We are hearing over and over from our students that they want issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice embedded throughout the engineering curriculum. This is a challenge for all of us to use our engineering problem-solving skills to develop creative ways to incorporate these ideas in every class we teach.
 

Faculty

• We ask every faculty member in the College of Engineering to submit at least one lesson plan for at least one class they are teaching this semester that incorporates these ideas. We understand that this will be much more challenging for some classes than for others. But, we believe that our faculty are willing to face challenges head-on.  Download a lesson plan template.
   
• We ask faculty to submit lesson plans as they design them, with a deadline each week of Thursday at 5pm as the semester proceeds. The lesson plans will be evaluated by a panel of students, and the best ones will be highlighted the following week. We will update each week how each department is doing.

Students

• Help evaluate lesson plans submitted by faculty and select ones to be highlighted. If you are interested, contact Dr. Paula Rees
   
• Let's work together to host a hack-a-thon with engineering students taking on the challenge of designing lesson plans for classes submitted to us by faculty. More info soon.

We are also planning a series of trainings for faculty who are seeking support and resources. Event details will be shared here as they become available.

Highlights & Updates
 

Submissions through Week 9:

Highlighted Plans:  We had a great batch of submissions last week! Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Omar Adelrahman for ChemE 444 – Chemical Process Design. The lesson focuses on the  relationships between process design, chemical accidents,  and environmental justice, asking students to investigate biases in how processes are designed.  The students commended this plan for how “it asks students to both learn about how systemic racism hurts people "in real life" and to incorporate what they've learned into their own designs.”  Congratulations to Professor Abdelrahman for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!  The students also wanted to highlight Mike Zink’s use of a data set from the current COVID-19 pandemic to track its correlation to race; Tilman Wolf’s lesson on the digital divide; and Sarah Perry’s lesson focusing on Frances Arnold, the first Chemical Engineer to win a Noble Prize, also the first women to win the prize in Chemistry. Remember, you can take a look at the submitted lesson plans in Highlighted Lesson Plans. 

Submissions through Week 8: 

Highlighed Plans: Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Casey Brown for CEE 462/597  Water Resources Engineering and Sustainability.  This lesson plan discusses the concept of sustainability and focuses on decision making approaches for siting infrastructure projects using dams as an example. It specifically introduces different ways to measure the  distribution of benefits and costs.  The students commended this plan for showing “how an engineering solution might benefit a nation but bring ruin to a community,”  and for asking  students “to re-evaluate how they design” in an area that “has preexisting racial, cultural, religious, and gender biases.” Congratulations to Professor Brown for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!  

Submissions through Week 7: 

Highlighted plans: Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Yanfei Xu for MIE 375  Manufacturing Processes.  As part of a lesson and larger class project on manufacturing solar cells, students will address how changes in solar manufacturing processes could make it more equitable.  The students felt that this plan “did a good job of giving students a glimpse of what it's like to be an ethical engineer working to solve a real-life design,” and that it includes “excellent resources and specific articles” that it “directly connects … to engineering design and process, which is great!”  Congratulations to Professor Xu for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!

Submissions through Week 6:

Highlighted plan:

Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Cathal Kearny BME 330 Quantitative Physiology. In this lesson, the students investigate how data in this field may be skewed by racial and gender bias. Student reviewers noted that the lesson plan “…paves the way for more conversation on the topics of data bias throughout the course without the need to individually implement many different lesson plans… this is a more integrative approach rather than a "one-and-done" lesson,” and  appreciated that it tackles “… a relevant and crucial part of … engineering design and how it's implicitly flawed, and does a good job of asking students to consider it deeply.”  Congratulations to Professor Kearny for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!  This and other lesson plans are available in Box. 

Submissions by Week Ending September 25:

Highlighted plan:  

Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Chaitra Gopalappa Industrial Engineering 290H Simulation Modeling for Disease Prevention. The lesson uses systems thinking to formulate models to inform HIV prevention strategies.  Students consider upstream root causes leading to high-risk behavior, such as abuse and poverty, and consider the role of a range of interventions, such as housing assistance.  Student reviewers appreciated that this lesson plan “…touches upon the necessity of engineers to understand fundamental human factors in different communities...”  Congratulations to Professor Gopalappa for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!  Other noteworthy lessons included a discussion of how diversity influences patient outcomes, how this informs material design process, and the role of engineers in addressing healthcare inequalities; and the use of a case study to explore DEI indicators for system performance.

Submissions Received by Week Ending Sept 18:

Highlighted plan:  Our team of students highlighted the lesson plan by Yubing Sun in Mechanical Engineering 210 Statics. This  innovative class integrates a critical analysis of gender and racial bias with CAD modeling through a study of the FIU-Sweetwater Bridge Collapse. Student reviewers appreciated that this lesson plan “looks at the challenges of engineering and the broader impacts of engineering work…” through “…a real-life case of gender discrimination in engineering.”  Congratulations to Professor Sun for bringing DEI into  the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!

Submissions Received by Week Ending Sept 11:

Highlighted Plan, week of Sept 11: 

Submissions Received by Week Ending Sept 4:

Highlighted Plans, week of Sept 4