2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

GIFTS: Recreate: Experientially Motivating Professional Standards in Engineering Documentation

Presented at FPD: GIFTS Papers - Approaches to Holistic Student Development and Support

Engineering documentation is a critical professional skill, yet undergraduate students often perceive it as a low-value, product-oriented task rather than an integral part of the design process. This disconnect contributes to a preparedness gap between academic training and industry expectations, where clear and reproducible records are essential. Here, we introduce Recreate, a two-stage classroom activity that shifts student perceptions of documentation through productive failure and leads them toward identifying professional documentation standards.

In Stage 1, students attempt to replicate an artifact using intentionally flawed documentation, leading to failure and exposing limitations in their existing practices. Through guided reflection, students identify these shortcomings and develop criteria for high-quality documentation. In Stage 2, they receive documentation where these criteria are applied, leading to the successful completion of a similar task due to this improved documentation.

The activity was implemented in early engineering design courses and assessed using a mixed-methods, pre-post design. Results show a modest increase in students’ perceived utility of engineering notebooks and a clear shift toward audience-aware, process-oriented documentation practices emphasizing clarity and reproducibility. These findings suggest that Recreate is an effective and scalable approach for introducing professional documentation standards in early engineering education.

Authors

Ian Hong Phan http://orcid.org/0009-0000-5640-6227 University of California, Santa Cruz [biography]

Ian Phan is a current Graduate Student in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has been involved with the Early Design Experiences program at UC Santa Cruz's Baskin School of Engineering for three years, serving as a student instructor and coach for teaching teams developing new courses. His work focuses on advancing collaborative STEM education, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and reducing barriers to success in engineering fields. Beyond the classroom, his involvement in mentoring and volunteering for high school robotics, as well as conducting research on participatory programs expanding undergraduate research and learning opportunities, further strengthens his commitment to fostering inclusive and accessible educational opportunities. Through his work, he aims to foster curiosity, collaboration, and confidence among all students, preparing them to tackle complex, real-world challenges.
Kevin William Bachelor University California, Santa Cruz [biography]

Kevin Bachelor is a fourth year Computer Science student at University of California, Santa Cruz. Kevin taught Machine Learning as a student instructor for 2 years with the Lead by Design Program under Professor Tela Favaloro after finding his love for teaching by leading and teaching with the University’s AI club. His teaching propensity for teaching ML comes from his fascination with the topic, and a background in acting. He continues each individually as well with a theater minor, and continued research in Machine Learning for Molecular Dynamics with Professor Razvan Marinescu. He will soon be continuing on as a PhD at UCSC under the same lab doing development in the intersection between machine learning and computational chemistry for drug design.
Dr. Tela Favaloro University of California, Santa Cruz [biography]

Tela Favaloro is an associate teaching professor for the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC where she works to establish holistic interdisciplinary programming centered in experiential learning. Her Ph.D is in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in the design and fabrication of laboratory apparatus and techniques for electro-thermal characterization of sustainable power systems as well as the design of learner-centered experiential curriculum. She is currently working to develop an inclusion-centered first-year engineering program in hands on design and problem-based learning to better support students as they enter the engineering fields.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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