GC DELI: A collection of online/hybrid modules for an introduction to engineering course, developed for high school and university level students (Evaluation)

The Grand Challenges: Discover, Explore, Learn and Imagine (GC DELI) online curriculum project at the University of Arizona was developed with a National Science Foundation (NSF), Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) grant. Inspired by the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, as defined by the National Academy of Engineering, the goal of the online units is to give freshmen engineering and prospective engineering students an opportunity to explore the broad and socially relevant topics a career in engineering offers. GC DELI unit topics include: Engineering Better Human Health and Providing Access to Clean Water. Students enrolled in the College of Engineering course, Introduction to Engineering (ENGR 102) choose from five online units and study at a self-guided pace. GC DELI units provide students with information about engineering topics that interest them at this critical time in their academic career. The GC DELI project, now in its third year, has recently been adapted for ENGR 102 High School (HS) students. ENGR 102 HS is a three credit, college course taught by high school teachers, to high school students. ENGR 102 HS classrooms have piloted GC DELI units over the past two years. A hybrid version for four of the GC DELI units was developed, providing high school students and their teachers with supplemental hands on projects and other scaffolding. In academic year 2014-15, four hybrid GC DELI units were rolled out to 21 ENGR 102 HS classrooms. This paper contains detailed information about the progress of the GC DELI hybrid units in high schools, responses to forced-choice questions and qualitative data from teachers who have worked with the units. Additionally, we include responses to forced-choice questions from the 31 student evaluations collected after delivery of one hybrid GC DELI unit.