Engineering Design and Leadership in the High School Science Experience

This workshop will provide science teachers with tools and techniques they can share with their students to increase the amount of engineering design and leadership in their classrooms. Participants in this session will look at design theory as it relates to science and engineering and will engage in activities they can share with their students to introduce the development of engineering leadership skills through design thinking activities in their classrooms.

Biography

Patricia Kristine Sheridan received her B.A.Sc. (2009) and M.A.Sc. (2011) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Throughout her degrees Patricia pursued numerous leadership roles, initiating the UTFIRST Robotics Mentorship program, and coordinating the University of Toronto Engineering Kompetitions. Having taught and engaged in research in engineering design education during her Master's, Patricia decided to turn her interest in developing engaging engineering curricula into a career. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. at the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering under the supervision of Profs. Evans and Reeve. Her research involves developing web-based applications to teach team-effectiveness through team-based projects and integrating team-effectiveness education into the engineering curricula.

Jason Foster is the Senior Lecturer in engineering design education within the Division of Engineering Science at the University of Toronto. Trained as a Systems Design Engineer and with industry experience in software development and management consulting, he currently teaches engineering design at the corner and capstone levels. His research focus in on scaling innovative engineering pedagogies to suit large classes, and his teaching integrates the theories of Vygotsky, Kolb, Papert, Perry, and Pugh.