Twitter Chat: Engineering Orientation Experiences

  Welcome to the Big Beacon twitter chat, where we explore ideas and community relevant to the transformation of engineering education every week.  Look for hashtag #BigBeacon every Wednesday at 8 pm EST.

This week Wednesday September 25th will be a discussion around Engineering Orientation, sometimes called Frosh Week, Freshers Week, or Welcome Week.  For many engineering students, it’s a time of great excitement and fun.  New friends are made, pranks played, competition and spirit encouraged.  It is also a time when important messages about the community are being sent and received.  Tradition is being passed down and culture is being expressed; all part of the alchemy of creating unity out of a group of young strangers.

The experience that a student has during Orientation can have a powerful effect on their whole engineering education experience.  However, today’s student orientation activities may have been designed decades ago.  Do they still work the way they used to?  What messages do they send? Does the Whole New Engineer deserve a Whole New Engineering Orientation Experience?

Now that we’ve just been through a fresh cycle of engineering orientation activities, this is a great time for the Big Beacon community to come together to reflect on the way we welcome new students to our engineering educational institutions.

What’s good about the rituals, traditions and activities that students current carry out?  What values do they reflect?

What do you remember about your own Engineering Orientation Experience?  How did you feel and what meaning did you take away from it?    What might you change or recommend including to promote the values of the Big Beacon during Engineering Orientation?

Join us on Wednesday at 8 pm EST on twitter (hashtag #BigBeacon) for an reflective and thought-provoking conversation, where we will explore these questions and more.