Sustainability Solutions and ChatGPT
Summary:
This resource summarizes an activity designed to actively engage first-year engineering students in (1) evaluating and analyzing the content ChatGPT generates and (2) discussing the role ChatGPT or other generative AI tools can or should play in various parts of the engineering design process.
Activity Goal
The goal of this activity is to actively engage students in (1) evaluating and analyzing the content ChatGPT generates and (2) discussing the role ChatGPT (or other generative AI tools like ChatGPT) can or should play in various parts of the engineering design process.
Context
This activity was assigned to first-year engineering students in ENGR 1010 after they generated their own sustainability-focused problem definition. The students ask ChatGPT to propose a solution to their problem definition, and then they evaluate the response using various metrics.
Modifications for Your Class
The problem definition topic can be adjusted to meet the needs, scope, or topics of any engineering class.
Students can go through a similar process for evaluating the responses and role of ChatGPT for generating the problem definition or solution at the initial stages of the engineering design process; they do not need to do it in the sequence presented here.
Resources Included Here
1) Activity Description and Directions
2) Activity Rubric
3) Examples of Strong Student Responses (shared with students' permission)