On Track: Seeing Engineering as Sociotechnical using Fitness Trackers

In this innovative practice paper, we describe a project related to fitness trackers designed to cultivate sociotechnical awareness and practice among second-year undergraduate engineering students in Spring 2020. We identified four topics related to fitness trackers that intersected with broader sociotechnical themes including data privacy, the workplace, health insurance companies, and sustainability. In teams, students researched the social and environmental impacts of fitness trackers for their topic and gave a presentation to the class including leading a discussion. This project was designed to scaffold learning, encourage class participation, and enhance the quality of presentation. Survey responses revealed that all student respondents found the practice presentation with the instructors held over Zoom as helpful in completing their assignments and presentations. Other aspects that students rated as helpful included providing a list of resources to start their research and an example presentation to clarify expectations about depth required. The global COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the project presentations being conducted remotely, which gave students the opportunity to practice facilitating using Zoom, a skill that is directly relevant to current industrial practice. Students were creative in how they encouraged their classmates to participate including using Zoom polls, Kahoot, and breakout rooms. Students' responses to survey questions demonstrate that they learned about the sociotechnical nature of engineering, believed the project topics mattered to them as engineers, and these topics were relevant to their majors. Students cited the environmental, social, and legal aspects of the project as most interesting to them as engineers. Thus this can serve as an example for other engineering educators for how to approach teaching sociotechnical content in engineering.