The use of wilderness expeditions to integrate students into new academic communities has a long ... more The use of wilderness expeditions to integrate students into new academic communities has a long history, particularly in New England, with the first known program occurring at Boston University in 1888 (Bell, Gass, Nafziger, & Starbuck, 2014). A review of literature by Bell et al. (2014) found that over 190 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada organize wilderness experiences to orient incoming first-year students to their new academic environment. This paper explores the outcomes associated with a design-based wilderness education program developed to integrate students into the academic community of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while developing engineering related skills. The program is structured to not just introduce visiting students to the MIT environment, but also to the academic and professional community of engineering by combining a rigorous engineering design experience with a short wilderness expedition. This paper considers the development of students engineering science worldview while participating in the program (i.e. the ability to apply principles of engineering science to understand and explain the world around them). We expect that the wilderness environment may provide an effective environment for students to practice design thinking while developing and applying an engineering science worldview.
In 2010 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration agreement wi... more In 2010 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration agreement with the government of Singapore to found the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The Collaboration broadly consists of curriculum development, faculty training, collaborative research, and the development of student culture. One activity focused on student culture is the Global Leadership Program (GLP), a ten-week academic cultural exchange that takes place on and around MIT’s campus. GLP brings approximately 30 students from SUTD and 5 students from MIT together to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT’s academic environment by participating in a curriculum designed to assist with the development of leadership and engineering skills. In 2014 a class was introduced to GLP that combined the pedagogical approaches of design- based learning and wilderness education to create a novel learning environment for engineering and architecture students. This class was developed to address the development of design thinking, engineering science, and leadership skills. The curriculum for the design-based wilderness education class consists of classroom and lab activities implemented on MIT’s campus, followed by a wilderness expedition. Initial exploratory investigation indicated that the design-based wilderness education curriculum resulted in self-reported increases in student leadership capacity and potentially beneficial changes to students design-thinking1,2. After the 2014 iteration of the program, students were interviewed. During the interviews, students were asked how the experience had changed the way they thought about the design process. In response to this question the eight major themes that were identified were: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths2. This paper continues our initial exploration into how design-based learning in a wilderness environment impacts students’ perception of the engineering design process.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singap... more The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT’s academic culture. During GLP students participate a program designed to develop students’ leadership ability while also increasing their understanding of engineering science and design thinking. This paper introduces a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 to holistically address the development of these three competencies. Through design-based learning activities, both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competency in engineering science and engineering design while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer. This paper then examines the results of a post-then-pre survey administered to the participants upon completion of the program to explore the effects of the program on the development of professional engineering competencies. We find a statistically significant increase in items associated with Individual Leadership Skill, Group Leadership Skill and the role of Society and the Economy. These results are triangulated with student exit interviews and instructor observations
In the summer of 2014, 30 students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and 6 s... more In the summer of 2014, 30 students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and 6 students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology participated in a 10-week Global Leadership Program (GLP) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. GLP provides students with the opportunity to develop design thinking and engineering science competencies alongside leadership skills. A curriculum combining elements of design-based learning and wilderness education was developed and implemented to holistically address the development of these three skillsets. This pilot study is the group’s first attempt to investigate the effect of participation in design-based wilderness education on student design thinking. Through qualitative analysis of student interviews 8 major themes that students associated with changes in their design thinking were identified: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singap... more The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT's academic culture, while at the same time participating in programming to assist with the development of leadership skills. This paper describes a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 as a component of GLP. Wilderness education was selected as a pedagogical framework for this program as it may be well suited to create effective learning environments for engineering education, cross-cultural learning, and fostering conceptual change. Through design activities both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competency in engineering science while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer.
The use of wilderness expeditions to integrate students into new academic communities has a long ... more The use of wilderness expeditions to integrate students into new academic communities has a long history, particularly in New England, with the first known program occurring at Boston University in 1888 (Bell, Gass, Nafziger, & Starbuck, 2014). A review of literature by Bell et al. (2014) found that over 190 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada organize wilderness experiences to orient incoming first-year students to their new academic environment. This paper explores the outcomes associated with a design-based wilderness education program developed to integrate students into the academic community of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while developing engineering related skills. The program is structured to not just introduce visiting students to the MIT environment, but also to the academic and professional community of engineering by combining a rigorous engineering design experience with a short wilderness expedition. This paper considers the development of students engineering science worldview while participating in the program (i.e. the ability to apply principles of engineering science to understand and explain the world around them). We expect that the wilderness environment may provide an effective environment for students to practice design thinking while developing and applying an engineering science worldview.
In 2010 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration agreement wi... more In 2010 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) entered into a collaboration agreement with the government of Singapore to found the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). The Collaboration broadly consists of curriculum development, faculty training, collaborative research, and the development of student culture. One activity focused on student culture is the Global Leadership Program (GLP), a ten-week academic cultural exchange that takes place on and around MIT’s campus. GLP brings approximately 30 students from SUTD and 5 students from MIT together to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT’s academic environment by participating in a curriculum designed to assist with the development of leadership and engineering skills. In 2014 a class was introduced to GLP that combined the pedagogical approaches of design- based learning and wilderness education to create a novel learning environment for engineering and architecture students. This class was developed to address the development of design thinking, engineering science, and leadership skills. The curriculum for the design-based wilderness education class consists of classroom and lab activities implemented on MIT’s campus, followed by a wilderness expedition. Initial exploratory investigation indicated that the design-based wilderness education curriculum resulted in self-reported increases in student leadership capacity and potentially beneficial changes to students design-thinking1,2. After the 2014 iteration of the program, students were interviewed. During the interviews, students were asked how the experience had changed the way they thought about the design process. In response to this question the eight major themes that were identified were: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths2. This paper continues our initial exploration into how design-based learning in a wilderness environment impacts students’ perception of the engineering design process.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singap... more The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT’s academic culture. During GLP students participate a program designed to develop students’ leadership ability while also increasing their understanding of engineering science and design thinking. This paper introduces a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 to holistically address the development of these three competencies. Through design-based learning activities, both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competency in engineering science and engineering design while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer. This paper then examines the results of a post-then-pre survey administered to the participants upon completion of the program to explore the effects of the program on the development of professional engineering competencies. We find a statistically significant increase in items associated with Individual Leadership Skill, Group Leadership Skill and the role of Society and the Economy. These results are triangulated with student exit interviews and instructor observations
In the summer of 2014, 30 students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and 6 s... more In the summer of 2014, 30 students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design and 6 students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology participated in a 10-week Global Leadership Program (GLP) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. GLP provides students with the opportunity to develop design thinking and engineering science competencies alongside leadership skills. A curriculum combining elements of design-based learning and wilderness education was developed and implemented to holistically address the development of these three skillsets. This pilot study is the group’s first attempt to investigate the effect of participation in design-based wilderness education on student design thinking. Through qualitative analysis of student interviews 8 major themes that students associated with changes in their design thinking were identified: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singap... more The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has been collaborating since 2010 with the Singapore Ministry of Education to help develop the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). One element of this collaboration, the Global Leadership Program (GLP), aims to provide SUTD students with the opportunity to interact with the MIT community and experience MIT's academic culture, while at the same time participating in programming to assist with the development of leadership skills. This paper describes a curriculum combining the pedagogies of design-based learning and wilderness education that was implemented in the summer of 2014 as a component of GLP. Wilderness education was selected as a pedagogical framework for this program as it may be well suited to create effective learning environments for engineering education, cross-cultural learning, and fostering conceptual change. Through design activities both for and in a natural environment, students were encouraged to develop competency in engineering science while exploring the diverse attributes essential for success as an engineer.
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Papers by Chris Saulnier
This paper considers the development of students engineering science worldview while participating in the program (i.e. the ability to apply principles of engineering science to understand and explain the world around them). We expect that the wilderness environment may provide an effective environment for students to practice design thinking while developing and applying an engineering science worldview.
In 2014 a class was introduced to GLP that combined the pedagogical approaches of design- based learning and wilderness education to create a novel learning environment for engineering and architecture students. This class was developed to address the development of design thinking, engineering science, and leadership skills. The curriculum for the design-based wilderness education class consists of classroom and lab activities implemented on MIT’s campus, followed by a wilderness expedition. Initial exploratory investigation indicated that the design-based wilderness education curriculum resulted in self-reported increases in student leadership capacity and potentially beneficial changes to students design-thinking1,2.
After the 2014 iteration of the program, students were interviewed. During the interviews, students were asked how the experience had changed the way they thought about the design process. In response to this question the eight major themes that were identified were: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths2. This paper continues our initial exploration into how design-based learning in a wilderness environment impacts students’ perception of the engineering design process.
This paper considers the development of students engineering science worldview while participating in the program (i.e. the ability to apply principles of engineering science to understand and explain the world around them). We expect that the wilderness environment may provide an effective environment for students to practice design thinking while developing and applying an engineering science worldview.
In 2014 a class was introduced to GLP that combined the pedagogical approaches of design- based learning and wilderness education to create a novel learning environment for engineering and architecture students. This class was developed to address the development of design thinking, engineering science, and leadership skills. The curriculum for the design-based wilderness education class consists of classroom and lab activities implemented on MIT’s campus, followed by a wilderness expedition. Initial exploratory investigation indicated that the design-based wilderness education curriculum resulted in self-reported increases in student leadership capacity and potentially beneficial changes to students design-thinking1,2.
After the 2014 iteration of the program, students were interviewed. During the interviews, students were asked how the experience had changed the way they thought about the design process. In response to this question the eight major themes that were identified were: being flexible, the importance of high-fidelity testing, the value of simplicity, the importance of trying, survival as motivation, having empathy for others, trusting the process, and identifying team strengths2. This paper continues our initial exploration into how design-based learning in a wilderness environment impacts students’ perception of the engineering design process.