Preparing for Professional Practice: Course Evaluation and Implications

1 Jennifer Turns, Univ. of WA, Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching, 225 Engr Annex, Seattle, WA, 98195-2180, [email protected] 2 Cynthia J. Atman, Univ. of WA, Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching, 223 Engr Annex, Seattle, WA, 98195-2180, [email protected] 3 Fred Mannering, Univ. of Washington, Dept of Civil and Envr Engineering, 201C More Hall, Seattle, WA, 98195-2180, [email protected] Abstract: One goal of engineering schools is to prepare students to become engineering practitioners. At the University of Washington, we have been conducting a variety of research projects devoted to the concurrent goals of (a) articulating what it means to be preparing students to become an engineering practitioner, (b) assessing students preparedness for being an engineering practitioner, and (c) designing and evaluating activities that promote student preparation in areas potentially overlooked in traditional curricula. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of a two-credit course designed during the summer of 1999 and taught during the fall of 1999. In particular, we describe the motivations behind the course design, the primary components of the course design, and the outcome of an empirical and extensive student-based evaluation of the course. In addition, we discuss the possible implications of the evaluation results. Index Terms – Professional Practice, Classroom Activities, Reflective Writing, Guest Lecturers, Ethics