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Abstract This is a Great Ideas for Teaching, and Talking with, Students (GIFTS) paper. Systems thinking, spatial visualization, and data analysis are technical skills that are important across different disciplines in engineering. Additionally, abilities to collaborate effectively in teams and to synthesize and communicate technical information are key "durable skills" in student professional development. Introductory engineering courses that emphasize these concepts serve incoming engineering students well in their undergraduate and professional careers. This paper describes the structure of a one-semester introductory engineering course that incorporates two modules for project-based learning, whose learning outcomes focus on improving these technical and durable skills. The first module is a mechanically oriented product design that incorporates physical prototyping. Students worked in teams to develop a three-dimensional model that can be assembled using parts that were laser-cut from a single 8x10 sheet of wood. The second module focuses on performing life cycle assessment to compare the environmental impacts of common consumer goods. Student teams picked two common product choices and created an inventory of inputs and outputs across all life cycle stages for both products. They performed a streamlined analysis to determine which product consumed fewer resources and/or released fewer emissions. These modules were implemented in a completely online format in Fall 2020 to adhere to social-distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. These modules are expected to be delivered in an in-person or hybrid model in Fall 2021. The paper also describes how these two modules can be modified for online-only, in-person, or hybrid delivery and scaled to suit varying class enrollments.
Malladi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.