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Session Description

Free ticketed event
The purpose of this workshop is to prepare faculty who teach courses in the engineering sciences to assign students Problem Contextualization Challenges (PCC). PCC help students situate how engineering problems live in the real world and impact real stakeholders in substantive–and at times transformative–ways while they are learning engineering concepts and principles. PCC also leverage students’ interest in better understanding how technology can serve societal needs. We hypothesize that PCC increase students’ retention of the engineering principles and concepts they are learning when they situate those in sociocultural contexts. This workshop will teach faculty how to integrate PCC into student assignments, focused on two key objectives: 1) Increased confidence in participants’ ability to assign PCC to students and 2) Increased knowledge of how to evaluate whether PCC boost student learning of engineering concepts and principles. Workshop facilitators will provide resources on mechanisms to a) convey a rationale for using PCC to students, b) prevent harm, and c) participate in an ongoing study of PCC outcomes. The session will also explore where faculty position themselves, their discipline, and their current course textbook on a continuum ranging from decontextualized to highly contextualized. Faculty will begin to examine their own discipline’s ideology and pinpoint who is included/who may be marginalized by the (lack of) sociocultural context. Finally, faculty will learn multiple ways to frame PCC for different sets of learning objectives.

Speakers

1. Dr. Diana A. Chen

   University of San Diego

   Diana A. Chen, PhD is an Associate Professor and one of the founding faculty members of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She earned her BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College, and MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Clemson University. In collaboration with colleagues, Dr. Chen is designing a new engineering curriculum to educate changemakers who understand that engineering is an inherently socio-technical activity. Her passion is studying and encouraging culture change in engineering curricula and spaces to shift engineering to be a field more inclusive of diversity in all forms. Her scholarly interests include engineering education that contextualizes engineering sciences and design, exploring engineering boundaries for inclusive pedagogy, and sustainability and bio-inspired design in the built environment.

2. Dr. Jon A. Leydens

   Colorado School of Mines

   Dr. Jon A. Leydens is a Professor of Engineering Education Research in the Department of Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). Dr. Leydens’ research interests are in three areas of engineering education: problem contextualization, sociotechnical thinking, and social justice. He is co-author of Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (1st ed. 2010, 2nd ed. 2024), which among other foci accentuated the need for engineers working in community development projects to listen to local community members’ needs and perspectives. Engineering Justice: Transforming Engineering Education and Practice (2018, Wiley-IEEE Press, with co-author Juan Lucena), fills a gap in our understanding of how engineering and social justice can align in and outside the engineering curriculum. His edited collection, Sociotechnical Communication in Engineering (2014, Routledge), looks at how sociotechnical communication disrupts commonly held myths about engineering communication.

3. Dr. Juan C. Lucena

   Colorado School of Mines

   Juan is the Director of the Humanitarian Engineering Undergraduate Program and Professor of Engineering, Design and Society at the Colorado School of Mines. Juan obtained a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech and two BS in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His books include Defending the Nation: U.S. Policymaking to Create Scientists and Engineers from Sputnik to the ’War Against Terrorism’ (University Press of America, 2005), Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (with Jen Schneider and Jon Leydens, Morgan & Claypool, 2010), Engineering Education for Social Justice: Critical Explorations and Opportunities (Springer, 2013), and Engineering Justice: Transforming Engineering Education and Practice (with Jon Leydens, IEEE-Wiley, 2017).