Quantifying Changes in Creativity: Findings from an Engineering Course on the Design of Complex and Origami Structures

Engineering educators have increasingly sought strategies for integrating the arts into their curricula. The primary objective of this integration varies, but one common objective is to improve students’ creative thinking skills. In this paper, we sought to quantify changes in student creativity that resulted from participation in a mechanical engineering course targeted at integrating engineering, technology, and the arts. The course was team taught by instructors from mechanical engineering and art. The art instructor introduced origami principles and techniques as a means for students to optimize engineering structures. Through a course project, engineering student teams interacted with art students to perform structural analysis on an origami-based art installation, which was the capstone project of the art instructor’s undergraduate origami course. Three engineering student teams extended this course project to collaborate with the art students in the final design and physical installation. To evaluate changes in student creativity, we used two instruments: a revised version of the Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment (RDCA) and the Innovative Behavior Scales. Initially, the survey contained 12 constructs, but three were removed due to poor internal consistency reliability: Extrinsic Motivation; Intrinsic Motivation; and Tolerance of Ambiguity. The nine remaining constructs used for comparison herein included: • Originality: Confidence in developing original, innovative ideas • Ideation: Confidence in generating many ideas • Risk Taking: Adventurous; Brave • Openness of Process: Engaging various potentialities and resisting closure • Iterative Processing: Willingness to iterate on one’s solution • Questioning: Tendency to ask lots of questions • Experimenting/exploring: Tendency to physically or mentally take things apart • Idea networking: Tendency to engage with diverse others in communicative acts • Observing: Tendency to observe the surrounding world By conducting a series of paired t-tests to ascertain if pre and post-course responses were significantly different on the above constructs, we found five significant changes. In order of significance, these included Idea Networking; Questioning; Observing; Originality; and Ideation. To help explain these findings, and to identify how this course may be improved in subsequent offerings, the discussion includes the triangulation of these findings in light of teaching observations, responses from a mid-semester student focus group session, and informal faculty reflections. We close with questions that we and others ought to address as we strive to integrate engineering, technology, and the arts. We hope that these findings and discussion will guide other scholars and instructors as they explore the impact of art on engineering design learning, and as they seek to evaluate student creativity resulting from courses with similar aims

The impact of synthetic biology in chemical engineering - Educational issues

This paper describes the development of syntheticbiology as a distinct entity from current industrial biotechnology and the implications for a future based on its concepts. The role of the engineering design cycle, in syntheticbiology is established and the difficulties in making and exact analogy between the two emphasised. It is suggested that process engineers can offer experience in the application of syntheticbiology to the manufacture of products which should influence the approach of the synthetic biologist. The style of teaching for syntheticbiology appears to offer a new approach at undergraduate level and the challenges to the education of process engineers in this technology are raised. Possible routes to the development of syntheticbiology teaching are suggested

Performance Efficiency of University Education from Students Perspective

The study aims to identify the efficiency of the university education performance from the perspective of postgraduate and undergraduate students in international and Palestinian universities. The analytical descriptive approach was used for this purpose and the questionnaire was used as a main tool for data collection. The study community consists of: post graduate students, (23850) graduate students and (146355) undergraduate students. The sample of the study was 378 graduate students and 383 undergraduate students. The random stratified sample was used. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) was also used for data analysis. The study reached a number of results, the most important of which are: The level of efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities from the point of view of postgraduate and undergraduate students was high. And that there are significant differences between the average views of the sample of the study on the efficiency of educational performance in Palestinian and international universities attributed to the University and to the benefit of international universities. The study concluded many recommendations, the most important of which is the necessity of continuing to develop e-learning strategies that affect the efficiency of educational performance and research commensurate with the university's position in the local and international community, which puts it on the best classification between local and international universities through e-learning

Importance of creativity and learning in preservice teachers

Introduction: Currently, the review of the scientific literature highlights the interrelation between creativity and learning; being learning a creative process that implies significant new personal fundamental changes in all educational stages, but above all in higher education, promoting the employability of university students. The objective of this research is to analyce the relationship between creativity and academic performance as a measure of learning. Method: The sample was conformed by 100 university students of the Degree of Primary Education of the University of Castilla la Mancha (UCLM) (40% boys and 60% girls) with ages between 19 and 24 years. All participants are administered the PICA test to assess creativity and self-report of the university entrance test to measure the grades academic performance. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used. Results: The results obtained show a significant positive correlation between the university access grade and general creativity, narrative, fantasy, fluency and flexibility. In addition, general and narrative creativity as well as fantasy, fluency and flexibility predict academic performance. Discussion or Conclusion: These findings have educational implications to enhance the learning of future teachers, aimed at teaching creative strategies and their employability.Introducción. Actualmente, la revisión de la literatura científica pone de manifiesto la interrelación entre la creatividad y el aprendizaje; siendo el aprendizaje, un proceso creativo que implica nuevos cambios significativamente personales fundamentales en todas las etapas educativas, pero sobretodo en la educación superior, promoviendo la empleabilidad del alumnado universitario. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la relación entre la creatividad y el rendimiento académico como medida del aprendizaje. Método. La muestra estuvo conformada por 100 estudiantes universitarios del Grado de Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM) (40% chicos y 60% chicas) con edades comprendidas entre 19 y 24 años. A todos los participantes se les administra la prueba PICA para evaluar creatividad y las calificaciones de la asignatura de matemáticas y de acceso a la universidad para el rendimiento académico. Se emplearon estadísticos descriptivos, correlación de Pearson y regresión lineal múltiple. Resultados. Los resultados obtenidos evidencian correlación significativa positiva entre la nota de acceso a la universidad y la creatividad general, creatividad narrativa, fantasía, fluidez y flexibilidad; y correlación significativa positiva entre la nota de matemáticas y la creatividad general, creatividad narrativa, elaboración, fluidez y flexibilidad. Además, la creatividad y algunos componentes predicen el rendimiento académico. Discusión y conclusiones. Estos hallazgos tienen implicaciones educativas para potenciar el aprendizaje de los futuros maestros, dirigidas a la enseñanza de estrategias creativas y a su empleabilidad

Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy perpose as speed controller in indirect field oriented control of induction motor drive

This paper deal with the problem in speed controller for Indirect Field Oriented Control of Induction Motor. The problem cause decrease performance of Induction Motor where it widely used in high-performance applications. In order decrease the fault of speed induction motor, Takagi- Sugeno type Fuzzy logic control is used as the speed controller. For this, a model of indirect field oriented control of induction motor is built and simulating using MATLAB simulink. Secondly, error of speed and derivative error as the input and change of torque command as the output for speed control is applied in simulation. Lastly, from the simulation result overshoot is zero persent, rise time is 0.4s and settling time is 0.4s. The important data is steady state error is 0.01 percent show that the speed can follow reference speed. From that simulation result illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Design and validation of a questionnaire to measure research skills: experience with engineering students

Universities in Latin American countries are undergoing major changes in its institutional and academic settings. One strategy for continuous improvement of teaching and learning process is the incorporation of methods and teaching aids seeking to develop scientific research skills in students from their undergraduate studies. The aim of this study is the validation of a questionnaire to measure research skills with engineering students. Questionnaire validation was performed by: literature review, semantic and content validation by experts from three Latin American universities, finishing with a factorial and reliability validation. The instrument was applied to 150 students (75,3% men and 24,7% women) that were enrolled in the basic level of engineering. The validated questionnaire has 20 items. The correlations between factors of the instrument, show relationship and dependence between them, indicating the validity of the questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, which reached a value of .91 in the total scale. The statistical results to validate the questionnaire have been significant, allowing us to propose this experience as a starting point to implement further studies about the development of research skills in university’s students from other areas of knowledgePeer Reviewe