Marston Muses-Spring 1998-Cross Cutting-From the Dean


Contents Cover Story Undergraduate and Learning Research and Graduate Education Outreach Alumni Cross Cutting From the Dean College of Engineering Statistics Howe Hall construction is on track Who's building Howe? 3M: above and beyond Kent-Stein Foundation donates to Phase II of ETRC Faculty Excellence Larson retires after 42 years Ralph Millhone lives on Association's gift upgrades asphalt lab Credits Back to Muses Issue Listing

From the Dean

One of many things I admire about the College of Engineering at Iowa State is its position as an international innovator in teaching, research, and technology. The first electronic digital computer was developed at Iowa State. The encoding process essential to fax machine operation was invented here. More recent outcomes of the college's research work include a software product that restricts youngsters from accessing inappropriate Internet sites, a carbon-in-ash monitor that helps power plants run more efficiently, and a technology to reduce clatter associated with office equipment, kitchen appliances, and manufacturing machinery.

The college continues to build on this well-established culture of innovation in numerous ways. This issue of Muses features an article on our leadership role in Project LEA/RN, an exciting and innovative teaching enhancement program which is changing the way we impart knowledge to students.

Project LEA/RN-a Learning Enhancement Action/Resource Network-was started four years ago when a group of mechanical engineering professors formed a partnership with the College of Education to develop more student-centered approaches to learning. The group began studying, developing, and incorporating active learning techniques and proven inductive learning strategies into their courses.

With the success of the initial group, excitement about student-centered learning spread and more faculty asked to be involved. To date, more than fifty percent of the engineering faculty have demonstrated their commitment to students and to improving the quality of undergraduate education through their involvement with Project LEA/RN.

Project LEA/RN represents a dramatic shift in the way we approach the educational enterprise. The old teaching-based instructional model focused our thinking too exclusively on the classroom as the only place where learning takes place. In fact, learning takes place in a variety of ways: co-op experiences, laboratories, design projects, case studies, hallway conversations, and of course, in classrooms. Project LEA/RN recognizes the value of a learning-based model, and supports it with the training, resources, and encouragement faculty need to improve student learning.

It is with pride that we can say that the College of Engineering at Iowa State is leading the re-engineering of faculty learning and, in the process, is initiating an important change in higher education.