2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

To develop creative thinking skills of engineering students, a series of workshops taught by creatives in performing, visual and literary arts were organized (1) to develop the students’ creative thinking abilities and (2) to advance students’ understanding of the creative processes of professional artists. Each workshop lasted 90 minutes and was roughly divided into three segments. During the first segment that lasted 15-30 minutes, the creative discussed one of their own artistic processes and described how they make new work using this process. During the second segment, that lasted 45-60 minutes, the students attending the workshop experimented with the artistic process to generate ideas or concepts about products or processes. During the third and last segment, that lasted about 15 minutes, the workshop participants presented and shared their work with the rest of the participants. Upon the conclusion of the workshops, participants were invited to respond to a set of reflection prompts about their experience of the workshop. They were also asked whether they would want to participate in a follow-up interview to probe deeper into their responses to the reflection prompts. One-on-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted during Fall 2023 semester. The purpose of the interviews was (1) to develop a deeper understanding of the experience of an engineering student in a creative thinking workshop offered by a professional artist and (2) to elicit perceptions of workshop participants about the potential benefits of such workshops to engineering students. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Interview transcripts will be analyzed qualitatively to generate some preliminary insights into the engineering students’ perceptions on the usefulness and practical relevance of workshops taught by creatives in the arts to support the development of creative thinking skills of engineering students.