Impact of emerging technologies on society: From aqueducts to nanotechnology

As a foundations course, HON101B not only served as an introductory seminar in the history of emerging technologies, but also as the first step in a diagonal curriculum that we hope students will follow into graduate school. Beginning with the three courses that make up the Honors Track we hope to help our students understand the impact on and by other engineers to society through discussion and the creation of their own works. Following this sequence, students will be encouraged to continue to participate in UPoN through the Nano-scale Engineering Certificate Program offered through the College of Engineering. We have begun a longitudinal evaluation study of UPoN, beginning with the honors sequence, to measure student development in the areas of a) epistemological beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge construction and learning, b) critical reasoning as expressed in oral and written communication, and c) sense of purpose and self-efficacy regarding academic choices and career aspirations. These three areas of student development are interrelated in complex ways and measurable change occurs slowly, thus we are implementing an extended case study model of evaluation that will follow the students through their college careers.