2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Entrepreneurial Minded Learning (EML), a framework supported by the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), promotes critical thinking and innovation by encouraging students to explore real-world problems through the 3Cs: Curiosity, Creating Value, and Connections. In construction management education, the focus often remains on technical skills and project execution, neglecting the development of entrepreneurial skills like adaptability, value creation, and stakeholder engagement, leaving a gap in preparing students for the challenges of the industry. To bridge this gap, micro-moment activities were introduced prior to the main project to prime students for EML-based thinking. These short, focused exercises encouraged students to solve small-scale problems through critical decision-making and innovation aligned with the 3Cs. Following these activities, students were introduced to a hands-on Design-Build project within a Construction Project Management course, where they assumed the role of a contractor responsible for both designing and constructing a residential building. The project engages students with the 3Cs by challenging them to explore location selection and environmental factors (Curiosity), create functional and aesthetically valuable designs for clients (Creating Value), and assess how their design decisions might impact stakeholders (Connections). To evaluate the project's effectiveness, students completed an open-ended survey designed to reflect on their learning outcomes and their experiences with EML principles. The survey responses were analyzed using thematic coding to identify patterns and insights related to entrepreneurial learning. Preliminary results indicate that students developed increased adaptability, innovative problem-solving abilities, and a deeper understanding of value creation in construction, validating the integration of EML as an approach to enhance practical skills for real-world industry challenges.