is a Ph.D student at Arizona State University in the Fulton Schools of Engineering Polytechnic School. He earned a B.S. in Computer Science and a M.S. in Software Engineering, both from XI'an Jiaotong University in China. He also received a M.S.E in Industrial Engineering from Arizona Stat University. Zhen's research interest include engineering student mentor-ship ability development, engineering research center education and diversity impact evaluation, engineering student adaptability development, and engineering graduate student attrition. Combining strength of mathematics modeling and statistics, 5+ years experience in collegiate teaching, Zhen is passionate and dedicated in preparing future engineering work force.
This research paper reports on a series of undergraduate workshops that tested the LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® (LSP) method for facilitating deliberation in multidisciplinary teams of students considering the social, ethical, and environmental implications of nanotechnology. As a wicked problem, nanotechnology warrants thorough examination and deliberation involving multiple stakeholders to ensure responsible innovation and governance. However, many conventional approaches to wicked problems fail to address the difficulty of cross-disciplinary communication in the absence of interactional expertise, and overlook proven creative problem solving methods. Despite nearly five decades of maturation in practices since the term 'wicked problems' first appeared in the literature in 1967, a need remains for exploring new approaches. LSP is a content neutral, hands-on facilitation method using boundary objects as a metaphorical vehicle for lowering the barriers to communication, thereby building empathetic perspective taking and increasing the "collision" of ideas to boost the collective creativity. The curriculum effectiveness and student experience was evaluated through pre-and post-surveys as well as summative focus group sessions. Findings show that the LSP method was useful in three respects: 1) it accelerated the socialization process essential for generating and sharing creative ideas by structuring interactions with material boundary objects, 2) it enabled students to externalize their ideas and perspectives in more explicit forms through the use of material metaphors, and 3), it facilitated the internalization of new knowledge.
leads the NanoEnvironmental Engineering for Teachers program. In this capacity, she guides Houston area secondary science teachers in weekly meetings on Rice's campus to "best practices" in educational pedagogy.
She has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology, postgraduate training in Computer Systems Engineering, and many years of experience teaching and developing curriculum in various learning environments. She has taught technology integration and teacher training to undergraduate and graduate students at Arizona State University, students at the K-12 level locally and abroad, and various workshops and modules in business and industry. Dr. Larson is experienced in the application of instructional design, delivery, evaluation, and specializes in eLearning technologies for training and development. Her research focuses on the efficient and effective transfer of knowledge and learning techniques, innovative and interdisciplinary collaboration, and strengthening the bridge between K-12 learning and higher education in terms of engineering content.
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