Needs Research
Finding A Need
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What concerns UT students and faculty?
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What concerns do local Knoxville citizens have?
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What problems require engineering as a solution?
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Which problems are time sensitive?
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Which issues are going unnoticed?
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Which issues require unconventional solutions?
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Have these problems been addressed in other cities in America?
Findings
To answer our questions, we researched local Knoxville newspapers, scanned for any opinion articles or headliners that caught our eye, and stumbled upon the standardized testing epidemic in Tennessee schools . We surveyed engineering students at the University of Tennessee to gather thoughts on standardized tests, various learning styles, and general testing preferences of the generic student body. Our survey findings included the following:
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Most engineering students are hands-on and/or visual learners.
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Most learn best in a structured and repetitive environment.
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The preferred environment for taking tests is in a small classroom or at home for a take-home test.
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Multiple choice tests are the most popular preference for test format.
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Over 60% of respondents do not like standardized tests and believe it is not an accurate measure of college readiness.
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Time constraints and relevance of material do not accurately measure college readiness.
NAE Grand Challenges:
Advance Personalized Learning
Our team chose to focus on Advancing Personalized Learning with a focus on standardized testing and how testing environments contribute to unnecessary stress, specifically for students who have testing anxiety and learning disabilities.