Teaching and Assessment Strategies that Value Innovative Thinking

Through undergraduate engineering education, we hope to create graduates who have the ability to think creatively and be innovative. Yet, prior studies suggest that students might be losing their creative edge during their undergraduate education. In this workshop, we will review key literature on engineering students' views of innovation and results from a series of studies conducted by the presenters through an NSF CAREER grant. We will then cover strategies to effectively promote and value student innovation. We will focus on planning design activities or projects that are more likely to elicit innovative behavior in students as well as adjustments to assessment practices and grading rubrics that encourage or allow for more innovative work by students.