Development of design assessment instruments and discussion of freshmen and senior design assessment results

At TX A&M University (TAMU), one of several educational goals, which the NSF CRCD Aerospace Engineering "Smart Materials" Project identified in 2001 was to impact students\´ learning of team-based design knowledge as a result of new curriculum it would introduce at various levels of the undergraduate program. This paper describes the systematic processes by which the Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education (TIDEE) Project\´s Mid Program Design Assessment instrument for measuring Design Knowledge, has been used, analyzed, and adapted at TAMU to establish baselines and benchmarks to serve in the assessment of the CRCD project impact on design knowledge. The first adaptation and use of the test occurred early in fall 2001 with freshmen and with senior, capstone design students. Follow-up testing was administered to the same seniors, and to different freshmen in late spring of 2002. In addition to discussing the test adaptation development process, this paper examines the results of baseline and benchmark testing.