Goal 1:
Provide The Solid Background in Math, Science and Engineering That Is Needed to Solve Mining Engineering Problems.
"Getting the science right" is fundamental for successful engineering practice. A thorough background in math, science and engineering is the foundation upon which Mining Engineering is practiced. The specific ABET requirements for Mining Engineering programs serve as our guide for this goal.
Goal 2:
Provide An Educational Experience That Prepares Students To Creatively Apply Basic Knowledge To Solve Open-ended Problems.
We understand that our graduate Mining Engineers must be proficient at applying basic knowledge to engineering practice. This involves fully integrating basic math and science course material into Mining Engineering courses throughout the curriculum. Our students need to be thinking about applications of abstract math and science concepts to engineering beginning in their Freshman year. This will be accomplished in part through the expanded use of open-ended case studies throughout our Mining Engineering courses, and by emphasizing the importance of material students learn in "co-requisite courses."
- Progressive design will be instituted through solving cross-course, open-ended case studies that require increasing sophistication as students become more knowledgeable.
- Modern software being used today, and new software that will serve the industry tomorrow, must be integrated fully into the curriculum, and introduced at an early stage.
- Engineers do not practice in a society composed solely of engineers. At a minimum, our engineering students should appreciate, and be sensitive to, the global cultural, social and historical diversity within the communities in which they practice.
- We believe it is important to integrate comprehensive experimental and analytical skills across the curriculum. This will be accomplished by emphasizing the design and analysis of experiments and improving observational and diagnostic skills. Future courses, for example, will de-emphasize lecture-only classes and place increasing emphasis on integration of lectures, field and laboratory experiences, and student self-learning.
- We also believe it is important to instill an understanding of the impact of economic and safety constraints on the design process.
Goal 3 :
Instill The Importance Of Active Learning To Meet The Challenges Of Changing Technology.
For too long engineering education has emphasized "one-way" learning through a lecture/listen format. The lack of success of such techniques has led the National Science Foundation to institute an extensive program to bring about systemic changes in the manner in which we train engineers. The five components of this goal are:
- Adopt an inquiry-based active learning paradigm . This will involve, for example, giving students a problem and providing faculty supervision for their self-learning process. This activity will include web-based resources, which will be available after graduation, thus encouraging active life-long learning.
- More fully employ undergraduate preceptorships . Students need to assume more responsibility for improving the excellence of engineering education. Through preceptorships, upper division students become involved (acquire a stake) in the quality of education given to lower division students. At the same time, lower division students acquire a peer mentor.
- Require the use of technical and non-technical literature in courses . Fully integrating professional journals in courses will emphasize the need to become a career learner and to join, and remain current in, professional societies.
- More fully expose undergraduates to research . The research process should never be a mystery to our undergraduate students, for it is basically a realization of the scientific process that we wish to impart to them.
- Encourage more "community" in courses . Students should not feel that they are being lectured to. Argument, debate and discussion should be an integral part of engineering courses. This will be accomplished through the use of colloquia, discussion sessions and case studies.
Goal 4:
Promote Skills Necessary To Assume Leadership Roles In Our Profession and Communities.
It is clear to us that our society needs engineers to become leaders, not only through professional practice, but also through community involvement. Components of this goal are:
- Incorporate multidisciplinary team projects throughout the curriculum . Accomplishing this objective involves open-ended case studies and a better integration among the mining engineering classes, among other things.
- Require multiphase communications . Communications must extend beyond preparation of homework assignments, even if those assignments are in the form of memoranda. Emphasis needs to be placed on presentation of proposals, reports and oral discussions. And all of these must emphasize the use of modern software tools.
- Place projects within a professional and ethical context . One of the best ways to place engineering into a global, social and ethical context is to more fully develop case histories.
- Promote student mentoring and tutoring . This can be accomplished through preceptorships, required service for upper division students, and an increasing emphasis on activities in student chapters of professional societies.
- Encourage participation in professional societies . One of the most successful techniques for doing this is to encourage an active student chapter within the department. At the present time we have active student chapters in the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) and the Northwest Mining Association.
- Instill in students the importance of performing in a safe, professional and timely manner . This involves performing within a limited time and budget, performing in a safe manner in the laboratory and in the field, and emphasizing the importance of technical registration.
Goal 5:
Incorporate Out-of-Class Exposure To Engineering Practice.
Students need a thorough exposure to "real world" engineering practice. Some of the ways to see that our students get this exposure are:
- Integrate open-ended case studies within the curriculum.
- Initiate credit for practicums (internships).
- Encourage industry-driven design experiences. Ways to encourage such partnerships are to involve industry with our case study implementation and in our senior design projects.
- Involve undergraduates more fully in faculty research.
- Emphasize attendance at technical meetings.
- Work with industry to develop structured summer internships
Goal 6:
Design And Implement A Dynamic Process To Ensure That The Curriculum Remains Current, Responsive To Changing Needs And Promotes Excellence.
To achieve this goal will require profound changes in the way we approach educating mining engineers. We have formulated the following steps to accomplish this goal.
- Use engineering and design applications to drive the learning process. Over the past 25 years our engineering education has become modularized into 16-week courses. It is time to change that paradigm. We propose to develop a new educational paradigm that begins in the junior year with a design problem or suite of design problems. These case studies will be inherently complex enough to challenge students at all levels of the curriculum. As the students gain the knowledge necessary to accept more sophisticated responsibilities, those responsibilities will be provided to them using the case studies. This new structure, wherein, knowledge necessary for identifying, formulating and solving increasingly complex problems is provided, not in 16-week blocks, but rather at the time it is needed, will require a change in the way we organize our courses. Hence, the next component is proposed.
- Produce an integrated learning experience using faculty team participation throughout the Mining Engineering courses. Mining Engineering faculty currently team-teach the introductory course. By coordinating among courses, breaking courses into modules, and integrating design experiences across courses, students see different components of teamwork demonstrated among the faculty members. The addition of a required seminar for undergraduates that will involve the entire faculty will further integrate the learning experience.
- Develop new distance learning and asynchronous course materials to facilitate our integrated design approach. There are benefits to utilizing these materials. First, they encourage inquiry-based learning by the students, and second, they reveal ways that students can engage in lifelong learning. We believe that such materials will play a major role in future off campus, non-traditional learning.
- Enhance learning by increasing faculty involvement as facilitators as compared with instructors. Faculty can gradually become colleagues rather than authorities by the senior year. Students will learn better if they accept more responsibility for search and discovery. Faculty should help facilitate the search and discovery process.
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