Engineering students or student engineers?
This paper reports on an innovative unit that embeds the acquisition of communication and professional skills into a technically based project. The project revolves around two engineering artefacts: a popsicle-stick bridge and a mousetrap-powered car. The design and construction of each artefact are...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Conference Paper |
| Published: |
CQUniversity
2008
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34531 |
| _version_ | 1848754248100085760 |
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| author | Lindsay, Euan Munt, Roger Rogers, Helen Scott, David Sullivan, Karen |
| author2 | Llewellyn Mann |
| author_facet | Llewellyn Mann Lindsay, Euan Munt, Roger Rogers, Helen Scott, David Sullivan, Karen |
| author_sort | Lindsay, Euan |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper reports on an innovative unit that embeds the acquisition of communication and professional skills into a technically based project. The project revolves around two engineering artefacts: a popsicle-stick bridge and a mousetrap-powered car. The design and construction of each artefact are conducted by different teams of students – each team designs a bridge and constructs a car, or vice versa. The core principle behind this approach is requiring the students to act as Student Engineers, rather than as engineering students. Requiring students to work both as designers and constructors introduces them to the different communication requirements of each role. More powerfully, they also portray the role of the clients for each others’ engineering project, providing a valuable alternative perspective. The project has led to significant improvements in students’ communication skills as well as their development of their identities as professional engineers. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:37:23Z |
| format | Conference Paper |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-34531 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:37:23Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | CQUniversity |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-345312022-12-07T06:50:48Z Engineering students or student engineers? Lindsay, Euan Munt, Roger Rogers, Helen Scott, David Sullivan, Karen Llewellyn Mann Adam Thompson Prue Howard This paper reports on an innovative unit that embeds the acquisition of communication and professional skills into a technically based project. The project revolves around two engineering artefacts: a popsicle-stick bridge and a mousetrap-powered car. The design and construction of each artefact are conducted by different teams of students – each team designs a bridge and constructs a car, or vice versa. The core principle behind this approach is requiring the students to act as Student Engineers, rather than as engineering students. Requiring students to work both as designers and constructors introduces them to the different communication requirements of each role. More powerfully, they also portray the role of the clients for each others’ engineering project, providing a valuable alternative perspective. The project has led to significant improvements in students’ communication skills as well as their development of their identities as professional engineers. 2008 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34531 CQUniversity fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Lindsay, Euan Munt, Roger Rogers, Helen Scott, David Sullivan, Karen Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title | Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title_full | Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title_fullStr | Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title_short | Engineering students or student engineers? |
| title_sort | engineering students or student engineers? |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34531 |