Educating Changemakers: Cross Disciplinary Collaboration Between a School of Engineering and a School of Peace

This Innovative Practice Work In Progress Paper reports on a course that challenged interdisciplinary teams of students from a School of Engineering and a School of Peace to design and build drones as platforms for social good. Here, we provide a brief review of other efforts to offer similar interdisciplinary courses. We then report on our pedagogical approach for the course, examining the ways in which student learning was enhanced in a course co-taught by faculty from the School of Engineering and School of Peace. We describe a successful approach for engaging faculty across departments and piloting a pedagogical approach to engineering education that is explicitly sociotechnical in nature. Qualitative and quantitative data suggest the class was successful in meeting the learning objectives. Based on our experience, we offer insights for others interested in trying a similar course at their own institutions.