International Conference on Engineering Education – ICEE 2007 Project-Based Learning in First Year Engineering Curricula: Course Development and Student Experiences in Two New Classes at MIT

importance of project-based first-year experiences. Over the 2006- 2007 academic year six new project-based science and engineering courses were offered at MIT. This paper examines two of these six introduction to engineering classes, delivered by the Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics and Astronautics departments. Each course is centered around a semester-long design-and-build team project. Both classes require a strong web presence by the students through online documentation of the design process. One class is developed around a service learning model with teams of students working with underserved community-based partners to design products for use in these communities. The second class has students working in teams to design underwater remote operated vehicles (ROVs). Two different learning philosophies were used in designing course content; with the underwater ROV course focused on exploration of technology for student-centric design, while the service learning class focused on problem solving methods and meeting design needs of a community. This paper discusses the curriculum design and development for each class and the differing experiences of the 35 students between these two classes