Projects are essential to being a Maker or engineer; and if you are an engineer, it is likely you will be involved in many projects of all different sizes. When it comes to educating the next generation of engineers, however, project-based instructors and teachers are facing new challenges in the midst of adjusting to new guidelines that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as physical distancing and limits on the size of in-person events.
In a recent Webinar hosted by Construct 3D Summer Symposium, a number of panelists shared how Make: Projects is being used to engage university students and document their project process.
Dale Dougherty, of Make:, Lauren Baldesarra of Engineering.com discuss how schools and universities are having to redesign the learning experience for their students. The webinar delves into how ProjectBoard with the Make: Projects platform can assist in the ongoing technology-supported, hybrid learning needed today.
Joining the discussion were Frank Baldesarra, CEO of Engineering.com; Reneta Vaccaro, CTO of Engineering.com; and Matthew Wettergreen, Associate Teaching Professor at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (ODEK) at Rice University.
Highlights of the webinar presentation include:
- How Make: Projects operates as a digital tool for collaboration and student engagement.
- An Introduction to the Make: Community, including Make: Magazine and Maker Faires, and how these resources engage people to become Makers and collaborate with other engineering minds.
- How Make: Projects’ 25,000 members, including engineering and technology experts, can assist in validating students’ design processes.
- Many teachers are at a loss due to the social distancing rules removing valuable teaching methods. How can we continue to collaborate, encourage, support and engage in developing projects?
- A live demonstration of the platform’s features, such as starting a class assignment, organization of a project, showcasing and presentation of a project, and sharing the project and its experience beyond the classroom.
- Successful virtual fairs that have been hosted on the platform, delving into custom categories, custom layout designs and templates for projects.
- Rice University ODEK demonstrates how they transformed the course “Introduction to Engineering Design” to operate on Make: Projects, and how students organized, created a structural flow, reported daily updates and more.
- Pre-programmed templates such as the Scientific Method and the Engineering Design Process allow educators teaching project-based courses to assist students with project planning.
- Q&A segment, ending with an inspiring message from the Make: community.
“The experience of education is to invite students to do projects,” says Dougherty. “The more they share their project beyond their own experience, beyond their class or teacher, the more powerful it is.”
View the webinar here and learn more about the Make: Projects Community!