Building a class around site visits: how trips off-campus engage students, motivate their projects, and provide practice for reflective writing in engineering
Taylor, B.
My name course, "Modern Manufacturing in Steeltown," provides an introduction to manufacturing materials and their forming processes. The entire course is structured around visits to local manufacturers. Participation in the field trip activities is mandatory with en route discussions providings students with opportunities to discuss what they learned and what they found surprising in each visit. Weekly reflection essays allow them to practice their written communication as they go in depth researching topics in which the tours piqued their interest. Finally, students must propose final projects (new products or tools) that solve problems and challenges raised in the site visits. This class therefore allows real-world manufacturing exposure and an opportunity to align student interests with product design objectives. Through these integrated activities we aim to help our students develop stronger real-world engineering and problem solving skills while also providing them with opportunities to improve their professional communications skills.
Bex Taylor, Mechanical Engineering CIT
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