2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Courses Designed to Support Students’ Professional Development and Progress through a Multi-Year Co-Curricular Program, the Grand Challenges Scholars Program

Presented at Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 8

This paper describes a series of courses designed to support students’ progress and persistence through a multi-year co-curricular program, the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP). At Arizona State University (ASU), the majority of GCSP students start their journey in the program as incoming first year students or during their first year, and continue in the program throughout their undergraduate collegiate career. Throughout their time in the program, students engage in curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular experiences to achieve the program outcomes, known as the GCSP Competencies: Talent; Multidisciplinary; Viable Business/Entrepreneurship; Multicultural; and Social Consciousness. Each student tailors their experiences in alignment with their personal interests and focuses their experiences on an overarching theme (sustainability, security, health, or joy of living). The personalized journeys and extended duration of the program often poses a challenge for student support and retention. To address these challenges, three courses were developed and implemented for students’ first three years in the program. The first course focuses on an exploration of the challenges and ongoing research efforts in the four theme areas from an interdisciplinary perspective to help students identify/confirm their interests. In this course, students also learn about opportunities to achieve the competencies and develop a customized four-year plan for the program. The two 1 credit middle year courses were designed to be offered asynchronously online to provide maximum flexibility for students. Each of these two courses includes a set of required assignments and options for self-select assignments. The second year course provides students with opportunities to continue to explore the theme area they chose for GCSP, develop and enhance professional skills, communicate and showcase their accomplishments and progress in the GCSP, and identify future opportunities to achieve the GCSP competencies. It also offers opportunities for students to connect with students and faculty within the GCSP community and receive mentorship from the GCSP faculty directors. The third year course has similar objectives but additionally emphasizes student reflection on their GCSP experiences, communication of GCSP accomplishments to future employers, and preparation for their graduation as a Grand Challenges Scholar. Details of the design and implementation of these courses will be described in this paper, with a focus on the second and third year courses. To assess the achievement of the course objectives and the value of the required and self-select assignments in these two courses, a survey instrument was developed and administered at the end of the course. Survey data collected over three semesters, starting from the initial offering of the courses in Fall 2022, will be presented and discussed. The paper will also discuss areas for future work.

Authors

Dr. Haolin Zhu Arizona State University [biography]

Dr. Haolin Zhu earned her BS in Engineering Mechanics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and her Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University, with a focus on computational solid mechanics. Dr. Zhu is an Associate Teaching Professor of the freshman engineering education team in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). In this role, she focuses on designing the curriculum and teaching in the freshman engineering program and the mechanical engineering program. She is also the Co-Director of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) at ASU. In this role, she focuses on student support and tracking, curriculum, program requirements, as well as programming for current students in GCSP. Dr. Zhu was also involved in the ASU ProMod project, the Engineering Projects in Community Service program, the Engineering Futures program, the Global Freshman Academy/Earned Admission/Universal Learner Courses Program, and the ASU Kern Project. She was a part of the team that designed a largely team and activity based online Introduction to Engineering course. She has also co-developed two unique MOOCs, Introduction to Engineering and Perspectives on Grand Challenges for Engineering for the Global Freshman Academy/ASU Earned Admission/Universal Learner Courses Program. Her Ph.D. research focused on multi-scale multiphase modeling and numerical analysis of coupled large viscoelastic deformation and fluid transport in swelling porous materials, but she is currently interested in various topics in the field of engineering education, such as innovative teaching pedagogies for increased retention and student motivation; innovations in non-traditional delivery methods, incorporation of the Entrepreneurial Mindset in the engineering curriculum and its impact. She has published over 30 papers and presented at various conferences about her work. She has been recognized as an Engineering Unleashed Fellow and won the Fulton Outstanding Lecturer Award for her contributions in Engineering Education.
Amy Trowbridge Arizona State University [biography]

Amy Trowbridge is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University and is co-Director of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) at ASU, recognized by National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her teaching focuses primarily on first year engineering students, and she is interested in curricular and co-curricular experiences that broaden students’ perspectives and enhance student learning, and the use of digital portfolios for students to showcase and reflect on their experiences. Amy has contributed to the development of an interdisciplinary grand challenges focused course and introduction to engineering course in both in-person and online (MOOC) formats at ASU. She is also actively involved in the ASU Kern project and Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), focused on students’ development of entrepreneurial mindset. Amy received the national 2019 KEEN Rising Star award from KEEN for her efforts in encouraging students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset. She is also a member of the current interim Executive Committee for the international GCSP Network, and mentors schools to develop GCSPs as part of the GCSP New Programs committee.

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