Spicing Up the Engineering Classroom

Trying to influence engineers to investigate something different, especially outside the confines of statics and controls, vibrations and electrical circuits, and chemicals and asphalt, may be challenging. However, what our students come to campus with is outside those technical pursuits. They arrive with backgrounds in music and art, writing and voice, and a whole lot of things that sit on the other side of the table from our engineering courses. I believe that we need to help our students at least investigate areas that may not be prescribed by our accreditation boards and colleagues. Not only can these unique foci provide relaxation for our student, but they also can give them a wider view of the world around them. If they already have dabbled with ideas of music, art, and composition; why shouldn't we use those interests to support our own technical endeavors? There are many avenues that we can follow in trying to broaden the view of our engineers. I will briefly touch a few of the many that have been used in a variety of engineering courses at XXX. They include poetry and novel writing, the creation of art, our own talents in the skills outside of engineering, and the ever-interesting scavenger hunts. The foundation of all of this is the premise that we are all creative in some form and that creativity forms a basis upon which an engineer can grow to unbelievable heights. Looking at ways that our students can become involved in the cross pollinizing of the arts and engineering makes the engineering classroom all the more inviting and exciting for the technical mind. Simply suggesting the insertion of these activities is not enough; one must give rational reasons to include them that benefit the engineering student. An effort will be made to explain why the activities chosen will help the student in a variety of ways, not only their engineering pursuits. Since most of the efforts made by the students involve assessments beyond simply a grade range, one must look at the efforts in creativity and anecdotal responses to the assignments. This will be detailed in the paper.