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Investigating the Impact of Using a CAD Simulation Tool on Students’ Learning of Design Thinking

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Abstract

Engineering design thinking is hard to teach and still harder to learn by novices primarily due to the undetermined nature of engineering problems that often results in multiple solutions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of teaching engineering design thinking to freshmen students by using a computer-aided Design (CAD) simulation software. We present a framework for characterizing different levels of engineering design thinking displayed by students who interacted with the CAD simulation software in the context of a collaborative assignment. This framework describes the presence of four levels of engineering design thinking—beginning designer, adept beginning designer, informed designer, adept informed designer. We present the characteristics associated with each of these four levels as they pertain to four engineering design strategies that students pursued in this study—understanding the design challenge, building knowledge, weighing options and making tradeoffs, and reflecting on the process. Students demonstrated significant improvements in two strategies—understanding the design challenge and building knowledge. We discuss the affordances of the CAD simulation tool along with the learning environment that potentially helped students move towards Adept informed designers while pursuing these design strategies.

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Acknowledgements

Research reported in this paper was supported by the National Science Foundation under the award DRL 1503436 and 1151019. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Science Foundation.

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Author notes

  1. Manaz Taleyarkhan

    Present address: Northrop Grumman, Falls Church, VA, 22042, USA

  2. Chandan Dasgupta

    Present address: Interdisciplinary Program in Educational Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

  3. John Mendoza Garcia

    Present address: Institute for Excellence in Engineering Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Information Technology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47906, USA

    Manaz Taleyarkhan, Chandan Dasgupta & Alejandra J. Magana

  2. School of Engineering Education, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47906, USA

    John Mendoza Garcia & Alejandra J. Magana

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  1. Manaz Taleyarkhan
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Correspondence to Chandan Dasgupta.

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Taleyarkhan, M., Dasgupta, C., Garcia, J.M. et al. Investigating the Impact of Using a CAD Simulation Tool on Students’ Learning of Design Thinking. J Sci Educ Technol 27, 334–347 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-018-9727-3

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