Work in progress — Teaching engineering concepts to liberal arts students

Lafayette College, with strong programs in engineering and the liberal arts, requires sophomore students to enroll in a “VaST” (Values and Science/Technology) course. These courses incorporate approaches from the engineering viewpoint and ideas from the social sciences and humanities. As a result of taking a VaST course, students should be better able to see and understand engineering and science as a functioning part of their daily social world. However, in practice, the courses are difficult to develop and populate. This paper describes a course that uses experiential learning to involve liberal arts students in all aspects of the course. The liberal arts students learned basic engineering concepts by using hands-on activities, side-by-side with engineering students.