2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

How engineering students are taught design is a critical function of their education. Students need to not only learn how to design, but also how to share their designs with others. This sharing of information requires both written and oral communication skills. However, mastery of these skills alone, does not make one good at design. Therefore, engineering instructors focus on ways to teach design, and practice communication. Very rarely are students asked to provide input on what methods work best for them. Pencil and paper design projects are convenient because they are cheap and easy to execute with little planning or coordination. However, this does not reflect what students will experience when they finish school. This paper offers a continuation of a previous paper which discussed an assignment where students enrolled in a second semester thermodynamics course were assigned the task of designing a small-scale powerplant, capable of powering a small- to mid-sized university. The students were asked to do this having never actually set foot inside a powerplant. While students had been required to provide a general idea on the size and location of their plant, it was clear students struggled with this requirement. To give current students a better appreciation of necessary design considerations they were given the opportunity to tour a local powerplant prior to starting the assignment. This tour also included students who had previously completed the assignment without this hands-on experience. This dichotomy provides a unique opportunity to examine the structure of the assignment and how to best enhance student learning. Both groups were able to reflect on how seeing a power plant firsthand guided or would have guided their decisions as part of the project. Input from both groups of students was assessed to be incorporated into future iterations of the project in order to help students get the most out of this project as they work through the design process.