10.25394/PGS.8038592.v1 Cole M Maynard Cole M Maynard AN ENHANCED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS: AN ENERGY TRANSFORMATION Purdue University Graduate School 2019 Engineering Education Mechanical Engineering engineering technology Competency-Based Education Enhanced Learning Environments Applied Learning Experiential learning Continuous Curriculum Bloom's taxonomy Scaffolded learning Motivation Understanding Comprehension Education Mechanical Engineering Engineering Practice Education Assessment and Evaluation Curriculum and Pedagogy Theory and Development 2019-05-14 18:12:46 Thesis https://hammer.purdue.edu/articles/thesis/AN_ENHANCED_LEARNING_ENVIRONMENT_FOR_MECHANICAL_ENGINEERING_TECHNOLOGY_STUDENTS_AN_ENERGY_TRANSFORMATION/8038592 The desire to produce a learning environment which promotes student motivation, collaboration, and higher order thinking is common within the higher education system of today. Such learning environments also have the ability to address challenges’ Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) students face entering the workforce. Through the vertical and horizontal integration of courses, this research presents how a scaffolded learning environment with a centralized theme of energy can increase motivation and conceptual retention within students. The integration of courses allows students to systematically translate their competency of concepts between energy based courses through experiential learning. The goal of this work is to develop a competency based learning model where students earn a professionally recognizable credential. The credential is earned through demonstrating their mastery of industry desired skills at a level that goes above and beyond the stock curriculum. The result is a more continuous curriculum that enhances multi-disciplinary problem solving while better preparing MET students for the workforce.