Improving Students’ Sociotechnical Literacy in Engineering
National Science Foundation
Ethan Danahy, Jennifer Cross, Ellise LaMotte, Deborah Sunter, Desen Ozkan, Chelsea Andrews
This project seeks to make the social, political, and economic contexts of engineering assumptions and decisions visible in an introductory engineering curriculum. Building on a pilot project funded by Tufts Springboard, the NSF funding will allow the work to expand from two sections of ES-2 to all sections. Up to thirty Equity Learning Assistants (ELAs) will facilitate modules around engineering as a sociotechnical endeavor. The modules will include activities that push students to critique the assumptions and decisions embedded in data sets and technologies that become apparent when situated in social, political, and economic contexts. The ELAs will partake in a co-current seminar led by Desen Ozkan and Chelsea Andrews to dive deeper into module topics in the ES-2 classes.