Innovative Teaching Methods Presented at ASME Education Conference
Katherine Friedrich

At the 2007 International Mechanical Engineering Education Conference on March 23-27 in Dorado, Puerto Rico, Sandra Courter shared the stories of CIRTL's teaching achievements.

Courter has been a leader in promoting CIRTL's teaching techniques at engineering conferences and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is the director of the Engineering Learning Center .

The conference was geared toward the interests of mechanical engineering department heads. During a plenary session, "Research on Engineering Education," Courter presented CIRTL's resources to a large audience. Her co-presenters shared research from the Carnegie Foundation and the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education.

The presentation focused on concrete examples of inclusive teaching by CIRTL graduate students and faculty. These examples included engineering professor Katherine McMahon's innovations in teaching mass balance and graduate student Aya Diab's module for teaching heat transfer. The practical angle of the talk was very well received by the audience.

Courter said her goal was to invite engineering faculty to use the CIRTL Network's resources in their own departments. During the group discussion, Courter said, many of the department leaders expressed interest in CIRTL's work - especially the guidebooks and the diversity resources . "The CIRTL guidebooks . give people hope that others have done this," she said.

Courter integrated the conceptual "pillars" of CIRTL smoothly into her presentation. She took the opportunity to promote Teaching-as-Research and to raise participants' awareness of student diversity in learning style, gender and culture.

June 12, 2007
  

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