The educational value of teaching biomedical engineering history

It has been previously argued that science and engineering undergraduate students can benefit greatly from learning the history of their discipline. In order to successfully enhance learning by introducing history into undergraduate curriculum, it would be desirable to assess what the current educational uses of history are and to understand the needs and perceptions of teachers. Nevertheless, to our knowledge no quantitative study of the role of the history of science, engineering, and technology in the classroom has been so far conducted. In this paper we present the design of a survey aimed at assessing the current perception of teachers towards using the history of biomedical engineering (HBME) to enhance learning. This survey was part of a broader project originally led by the EMBS History Committee aimed at evaluating the educational value of the HBME, both for future biomedical engineers and for the broader public. The main goals of the survey are (1) to find out the current uses of the HBME in the classroom, and (2) to identify possible obstacles to expanding the HBME in the classroom.