The University of Texas at El Paso has been awarded a $500,000 grant that could give its engineering students a boost before they enter the profession.

The three-year National Science Foundation grant, which UTEP’s Colleges of Engineering and Education applied for together, is to implement and evaluate an inquiry-based educational model in engineering classes, said Arunkumar Pennathur, associate professor of industrial engineering.

Rather than lecturing, professors are now conducting their classes by askingcounter-intuitive questions, the kind that make students stop and think, Pennathur explained.