Ac 2010-414: Professional Practice Simulation for Undergraduate Engineers: a Tool for Engaging, Educating and Assessing

We are developing a novel computer simulation game based on authentic engineering practices to give first-year engineering undergraduates a more complete and accurate understanding of the engineering profession. The game is student-focused in that it is tailored to the newest generation of engineering students who are more computer literate, electronically connected, and simulation game-oriented than any prior generation. The game also is epistemic frame-based in that it seeks to teach and assess the degree to which students acquire the skills, knowledge, values, identity, and epistemology (i.e., the epistemic frame) of the engineering profession. We anticipate that this approach will be highly engaging to first-year undergraduate engineering students and help promote the development of their engineering epistemic frame.