The Intriguing Introduction to Engineering Course
Day 009. A first good introduction to developing engineering identity
Introduction to Engineering (ITE) course is the course that I have taught since I started my career as a lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2008. Every year, I will proudly and gladly serve as an ITE lecturer. Starting this semester, I was not only an ITE lecturer but also the Coordinator for the course. This simply means that I need to lead and coordinate this course which has 5 sections and 10 lecturers.
What’s the big deal with ITE to me?
Chemical Engineering students in the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM are required to take the ITE course as part of the effort to enhance students’ first-year experience (Other engineering disciplines are also required to take this course).
The ITE course is designed to stimulate students’ passion, strengthen their motivation, as well as enhancing their technical knowledge and relevant professional skills (Mohd-Yusof et al., 2016).
Student-centered teaching and learning approaches are implemented; starting with cooperative learning (CL) and leading up to problem-based learning (PBL)(Mohd-Yusof et al., 2015). Real problems related to the current sustainability issues are designed with input and cooperation with industries and/or other related agencies.
ITE course is so meaningful to me because it is from this course I learned and can achieve many things.
What I learned and achieved all these while:
- Learned Problem-based learning
- Learned Cooperative Problem-based learning
- Learned Reflective learning — reflection
- Learned to associate and share my practicing engineering experiences with the students
- Learned to coach, guide, and motivate my students to be and perform the best
- Learned Engineering Education Research
- Foundation for me to be involved in workshops, training, academic writing, exhibition, competition, commercialization, copyright documents, and others.
The ITE course and the mentorship of Prof Khairiyah have brought me to appreciate and develop an interest in engineering education. There’s a lot to share about this adventure, but this is not the place yet, to share that.
My Present ITE Class
My class was scheduled to be every Monday (2 hours) and Thursday (1) hour. It is a 3-credit course, which means I will have a 3-hour contact time with students. Every section will be handled by 2 lecturers. I used to partner with Dr. Siti Hajjar Che Man, for the past 7 years. This year I have a new partner, a newer lecturer, Dr. Tengku Zulaikha Tengku Busu. Together we handled our class this semester.
In today’s class, we conducted a progress check to monitor and guide the students in the Be Wise with Micro Plastic 2022 (BWMP2022) — Stage 3 project. This project is amazing as it integrates 3 courses that are ITE, Industrial Seminar and Profession (ISP), and Introduction to Computer Programing (ICP) to solve a real-world problem. It required careful and meticulous planning and coordination among us, all the lecturers involved.
I am pleased with the progress of most of the students. Most of them have their computer programming foundation established. But they all need to improve a bit here and there as per what we have commented. The students are not only preparing for the Stage 3 project report, which needs to be submitted on the 26th of January, but also most importantly for the BWMP2022 Exhibition which will take place exactly next week (which I will cover about it soon).
My Hope
I really hope my students from Section 01 will superbly excel and be champions in each major group during the BWMP2022 competition. I’m doing my best to motivate them and get them fired up. I want them to be a winner! Yeah!
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Other official tasks performed today:
- A brief meeting with my ITE partner
- Managing various research grant financial matters
- Discussion with a prospective Ph.D student
- Following up with a few Centre members on the yearly training program
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