Abstract
Product teardowns or related activities may help novice engineers develop an understanding of systems and products. These activities allow for novices to directly explore physical components and the connections between those components in a given product, which are both aspects of robust systems thinking. In this study, students’ mental models of common products are examined before and after a product teardown activity using a previously published mental model elicitation method. Participants completed the product teardown activity in groups, identifying components, functionality, and opportunities for design improvement. Results suggest that a product teardown activity improves mental model representations of the same given product. However, the results also show that a product teardown activity has no impact on mental model representations of other closely related products. This suggests that product teardowns do not necessarily foster knowledge transfer as expected. Examples of a student’s mental model representations before and after the product teardown activity are provided. This study sets the foundation for future research on the relationships between systems thinking, mental models, engineering expertise, and other educational interventions within the context of engineering education. In future work, the results of this study may be compared with an identical study with 4th-year undergraduate students to investigate the role of expertise on knowledge transfer and its relationship to the development of robust systems thinking skills.
