Making a difference is practically a requirement for students in IT 47000 (Teaching Design And Innovation II) within the engineering/technology teacher education major. This recent addition to the curriculum asks teams of students to identify an open-ended, ill-defined problem that can be solved through the application of appropriate technology or service learning. By addressing global challenges from an engineering design perspective, students will be able to translate similar teaching methodologies to their own classrooms after graduation. “The student groups identified exciting problems that demonstrate how technology and engineering design can be applied in the world around us,” said Todd Kelley, an associate professor who teaches the course. The problems they have tackled in previous classes is wide-ranging:
- water filtration in developing countries
- ground transportation of air-dropped aid in Pakistan
- technological literacy at a private school
- education for families about obesity and nutritious meals
- examination of a can-crusher to analyze how it was designed