The Educational Technology and Methodology - Methodology Program Area at The Ohio State University is committed to using student teams in freshman engineering courses. The introductory engineering course has multiple purposes, including teaching basic engineering skills for all students and providing them with a positive experience that might encourage them to remain in engineering. One assignment that helps instructors meet these objectives is the team design project. Unfortunately, most design projects in engineering textbooks are written by engineers for other engineers to solve. The situations portrayed and the vocabulary used in the problems are unfamiliar to many beginning students.

The ETM-M project at The Ohio State University has developed a set of team design projects that can be used in beginning engineering courses geared toward freshmen engineers' skills. A unique level of student input and participation was a part of the project. Teams of undergraduate engineering students were hired to attend brainstorming sessions in which they proposed possible projects. Following the brainstorming sessions, students refined the project statements and submitted them to engineering faculty who selected the most appropriate problems, revised the statements as needed, and compiled a final list of one hundred projects.

A total of 267 projects were proposed. Faculty reviewed the students' ideas, using the following critieria:

1. Clear objectives.

2. Sufficient information provided.

3. Many possible solutions so students could brainstorm.

4. Possible to complete in a reasonable time.

One hundred projects were selected for the Gateway report. Faculty members can easily modify the projects as they choose. Final reports on most of these projects can include a written description, a drawing, a scale model, or a prototype, depending on the instructor's preferences and the time and resources available to the students. The projects also offer students the opportunity to learn how devices work and to conceptualize alternatives to available solutions. ¨

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