An integrated freshman engineering curriculum, why you need it and how to design it

The Foundation Coalition is a seven-school coalition working to define the undergraduate engineering curriculum for the next century. One goal of the project is to produce a technology-rich, active leaning environment for undergraduate engineers. There are three facets to the Foundation Coalition's curriculum development philosophy at Texas A&M University: (1) curriculum integration, (2) technology utilization, and (3) active/cooperative learning and teaming. This paper discusses these facets and highlights the Texas A&M Freshman Curriculum Integration Team's (TAFCIT's) achievements over the last year. Curriculum integration means typical first-year courses (engineering problem solving, calculus, graphics, physics and English) are tightly coordinated to form a mutually supportive environment. Although students receive individual credit in each course, the courses are truly co-requisite. Each course strives to bring relevance to the others, often presenting different aspects of a common problem. Material presentation timing provides students with a "need to know before knowledge" sequence. Information and skills introduced in one course are promptly and regularly espoused in at least one other. This paper discusses the philosophy and motivation behind an integrated curriculum and the process used in its development. The paper continues with a discussion on classroom implementation including how to develop lesson plans, schedule classes, and gather and use student feedback. We give some preliminary results and discuss our plans and concerns.