In the early 1990's several national reports called for reform inengineering education and suggested that the current preparation ofengineering students fell short of the skills and competencies thatwould be required of practising engineers. Many engineering collegesacross the country sought to address these problems with curricularreforms that incorporated more hands-on design work into the engineeringcurricula. The task of assessing the effectiveness of thesedesign-infused curricula presents a critical challenge for engineeringeducators. At Penn State, we developed a longitudinal assessment programto evaluate the qualitative changes in students' thinking as theyprogressed through the engineering curriculum. This paper presents asummary of the results of the first longitudinal component of thisassessment
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