Science Writing and New Media

As taught in: Fall 2010

Three models of solar hot water heaters.

Students were given the assignment of creating a solar hot water heater. Pictured here are one group's models during testing. This duplication proves reproducibility. (Image courtesy of Jonathan Abbott, Lilian Guevara, Nolan Essigmann. Used with permission.)

Instructors:

David Custer

Elizabeth A. Page

MIT Course Number:

21W.732 / ESG.21W732

Level:

Undergraduate

Course Features

Course Description

This course introduces writing, graphics, meetings, oral presentation, collaboration, and design as tools for product development. The communication instruction is embedded in design projects that require students to work in teams to conceive, design, prototype and evaluate energy related products. The communication instruction focuses on the communication tasks that are integral to this design process, ranging, across design notebooks, email communications, informal oral presentations, meeting etiquette, literature searches, white papers reports, and formal presentations. In addition to the assignments specific to product development, a few assignments, especially reading and reflection, will address the cultural situation of engineers and engineering in the world at large.

Acknowledgment

The instructors would like to thank Prof. Alex Slocum and Mark Graham for their contributions to this course.