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Historically, the course was taught using semester-long design projects. Most students’overall approach to design problems left considerable room for improvement. Many teams chose a design without investigating alternatives, and important decisions were made without a quantitative analysis.  \nThe faculty team addressed this shortcoming by 1) replacing the semester-long project with a sequence of design projects, and 2) presenting a converging-diverging approach to design, modeled after a paper by Dym et al. [1] Students were required to document their design approach in detail, showing specific evidence of divergent design and convergent design and specific rationale for the final decisions resulting from these processes. This paper explains the convergent-divergent design model, provides a description of the design projects, and presents a comparative assessment that demonstrates the new course organization led to dramatic improvement in student performance.  \nINTRoDuCTIoN  \nthe sophomore engineering clinic is a sequence of two, four semester-hour courses, team taught by the college of communication and the college of engineering. typically, the course has approximately 120 students divided into six sections. the faculty team for each semester consists of two or three instructors from the college of communication and five from the college of engineering, with each of the four Rowan engineering disciplines (chemical, civil and environmental, mechanical, electrical and computer) represented. students have two 75-minute lecture sessions and one 160-minute laboratory session each week.  \nDuring the lecture sections students receive instruction on technical communication, specifically, technical writing in the fall and public speaking in the spring. each section is taught by a faculty  \nWINTER 2009 1  \naDvanceS in engineering eDucaTion  \nimplementing and assessing the converging-Diverging Model of  \n Design in a Sequence of Sophomore Projects  \nmember from Department of Writing arts in the fall and Department of communication in the spring, and for these faculty members, each section is viewed as a 3-hour course for workload purposes. in the laboratory portion of the course, three sections meet simultaneously. consequently, for the engineering faculty, there are two lab sessions each week, each consisting of 60–65 students, and five instructors. for workload purposes this is viewed as a 3-hour course for each member of the engineering faculty.  \nin the laboratory component of the course, students work on design projects, closely supervised by engineering faculty. lecturing is provided as-needed to facilitate the project, but the bulk of the lab time is provided for students to work with their teams. most of the course deliverables are writing assignments and presentations about these design projects, which are graded jointly by engineering and communication faculty. this course is consistent with growing national trends of integrating design into the early years of the curriculum [2, 3, 4] and stressing the importance of communication skills [5, 6, 7] .  \nin both the lecture sections and the laboratory the emphasis on teamwork is exceptionally strong. Design projects are completed in teams of 4–5. team selection is done by the faculty with the primary criteria being:  \nl teams must have compatible schedules so that the students will be able to meet outside of class time to work on the projects.  \nl teams have members from a variety of disciplines—ideally, at least one student from each Rowan engineering discipline (chemical, civil, electrical, and","cbCaibs9aLIok8TQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibs9aLIok8TQ","pdf",732172,16,"English","# Introduction\n## Course structure and instructional approach\n## Teamwork and project organization\n# Converging-Diverging Design Model\n## Divergent vs. convergent thinking\n## Cognitive process for design steps\n# Comparative assessment\n## Evidence of improved student performance","[{\"question\":\"What problem did the faculty identify in the previous semester-long project format?\",\"answer\":\"Many teams selected designs without investigating alternatives, and key decisions were made without quantitative analysis. Students’ approaches showed substantial room for improvement overall.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the new course structure change the learning experience?\",\"answer\":\"The faculty replaced a single semester-long project with a sequence of design projects and required detailed documentation of both divergent and convergent design evidence and the rationale behind final decisions.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the converging-diverging design model and why is it important?\",\"answer\":\"The model alternates divergent exploration of possibilities with convergent selection of the best solution grounded in verifiable facts. It supports an effective design process that uses both thinking modes.\"}]","Advances in Engineering Education - Winter 2009 - Implementing and Assessing the Converging-Diverging Model of Design in a Sequence of Sophomore Projects | PDF",1792065604]