Work in Progress: Mini Projects - Using News Articles to Promote Lifelong Learning and Expose Students to Engineering Breadth

摘要

Between mainstream and social media, as well as scientific evangelists published in a variety of media formats, society is inundated with stories regarding the next great scientific and engineering breakthroughs. Nowhere is this truer than in the biomedical engineering community. As bioengineering instructors, our students often come to us talking about new technologies or discoveries they saw in the news. Some news agencies do a better job than others of faithfully representing the science and innovation behind these discoveries while providing a document that can be understood by the general public. Seeing the enthusiasm our students display as they read about these new discoveries suggests it can be a valuable tool in capturing their interest in a variety of classroom settings. Singh, for example, has reported on using NASA science news articles to enhance learning in the physics classroom. Gardner et al. have explored 'framing' of popular media in the biology classroom. Minerick provides an example in a chemical engineering elective course wherein students are engaged in critical thinking within a semester long concept development project (seeded by initial consideration of research or news articles). This paper reports on the details and outcomes of the structured use of news articles across a range of course levels in order to expose students to engineering breadth while promoting lifelong learning.