2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Graduate Students’ Experiences Designing Sociotechnical Modules for Introduction to Circuits Courses

Engineers are often faced with complex problems that require both technical and social expertise. However, engineering faculty struggle to incorporate discussions of the social implications of engineering in their technical courses. As a result, students typically gain an understanding of technical concepts without applying their skills to sociotechnical areas such as ethics and climate change. This is despite many students entering the field desiring to make a positive impact on society through their profession.

Our National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded program addresses the challenge of integrating social implications into a foundational engineering course, Introduction to Electrical Circuits. We recruited a cohort of eight graduate students from across the USA, called the Sociotechnical Electrical Engineering Stars (SEES) cohort. The cohort included electrical engineering and engineering education doctoral students, as well as both domestic and international students with diverse backgrounds. Students in the SEES Cohort designed one-hour modules addressing sociotechnical issues that could be implemented in an Introduction to Circuits course. Each module included pre-class, in-class, and post-class materials compiled in a comprehensive teaching guide to help facilitate engineering faculty implement the modules in their own Introduction to Circuits courses.

After a two day in-person summit where the graduate students were trained in effective course design, the SEES Cohort spent the summer of 2024 developing their modules in pairs. The students were guided by two electrical engineering faculty members who have taught circuits and have developed their own sociotechnical modules and by a sociology faculty member with expertise in sociotechnical dualism and depoliticization. To provide feedback about the program and about their experiences, students in the SEES Cohort completed surveys at the end of the two-day summit and at the end of the summer program, and they participated in semi-structured interviews.

This work-in-progress (WIP) paper will describe the SEES Program and the experiences of the SEES Cohort. We will present data from surveys and interviews to examine how graduate students can integrate sociotechnical issues into an Introduction to Circuits course.

Authors

Karen Elizabeth Nortz University of Michigan [biography]

Karen Nortz is a first year PhD student in Engineering Education Research at University of Michigan.
Dr. Cynthia J. Finelli http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9148-1492 University of Michigan [biography]

Dr. Cynthia J. Finelli is the David J. Munson, Jr. Professor of Engineering, a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, a professor of Education, and and Director and Graduate Chair of Engineering Education Research at University of Michigan In her research she focuses on increasing faculty adoption of evidence-based instruction, identifying ways to better support students with neurodiversities, and promoting students'’ sense of social responsibility through engineering coursework.

Professor Finelli is a fellow of both the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). She previously served as deputy editor for the Journal of Engineering Education, associate editor for the European Journal of Engineering Education, and associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Education. She founded the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering at University of Michigan in 2003 and served as its Director for 12 years.
Dr. Susan M Lord http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-5626 University of San Diego [biography]

Susan Lord is Professor and Chair of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She received a BS from Cornell University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (EE) and MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the study and promotion of equity in engineering including student pathways and inclusive teaching. She has won best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and Education Sciences. Dr. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and ASEE and received the 2018 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. She is a coauthor of The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering. She is a co-Director of the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI).

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025