Thinking in Terms of Systems through Engineering Design
The essence of engineering is design. Design may yield an artifact, system, or process to realize an opportunity or to satisfy a problem. Engineering design is complex and typically set within a system that may be interwoven into other systems. Furthermore, engineering designs are often non-linear, iterative, and contain multiple interconnected variables. Therefore, thinking in terms of systems in engineering design is a required skill for the successful engineer’s tool box. The aim of this research study was to understand high school students’ systems thinking when engaged in an engineering design challenge. Specifically, emerging qualitative themes and phenomena related to systems thinking in engineering design were explored and analyzed. This study included 12 high school students. The students were paired into teams of two to work through an engineering design challenge. These dyads were given one hour in their classrooms with access to a computer and engineering sketching paper to complete the design. Immediately following the design challenge, the students participated in a post hoc reflective group interview. The methodology of this study was informed and derived from cognitive science’s verbal protocol analysis. In this research study we gathered multiple forms of data and triangulated these data in our analysis. These forms included audio and video recordings of both the design challenge and the interview, computer tracking, and student generated sketches. Additionally, qualitative analysis techniques were used to understand and interpret systems and engineering design themes and findings. Through the qualitative analysis, it was shown that the students demonstrated thinking in terms of systems. The results imply that systems thinking can be part of a high school engineering curriculum. The students considered and explored multiple interconnected variables that were technical as well as non-technical in nature. The students showed further systems thinking by optimizing their design through balancing trade-offs of non-linear interconnected variables. Sketching played an integral part in the students’ design process as it was used to generate, develop, and communicate their designs. Although many of the students recognized their own lack of drawing abilities, they understood the role sketching played in engineering design. Therefore, graphical visualization through sketching is a skill that educators may want to include in their curricula. The qualitative analysis also shed light on analogous reasoning. The students drew from their personal experience in lieu of professional expertise to better understand and expand their designs. Hence, the implication for educators is to aid the students in using their knowledge, experience, and pre-existing schemata to work through an engineering design.