The Engineering and Education Colleges recently received a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that will develop new education methods for engineers.

The grant will be used to explore the cognitive paths students take when solving problems, and for research in improving students’ cognitive strategies.

“The hope is that it will help develop the students’ thinking to progress past homework problems,” said John Jackman, associate professor in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering.

“The emphasis is on the ‘what’ and ‘how’. The ‘what’ is the end result and the ‘how’ is the method they use to get there,” he said.

Jackman said engineers will learn to evaluate their own cognitive processes and improve them.

Sigurdur Olafsson, assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, led the grant-proposal writing group.

Olafsson said the grant money will provide students with more learning opportunities.

“The students will benefit because the program will not be focusing only on cognitive skills, but also developing meta-cognitive skills,” he said. “The environment will be a lot more active, with hands-on learning.”

Mary Huba, assistant vice provost of educational leadership and policy studies, said the program will involve students in the educational process related to their discipline.

“They will learn how to solve problems with no right answer,” she said.

The project directors hope these changes in thought processes will continue to benefit students after graduation, Huba said.

“[Students] will leave ISU and get their first job ready to go,” she said. “They will be able to step into an environment and use skills gained here.”

Jackman said the grant proposal was written last spring and was a combined effort of the colleges of Engineering and Education.

“It evolved from some initial prototypes that we tested out in small group studies,” he said. “We can take this concept and use it in many different courses to tie them together.”

When implemented, the project will be web-based and accessible from wherever students are, said Jackman.

“The testing and new modules will be a continuous thing and the students are involved heavily [in the] project, not only with the modules but in testing, to make sure we aren’t creating mine fields for the students to go through,” Jackman said.

The project’s launch is scheduled for Jan. 1, he said.