What some thoughtful engineering students say about engineering education

Summary form only given, as follows. On the weekend of October 26 and 27, 1996, six students from four schools in the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition attended the first meeting of the Gateway Coalition Student Council. The purpose of the meeting was to get students????????? reactions to and suggestions for projects conducted by the Gateway Coalition. All students attending were seniors in engineering, and all had participated in Gateway projects, often first as students and later as tutors or laboratory assistants. In eight hours of meetings, students discussed their observations and opinions on Gateway projects and engineering education in general. The faculty member facilitating the meeting had outlined topics to be addressed in an agenda sent to the students a week before the meeting. Topics included strengths and weaknesses of Gateway Programs, strengths and weaknesses of engineering education in general, observations on teaching and course content, and observations on climate and retention. The students had obviously given the topics a great deal of though and were quite articulate. The faculty member ma& no attempt to guide or constrain the conversations, and the students????????? enthusiastic, but surprisingly focused, discussions often ran beyond the allotted time. While the meeting was originally designed to gather information about Gateway projects, the conversations quickly broadened to engineering education in general. Detailed notes from the meeting contain dozens of observations that engineering educators may want to keep in mind when planning curriculum revisions or simply preparing to teach a well-established course. Students offered carefully considered, constructive, and specific comments on effective teaching techniques, course and lab content (and integration of the two), skills students need to learn but often are not taught, why students enroll in engineering, and why they leave. The paper is an organized presentation of the students - omments.