Using Product Archaeology to integrate global, economic, environmental, and societal factors in introductory design education

Design education has traditionally been incorporated into the engineering curriculum in the junior or senior year through upper level mechanical design courses and capstone design projects. However, there is a general trend in engineering education to incorporate design activities at the freshman and sophomore level. The design aspects of these courses provide a unique opportunity to integrate global, economic, environmental, and societal factors with traditional design considerations. Incorporating these early in an engineering curriculum supports a broad engineering education in accordance with ABET required Outcome h. In this paper we introduce global, economic, environmental, and societal factors into a sophomore level engineering design course using strategies adapted from a Product Archaeology paradigm. Specifically, functional modeling is synthesized with a product dissection platform to create a foundation to demonstrate the broader impacts of engineering design decisions. The effectiveness of using Product Archaeology-based educational strategies to facilitate the learning objectives of Outcome h is evaluated using student surveys taken over a two year period.