Freshman design projects: lessons learned in engineering coalitions

Summary form only given. NSF established the Engineering Education Coalition programs for the purpose of creating systemic changes in engineering education. Coalitions are groups of institutions of higher learning who work collaboratively to achieve their coalition´s mission. The first Coalition program was established in 1990. There are now eight Engineering Education Coalitions representing some 59 Universities (roughly 20% of all of the undergraduates institutions in the United States). Most coalitions have developed freshman design projects to increase the interest of new engineering students and to begin integration of design across the curriculum. These activities are a multi-week project approach, where students are engaged in experimental learning. The projects require that the members of the team must work together to complete the task. The multi-week projects dominate the course and the project theme motivates both the fixed and the flexible content covered during the course.