Advantages and Challenges of Two Approaches for Incorporating Sociotechnical Context in Engineering Science Courses

Much of students’ undergraduate engineering education is spent in “engineering science” courses (i.e., 200- and 300-level courses that focus on foundational concepts and formulas). These courses emphasize much-needed mathematical content, but they often fail to place that content in its social context. Ignoring sociotechnical context in engineering science courses sends an implicit message that engineering is apolitical and that the social aspects of engineering are separate from the technical. This project counters that narrative by explicitly connecting the technical content and societal impacts of engineering.

This project will develop, evaluate, and compare two approaches for incorporating sociotechnical context in engineering science courses. The two approaches have the same overarching goals—to educate students about ways engineering technology can both positively and negatively impact society and to prepare students to be more socially-engaged citizens and people-first engineers. One approach directly links the sociotechnical context with the technical content of a core electrical engineering course, while the other infuses sociotechnical context into higher-level content of aerospace courses through discussions about different perspectives, positionalities, and ethical lenses. Both approaches for incorporating sociotechnical context into engineering science courses aim to make it easy for instructors to include such content by developing materials and resources for instructors.

Project Team

Funding

This team received $ 10,000 in funding in Summer 2023.