The Engineering Taxonomy

Do students in your program get the experiences that will help them develop into engineers? What is the balance between theory and application?  Evaluating your program using a taxonomy can help you answer these questions.  The resources below can help you to address these issues. 

The Engineering Taxonomy is built from Bloom’s Taxonomy.  Although taxonomies, like any tool, can be misused, the Engineering Taxonomy is a tool that helps instructors learn about, frame, organize, and align learning outcomes in courses and programs.  Taxonomies can be broadly applied to many courses since they are generally independent of specific curricular content. If you teach engineering, the material below can help you develop and evaluate enginering courses and programs.

Current Engineering Taxonomy Poster: A 24" by 36" poster of the Engineering Taxonomy that can be printed on a flat-bed printerto Architectural D size paper.

• Download as a PDF file.
• Download the PowerPoint 2007 version that can be modified.

How-To Guides on Using the Engineering Taxonomy: These shourt guides explain how to use the Engineering Taxonomy in a simple, and easy to follow way:

• Using the Engineering Taxonomy for Program Design
• Using the Engineering Taxonomy for Program Evaluation
• Using the Engineering Taxonomy for Course Design
• Using the Engineering Taxonomy for Course Evaluation

Taxonomy Software: The taxonomy software is used to with the How-To guides. The software is offered in two formats:

• A stand-alone application to install on your computer (.exe file and instructions).
• A .zip archive of Matlab programs that can be run in Matlab and modified by the user.

The Engineering Taxonomy for Students: A simplified version of the Engineering Taxonomy used in a freshman course to teach design.

• Student poster you can download as a PDF file.
• Student poster as an Powerpoint 2007 file you can modify.
• Written guide to each step of the design cycle for students as a PDF file.

Engineering Taxonomy Survey: The survey can be used to evaluate existing programs. This hyperlink goes to an example survey. If you would like a survey for your own use, please send an e-mail.

Older Taxonomy Versions

Web Based taxonomy: A flash version of the engineering taxonomy that provides an interactive overview. Make sure you have flash player installed to view this table.

Engineering Taxonomy Poster: This 24" * 24" PDF poster is designed as an aid to faculty who wish to examine courses and programs to determine how their program develops students as engineers. Another PDF version of this engineering taxonomy poster classifies the roles and abilities in engineering design and depicts the engineering design cycle as well. The same is available in powerpoint format.

Learning About Using Taxonomies

• The following link has a nice explanation and on-line teaching tools about Bloom's taxonomy. http://www.c21te.usf.edu/materials/institute/ct/index.html


• An overview of the evolution of Bloom’s Taxonomy:  D. R. Krathwohl, "A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy:  An Overview," Theory into Practice, 41, 212-218 (2002).