Teaching Tip: Structured Autobiographies—A Tool for Promoting Students’ Self-Awareness and Success

This one-page column presents practical teaching, advising, and diversity tips in sufficient detail that others can adopt the tip. Focus on the teaching method, not content. The column should be maximum 550 words, but subtract 50 words for each figure or table. Submit as a Word file to Phil Wankat <wankat@ecn.purdue.edu>. Although it is unusual in engineering courses to ask students to submit a short autobiography, this exercise gives students the important message that you are interested in them, may highlight common points of interest among the class, and is also an excellent mechanism to encourage them to reflect more deeply about their backgrounds and aspirations. Students typically write about their hometown, childhood pets and hobbies, places they’ve travelled, and family members. When you conduct this exercise, in addition to the “standard” background items, ask the students to include a one-page response to any of the following prompts: