Collection

2003 GSW

Authors

Ifte Choudhury; Ricardo E. Rocha; Richard Burt

The University of Texas at Arlington Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering EducationGiven this importance, industries report that students graduating from technical programsare generally not well prepared for the writing requirements of the contemporaryworkplace 1. Industries naturally have their own set of terminology committed to thespecific requirements and situations exclusive to their form of business. Communicatingeffectively within an industry is a direct result of an individual’s ability to understand anduse the industry’s vocabulary and communication practices. Effective writtencommunication skills can assist in the acquisition of sought-after contracts and clients aswell as assist in maintaining

Collection

2003 GSW

Authors

Tariq A. Khraishi

one for some of the designs. Other problems arose when somegroups tried to use a spring mechanism to initiate ball flight. This and other issues like whatlessons were learned from this experiment are discussed in the paper. IntroductionIn the engineering education literature, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is generally consideredthe best way to achieve the educational learning objectives as set forth in a Bloom’s taxonomy.There has been a lot of work in the literature citing the benefits of PBL in enhancing studentlearning and discussing the issues associated with its implementation1,2,3,4. Proceedings of the 2003 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference

Collection

2003 GSW

Authors

Jerry K. Keska

pushes students to their creative limits through the use of open-ended projects in which realistic, complex, challenging state-of-the-art problems are investigated. This new approach will increase student enthusiasm and provide closer alignment of classroom topics with today’s standard industry practice. This paper will deal with a unique application of the research/teaching method used at the undergraduate level, using a hands-on laboratory approach in conjunction with classroom lecture. The approach can be tailored to all levels from introductory freshman to senior-level classes. An open-ended project is utilized, requiring a creative approach for its solution. Faculty and students are both learners and investigators, formulating and solving