Integrating Humanities And Engineering Technology Education In The Classroom: A Model Course

Historically, humanities education in engineering technology curricula has been governed by accreditation requirements. Students are required to take a certain number of hours of humanities and social science classes, which are generally not integrated with the rest of the curriculum. In light of the ABET 2000 accreditation criteria, which focus on outcomes rather than on specific course requirements, and based on our earlier experience with integrated classes, we developed a course that combines instruction in both history and materials science. Titled “Steel and the Industrial Revolution,” the course was offered in the Winter of 2001. The class served as both an introduction to materials science for Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering students and as an introductory course in the history of the Industrial Revolution. Classroom instruction was a seamless blend of material from both disciplines, with both instructors in the classroom at all times and combined homework and examination assignments. This paper describes the development of the course, its advantages and disadvantages, and our plans to use what we learned to offer similar courses in the future.