Using Design Challenges to Develop Professional Identity
Location
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
Start Date
8-11-2017 9:00 AM
End Date
8-11-2017 10:00 AM
Abstract
College students who enter urban planning programs typically have an inadequate understanding of the diverse and interesting real-world work by which professional planners engage in. As a result, they may drop out of the program when they encounter the customary theoretical and foundational courses during their initial semesters. This drop-out rate unnecessarily sways marginalized students within urban planning as they may not yet have assumed the identity of a planner due to the lack of meaningful problem-solving experiences. To tackle this problem, my dissertation in part examines the introduction of ‘Design Challenges’ in an introductory course at the Department of Community and Regional Planning (CRP) at the University of New Mexico (UNM), which serves a very diverse population. These design challenges originate from the Formation of Accomplished Chemical Engineers for Transforming Society (FACETS) initiative which seeks to cultivate chemical engineers who are critical thinkers, problem solvers, and able to understand the societal contexts in which they are working. In this manor, the FACETS team is currently testing the hypothesis that compelling design challenges introduced early in the curriculum will help increase the portion of students registering in the chemical engineering program. As the FACETS program tackles the significant drop out rate that is well known in engineering, especially at urban institutions that serve a diverse population, my research in part runs parallel regarding the hypothesis that design challenges in introductory urban planning classes could help enhance the identity of diverse planning students. Additionally, I theorize that urban planning students will display a higher level of both community engagement and process development within the social contexts of the design challenges compared to their engineering peers.
Using Design Challenges to Develop Professional Identity
Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, Third Floor
College students who enter urban planning programs typically have an inadequate understanding of the diverse and interesting real-world work by which professional planners engage in. As a result, they may drop out of the program when they encounter the customary theoretical and foundational courses during their initial semesters. This drop-out rate unnecessarily sways marginalized students within urban planning as they may not yet have assumed the identity of a planner due to the lack of meaningful problem-solving experiences. To tackle this problem, my dissertation in part examines the introduction of ‘Design Challenges’ in an introductory course at the Department of Community and Regional Planning (CRP) at the University of New Mexico (UNM), which serves a very diverse population. These design challenges originate from the Formation of Accomplished Chemical Engineers for Transforming Society (FACETS) initiative which seeks to cultivate chemical engineers who are critical thinkers, problem solvers, and able to understand the societal contexts in which they are working. In this manor, the FACETS team is currently testing the hypothesis that compelling design challenges introduced early in the curriculum will help increase the portion of students registering in the chemical engineering program. As the FACETS program tackles the significant drop out rate that is well known in engineering, especially at urban institutions that serve a diverse population, my research in part runs parallel regarding the hypothesis that design challenges in introductory urban planning classes could help enhance the identity of diverse planning students. Additionally, I theorize that urban planning students will display a higher level of both community engagement and process development within the social contexts of the design challenges compared to their engineering peers.
