Work in progress - student representations and conceptions of design and engineering

To get at students´ conceptual understandings of design and engineering activity, a group of graduate engineering students were asked to perform a series of drawing tasks. A group of first-year master´s students in mechanical engineering enrolled in design project courses at Stanford University were asked to generate a concept map of their ¿typical design process¿ at the beginning and end of their course. Students were also asked to draw a designer at work and an engineer at work, along the lines of the draw-a-scientist test. Initial findings from qualitative content analysis indicate that the concept maps of design process mature over time along a consistent learning trajectory. Students also have distinct but complimentary models of the roles of a designer and engineer along two emerging themes: idea generation vs. idea implementation and human-centered design vs. technology-centered. These intermediate results point to further study in this area.