My Experience with Curriculum Integration William R. Cluett Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering University of Toronto

Engineering Science at U of T Flagship engineering program “2+2” model of education with 2 foundational years followed by 2 years of specialization High percentage of students proceed to graduate studies at top science and engineering schools around the world

Motivation for Curriculum Integration Students benefit from making “connections” between their individual courses Faculty generally assume that students will figure this out on their own In Summer 2015 it was decided, with the support of the Chair, to be more intentional A first year EngSci student was hired to work with me on building integration between ESC103F: Engineering Mathematics and Computation and their other 1F courses

ESC103F: Engineering Mathematics and Computation Course consists of introduction to linear algebra (2/3rd) and introduction to computational methods (1/3rd) Emphasis in linear algebra portion is on developing students to visualize in 2D and 3D Emphasis in computational portion is on solving some “important” engineering problems using MATLAB MATLAB gets introduced after students have seen Python for six weeks in their computer science course in 1F

What form did the integration take? Students implemented Gaussian elimination in Python. Students formulated the Warren truss problem found in their CIV102F problem set #5 as a system of linear equations in the form AX=B as a classroom exercise. Students saw in class how the least squares problem is formulated in their PHY180F gravity lab to help them solve for an estimate of the acceleration of gravity. Students learned how to carry out numerical integration using MATLAB to complement the analytical approach based on the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus studied in MAT194F. Students learned how to numerically solve initial value problems using MATLAB to complement the analytical approaches studied in MAT194F for solving such differential equations. Students simulated using MATLAB the dynamic behaviour of a two storey structure under dynamic loads such as earthquakes and wind forces.

Were We Successful? As a former Chair, it helped a lot that I had good knowledge of the program, the other instructors, and what students were studying in their other courses Original idea was to develop computational exercises that would be imbedded in their other 1F courses In the end, we hosted all of the integration exercises within ESC103F with one exception Efforts were greatly appreciated by the students and lauded by the Chair!