To improve design education, engineering instructors need to better understand how student teams navigate that process from concept to prototype. In this research, we examined the bioengineering design process and empirically modeled how engineering teams progressed from initial conception to prototype to determine the extent to which resultant design artifacts are a function of the process used. To do this we collected data from 26 two-term senior capstone engineering projects. The data consisted of twice weekly reflections of the activities that student teams engaged in during their design process, as well as open-ended comments about their design progression. This data was then collapsed into Dym's model from which empirical associations were made between the various stages. Coupled with the teams' open-ended weekly reflections, we were able to identify educational patterns that potentially lead to higher or lower quality designs. Based on their final artifact, teams were judged to be innovative or non-innovative. We found that differences exist between those teams innovative non-innovative teams. This paper reports these findings.
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