn hardware and software design as they design, build, and program their own personal biofeedback device (e.g., a heart rate monitor). From a PE perspective, students learn about FIIT principles and deepen their understanding as they design workouts and test their heart rates.