Students are using 3-D modeling and printing as part of project-based learning.
istock
Only a computer can memorize and store all the scientific knowledge on a topic. Equally true: it takes a human being who has learned how to solve problems effectively to create innovative solutions — to apply knowledge that is both helpful and humane. To make progress addressing complex medical issues that impact our communities, we need to actively engage learners in building the creative and collaborative skills they need to devise solutions. One approach to the kind of training problem solvers need — training that is collaborative, research based, and closely tied to real-life scenarios — is “project-based learning” (PBL).
Nick Bittner, left, always thought he would become a mechanical engineer. Three associate degrees and 200 credit hours later, Bittner is now a full-time biomedical engineering student at the University of North Dakota (UND). His program, offered jointly with North Dakota State University, accepted its first cohort in fall 2022. He sees the benefits of UND’s unique Innovation-Based Learning (IBL) approach to teaching biomedical engineering, which incorporates developing a student-proposed project as a way to showcase a mastery of knowledge. The project must have impact outside of the school in some form. Whether that’s publishing a journal paper, presenting at a conference, or something as grand as starting a business is up to the students and their teammates.
Before enrolling at UND, Bittner was a student at Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC), one of five tribal colleges in the state, where he was involved in a grant opportunity through North Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ND EPSCoR). There Bittner worked on a project that engaged students in helping steer cellular research.
As a student, teacher, and active researcher, Bittner is at the center of an ongoing PBL initiative that fosters a unique collaboration between UND and the state’s tribal colleges.
A father of five, Bittner also works for the Computational Research Center, teaches 3-D modeling and advanced manufacturing at CCCC, is active on several boards and research projects, and maintains close ties to Turtle Mountain Community College and Sitting Bull College.
As a student, teacher, and active researcher, Bittner is at the center of an ongoing PBL initiative that fosters a unique collaboration between UND and the state’s tribal colleges. One example of PBL in action was its incubation of an IBL project coming to fruition in developing a new prosthetic limb Bittner developed with the technology and skilled teams at CCCC supporting the design, fabrication, and testing. “UND’s Laboratory for Digital Realism in Engineering and the Applied Metaverse, or DREAM lab, has been very good to us,” says Bittner. “Their director, Aaron Bergstrom, is currently running a project to digitize powwow dancing into a dance revolution system.”
Projects like the prosthetic limb, which students are encouraged to shape, are partially graded on demonstrated knowledge in core areas and partially on the impact the project will have outside the classroom.
The prosthetic limb developed by Bittner and the skilled teams at CCCC.
Photo courtesy of Nicholas Bittner
While he was a student in the program where he now teaches, Bittner did a lot of work with the Advanced Manufacturing Summer Institute and completed training to earn certification in manufacturing. As a teacher of modeling and manufacturing, Bittner is invested in PBL as an important way to demonstrate progress and mastery of the topics covered. For example, if there is an assignment to fabricate a part, how the part turns out can be an easy way to assess progress.
Left: A Cankdeska Cikana student uses the Laboratory for Digital Realism in Engineering and the Applied Metaverse, or DREAM lab, at the University of North Dakota to laser scan culturally relative items for a midterm. Right: a student’s final test bridge project.
A recent course provided examples of how PBL instills innovative, creative problem-solving in its students. For an assignment to design and build a bridge that could hold twice its weight, one student’s bridge provided a dramatic demonstration that the fundamentals were mastered — that bridge held more than 40 times its weight.
Learning by doing in this way can be empowering. Many students have been told that an idea would “never work” or that something is “too hard to build.” But, says Bittner, just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible. “We try to teach our students that you can do this,” he adds. “There are a lot of really intelligent students who may have been told they could not be engineers because of a grade in a calculus or materials class.”
PBL is effective in other ways. Bittner notes that carpentry and trades programs are popular in part because they allow students to get into the work in a visceral way. When students build something, they can see how they’re doing. Progress is clear. Similarly, when PBL is applied to STEM topics, it can enhance clarity about progress and impact — it can help spark imagination for what’s possible. Last semester, Bittner ran a class in advanced manufacturing that started with projects, builds, and homework requiring students to turn in a specific part. Halfway through the term, students were suggesting their own assignments. “Give people a chance to be innovative,” he says, “and they will often do just that.”
The collaboration between UND and tribal colleges that produced the innovative prosthetic limb is ongoing and could result in similar collaborative efforts in the future. Bittner predicts that the products and skills developed through PBL will have a meaningful real-world impact. He notes that “being innovative is purposely causing change. Just because it’s a different way of doing things, doesn’t mean it’s wrong — or right — it’s just different.” His vision for PBL-generated change is that it will spark innovation that makes a positive difference for the people and communities we care about.