University at Buffalo (UB)
Handling Complexity: Exploring Engineering Student Epistemic Thinking on Open-Ended Problems
Are you interested in how people learn and solve problems? Contribute to research that will support how colleges prepare engineers to solve complex, interdisciplinary problems.
Project description
Engineering graduates need to be prepared to tackle real-world problems and work in rapidly changing, multi-disciplinary environment. This need has motivated efforts to incorporate open-ended problems into engineering courses. Open-ended problems do not have a single right answer. To solve these problems, students must engage in complex thinking, known as epistemic thinking, where they must engage in practices such as, collecting information, assessing the validity of information, and justifying their decisions. Traditional engineering instruction does not directly teach students these epistemic practices. As such, many students struggle to solve open-ended problems because of their ambiguity and complexity. This project will begin to address this challenge by identifying the epistemic practices used by mechanical engineering students to solve an open-ended modeling problem. Data will include students’ problem solutions and interview transcripts, which will be analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis.
The students on this project will join a team of researchers who are studying students' experiences solving open-ended problems. Students will participate in research group meetings and collaborative work sessions. With my support, students will be given ownership over a research question from the study, analyze data, and prepare an abstract to submit at a local, regional, or national conference. Students will also have the opportunity to contribute to the development of materials to share with engineering students and instructors that share their research findings.
Project outcome
This project will culminate in an abstract that is submitted for presentation at a conference and materials for engineering faculty and students that translate research findings into practice.
Students on this project will have the opportunity to develop research skills including, 1) conducting research interviews and qualitative data analysis, 2) documentation of research findings, 3) proposing ways to expand and improve current research, and 4) translating research into practice. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to reflect on their own identity as researchers and how the research findings translate to their own classroom experiences.
Project details
| Length of commitment | About a semester; 3-5 months |
| Start time | Summer (May/June) |
| In-person, remote, or hybrid? | In-Person Project (can only function with in-person engagement) |
| Level of collaboration | Small group project (2-3 students) |
| Benefits | Stipend |
| Who is eligible | Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors who have some engineering knowledge because they will be analyzing engineering problem solutions. This knowledge can come from high school or college engineering, science, or math coursework or from co-curricular experiences like Project Lead the Way, robotics club, or Science Olympiad. There are no other eligibility requirements other than an interest in the project, engineering education, and education research. Note: This project has two open positions for students. |
Project mentor
Courtney Faber
Assistant Professor
Engineering Education
Phone: (716) 645-2024
Email: cfaber@buffalo.edu
Start the project
- Email the project mentor using the contact information above to express your interest and get approval to work on the project. (Here are helpful tips on how to contact a project mentor.)
- After you receive approval from the mentor to start this project, click the button to start the digital badge. (Learn more about ELN's digital badge options.)
Preparation activities
Once you begin the digital badge series, you will have access to all the necessary activities and instructions. Your mentor has indicated they would like you to also complete the specific preparation activities below. Please reference this when you get to Step 2 of the Preparation Phase.
We will be analyzing data collected from engineering students. It is important for researchers to conduct this work ethically and with care. All researchers engaged in research on people need to complete Human Subjects Research Training. Complete training through CITI (1) Human Research Curriculum, Social & Behavioral Research Investigators Basic Course and (2) Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research Course Basic Course. See for instructions: https://www.buffalo.edu/research/research-services/training/compliance-training.html#title_1479083771
Upload both certificates of completion when you have completed the trainings.
Keywords
engineering, learning, problem solving, engineering education