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Session Description

Free ticketed event
Research suggests that gamification can enhance learning outcomes and keep students engaged. Engineering students generally enjoy challenges and solving puzzles. In this workshop, participants will work in teams to solve escape-room like puzzles designed specifically for first-year Engineering classrooms. While an enjoyable way to start one’s week at ASEE may be reason alone, the instructional benefit is two-fold as participants will (1) obtain the materials needed to use these puzzles (or variants of their choosing) in one’s own courses and (2) learn mechanisms to consider when creating puzzles. Each puzzle will involve a fun and memorable way to reinforce or teach a concept. The workshop will also cover how to write a puzzle for a classroom environment and some various techniques and approaches to consider.

Speaker

1. Dr. Robert Schaffer

   Mission College

   Dr. Bob Schaffer is a professor and the department chair of the Engineering Department at Mission College (Santa Clara, CA). He is also a lecturer at Santa Clara University. His classes include Introduction to Engineering, Introduction to Computing for Engineers, STEM Outreach in the Community, and Digital Signal Processing. Dr. Schaffer also founded a non-profit (Elevate Tutoring) focused on training socioeconomically disadvantaged college students to be high-quality STEM tutors who in turn provide free tutoring for similarly disadvantaged K-12 students. As a puzzle and escape room enthusiast, Bob leverages his love of puzzles in the classroom.