Lifelong learning

Interdisciplinary Team Engineering

Team Engineering

Teacher-student Intertwinement

Program Threading

Fostering enthusiasm and incentive

Working with Mentors

Managing Confidence Goldilocks style

Program management and personal H-factors

Inclusion and Diversity in Engineering

A series of short talks are given in the Mentor training program which describe the Pillars of the BUILD Program and set the stage for the BUILD learning environment. This is Pillar 4, Teacher-student Intertwinement: The art of mastering a skill.

Learning a new skill is difficult and often frustrating. The instructor appears to effortlessly navigate its complexities and make it look easy. With guidance, you can soar – but not easily, effortlessly, or gracefully the first time out. An experienced master can make it look easy and effortless. I've observed students marvel at how smoothly I handle tasks, wondering if they'll ever reach that level. Soon, however, they build confidence and incentive as they grasp the reality of their potential when recent graduates, now apparent seasoned engineers, join their design reviews and spark a magical realization of progress. As they show off a couple of things they've working on right now, it's obvious that they're doing incredible things. Things that are fun. Things that make a impact on the world. Interaction with these super-capable mentors, so recently in the students' place, is one of the pillars of our program.

How did these engineers progress so rapidly? Their journey typically began by absorbing knowledge from mentors and instructors. Gradually they advanced to new levels of expertise reaching a point where they knew more than their teachers and they had to rely on their own insights, a transition both scary and exhilarating. It's also infectious.

Is a teacher necessary from the outset? Not necessarily. One can develop skills independently, but it's far more efficient to leverage the guidance of experienced mentors. Teachers provide a foundation, accelerating the learning process until students gain enough expertise and confidence to navigate solo. However, true mastery arises from self-driven experiential learning. This core idea is that we are our own greatest guide when we take personal responsibility for self-directed grown. It gets even better if you move to a second core idea: you become the instructor. As the engineers teach the current students what they have been doing, you can see pride and enthusiasm in sparkling eyes. This isn't an exaggeration.

Your mentors serve as lifelines initially, offering essential guidance and efficiency. As you progress, you shift from reliance on instructors to self-guided learning. The real breakthrough occurs when you not only meet requirements but surpass expectations, experiencing a surge of confidence akin to mastering a challenging game. Something happens when you make something work, really work, not just fulfilling the requirements of an assigned step-by-step lab to get a passing grade, but getting it to work so well that you impress yourself. Think about how you felt when you got to the point where you could handle tetras pieces in real time as they came along. At this point, a huge sense of confidence arose and you could handle the pieces when they came your way. A testament to our incredible brains, this eventually becomes automatic – some people call this muscle memory. This is the point when you really enjoy your “engineering hobby” and you progress from a novice to an experienced designer. Eventually you teach and guide others. I argue that this is when learning becomes deep and efficient. This newfound autonomy fosters a deep enjoyment of the craft, propelling you from novice to expert.

Traditionally, this transition happens mid career. We strive very hard for it to happen pregraduation. Why? Teaching, paradoxically, deepens understanding. To truly comprehend a subject, one must teach it. This reciprocal relationship between learning and teaching forms a cornerstone of effective education. In our BUILD program we integrate teaching into the learning process and fostering a symbiotic relationship between students and mentors. We do this primarily through team leadership and design reviews from day one. Sophomores act as team leaders for the Freshman teams. All BUILD team students attend design reviews for all levels of BUILD projects. It's hard to overestimate the value of this part of the program.

It's bidirectional: To teach effectively one must continue learning. To be the most efficient learner, learning and teaching must be highly intertwined. They perpetuate each other in an endless cycle where learning enables teaching and teaching enables learning. It's a dynamic dance of sharing and receiving wisdom. You go somewhere new and learn what they're doing and adopt those techniques. You can learn from everyone. While guiding 100's of students, it has been indescribably fulfilling to witness the transformation from nervous and anxious students to skillful capable engineers as they surpass my own abilities. The joy it brings to me to see a student become better than I am is a golden reward.

As you transition from student to teacher, the focus shifts from external instruction to internal wisdom. Every experience becomes a lesson, every challenge an opportunity for growth. Embracing personal responsibility and self-directed learning unlocks the full potential for meaningful progress.

The nuance of learning and teaching become intertwined processes. When you convey something, the process of teaching it deepens your understanding. This is a wonderful experience we see regularly. When Sophomores work with the Freshman as team leaders, they see the new students learning. This puts them in the instructor role which in turn deepens their learning and understanding as both learners and students. As design reviewers, students and mentors of all levels become the mentors and students. Everyone in the room learns including our most seasoned mentors.

At some point there's the milestone when you realize that for any more learning to take place it's on you. I can still read books and go to classes, but mentally we start to see everything and everyone as our teacher. This is when it happens! When we're in real life allowing ourselves to figure things out rather than “just” satisfying a professor's criteria, we've arrived. You have to let the student figure it out on their own. It can be frustrating, just like when you're learning to ride a bike. But like the bike, figuring things out on your own becomes exciting and automatic. No one has to hold the bike anymore even when you learn to ride on new surfaces and do new tricks.

This can happen in the classroom.

I've seen it. You learn fundamentals and really apply them. The big secret is to learn because you want to know how to do these things rather than from obligated suffering to prepare for and take an exam. Then learning becomes a joy. It really does happen. But it takes a loooooooooong time unless we foster personal responsibility and self directed growth and learning. For me this happened during my junior year of engineering school. Oh what a difference it made! The first two years were very difficult for me. The second two years were easy and very productive. That's when the most meaningful learning takes place and we can achieve this in the Freshman year.

Summary: What’s in this for you?

Do you want to become a deep expert? First you learn your skill. Then you practice your skill. Then you teach your skill. We build this into the program. As Sophomores, you are required to attend Freshman and Junior and Senior design reviews. Why? You’re going to teach the Freshman what you know and learn from upperclassman what they know.