Cynthia Barnicki, Ph.D.

Ph.D.

Metallurgical Engineering

The Ohio State University

1988

M.S.

Metallurgical Engineering

The Ohio State University

1986

B.S.

Metallurgical Engineering

The Ohio State University

1982

Falk Engineering Educator Award, MSOE

1996

Oscar Werwath Distinguished Teacher Award, MSOE

2000

Milwaukee Business Journal "40 under 40"

1997

Chemistry and Engineering : Working Together for Assessment at Milwaukee School of Engineering

Fall National Meeting of the American Chemical Society  

2007-08-01

How Study of Chocolate as a Material Can Be Used to Enhance Engineering Education

Barnicki, C. W., Wikoff, K. H., Nickel, A. M.

2016

Chocolate is a material that is typically not associated within an engineering curriculum. Yet when viewed as a material that has composition, structure, and properties, the topic can add interest and an alternative perspective to a traditional materials engineering or chemistry course. Additionally, chocolate as a technical topic in a humanities course can serve as a starting point for exploration of associated aesthetic, social, and cultural concepts. The structure of the cocoa butter in chocolate, which is polymorphic, is critical in achieving good chocolate—and only the β’ phase is desired. The recipes (processing) for chocolate can be related to nucleation and growth theory in a similar manner to solidification and heat treatment of metals; and also can be related to molecular issues in a chemistry class including solutions, colligative properties, polymeric materials and chemical reactions. The main ingredient in chocolate originates as an agricultural product from tropical regions where trade, labor and sustainability practices are widely variable.

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Tagmemics: Using a Communication Heuristic to Teach Problem Solving

Wikoff, K. H., Barnicki, C. W.

2015

Tagmemics: Using a Communication Heuristic to Teach Problem Solving ABSTRACTOne of the more difficult things for engineering students to learn is the ability to view problems as part of a larger system (or multiple systems). Detail-oriented students see individual “trees”quite well, but they are less skilled at recognizing the “forest” of context(s) in which a problem is situated. This paper discusses a truly multidisciplinary approach to organizing thought: “tagmemics.” A subfield of linguistics, tagmemics was greatly influenced in its origin by ideas from early twentieth-century theoretical physics. The man who developed tagmemics, Kenneth Pike, was himself a multidisciplinary man, both a linguist and an anthropologist. His scholarship during the 1960s focused primarily on linguistic application of his new theory, but in 1970 he and co-authors Richard Young and Alton Becker published a widely influential textbook, Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, that brought tagmemics to the field of writing instruction. Today, 45 years after its publication, Rhetoric: Discovery and Change is still frequently cited in the scholarship of rhetoric and composition studies. This text introduced writing teachers not only to the physics-influenced theory of tagmemics but also to another completely new approach to writing instruction influenced by the theories of psychologist Carl Rogers, known as “Rogerian rhetoric.” (This reference to Rogerian rhetoric is merely a side note to emphasize once again the extensively multidisciplinary nature of this groundbreaking textbook.) The beauty of tagmemics for engineering educators is both its simplicity and its complexity. It provides a framework for classifying phenomena but at the same time is far more than just a taxonomizing device. Within the intersections of the grid (shown below) are contained all the static and dynamic relationships among various states of existence and experience. Tagmemics gives students a straightforward process for conceptualizing reality and discovering meaning in chaotic, ambiguous environments. This paper will explain the concept of tagmemics and demonstrate practical examples of its application so that faculty from multiple disciplines can incorporate the paradigm-expanding theory into their own teaching practice.

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Integration of Art and Engineering: Creating Connections between Engineering Curricula and an Art Museum's Collection

Wikoff, K. H., Barnicki, C. W., Kieselburg, J. R.

2014

Within STEM education, a movement called STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) has been gathering momentum over the past few years. At present, the published material in this area shows that most of the classroom practice and ongoing research seems to focus on K-12 learning environments—and much of that, even, primarily on preschool and kindergarten children.This paper reviews the literature on STEAM education at the university level and describes a unique relationship that has developed between one university’s engineering curricula and the collection of an art museum on its campus.The Museum and its collection have been utilized in a range of academic coursework. All engineering students are required to take a freshman humanities seminar which includes a research paper on the Museum collection. Some students have gone on to participate in theMuseum’s docent training program. The collection has proven useful in courses dealing with ergonomics studies, aesthetic interpretation, OSHA studies and manufacturing processes. A special exhibit of bridge photographs was used as the starting point for research papers by graduate students in civil engineering. Currently, the Museum Director is adjunct professor in the Technical Communication program, teaching a course that engages engineering students in visual design and interpretation and culminates in a Museum exhibition of the student design work created over the previous quarter.This paper also presents a case study in which a cohort of students engaged with the Museum’s collection during their freshman and junior years. In their freshman-level honors humanities seminar, students considered the concept of “The City” from a variety of perspectives (literary, philosophical, historical, and aesthetic). Art was a key component of this course. After learning basic art concepts and terminology, students spent multiple class sessions in the Museum analyzing the collection’s sculpture and paintings. Each student then produced an original work of art for inclusion in an exhibit focusing on “The City” that opened with a reception organized by the class and ran for three weeks.In the junior-level manufacturing course for mechanical engineering students, the art collection was used as a starting point to investigate manufacturing processes or practices.

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