Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Howard, East Carolina University; Rick Williams, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2007-858: AN INTRODUCTORY ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECTUTILIZING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND RAPID PROTOTYPINGWilliam Howard, East Carolina University William E.(Ed) Howard is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at East Carolina University. Prior to joining ECU, he was a faculty member and program coordinator at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Howard has fourteen years of industrial experience in design and project engineering functions. He received BS and MS degrees from Virginia Tech, and his PhD from Marquette University. Howard is a registered Professional Engineer in Wisconsin.Rick Williams, East Carolina University Rick Williams is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at East

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Morgan, Texas A&M University; Luciana Barroso, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

projects & incorporates civil engineering examplesand real-world applications with much more emphasis on vibration than in a traditional dynamicscourse.The increased emphasis on the vibration material keeps our civil engineering students moreengaged in the course. There is an initial resistance to learning the material when all students seeare box-spring examples when first going through the derivation of the equation of motion forsingle degree of freedom systems. Instead of starting with the simplified model, a one-storybuilding is presented to the class and the first step in solving the problem is the development ofthe analytical model for the system. This also serves to connect the concepts of the dynamicscourse with other courses in the

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pramod Chaphalkar, Grand Valley State University; David Blekhman, California State University Los Angeles

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

two limited topics arechosen because they are based solely on the fundamentals of the first course of Statics and SolidMechanics. The 1-D Bar element is taught as an extension of an axially loaded member. Thestiffness matrix for this element is derived using the force equilibrium at a node. Later theconcept of the 1-D Bar element is extended to the 2-D Truss element with trigonometrictransformation and matrix manipulations. Essentially it is a matrix method of structures with anFEA flavor. Advantage of this methodology is that the students can perform more complexanalysis such as a truss design project. With FEA software tools such as ANSYS, they canquickly make design changes and complete more design iterations. They are required to

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean Nocito-Gobel, University of New Haven; Gregory Broderick, University of New Haven; Samuel Daniels, University of New Haven; Michael Collura, University of New Haven; Richard Stanley, University of New Haven

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

courses aspart of a new curriculum taken during the freshman and sophomore years. The Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral is a four-semester sequence of engineeringcourses, matched closely with the development of students’ mathematical sophistication andanalytical capabilities and integrated with course work in the sciences. Students develop aconceptual understanding of engineering basics in this series of courses, which stress practicalapplications of these principles. Mechanics concepts are introduced in a pair of first yearcourses, EAS107P, Project-Based Introduction to Engineering and EAS112, Methods ofEngineering Analysis. During the second year, students understanding of these concepts arefurther developed in three courses, two

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Charles Farrar, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Peter Avitabile, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2007-42: THE DYNAMICS SUMMER SCHOOL – A UNIQUE EDUCATIONALPROGRAMPhillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Phillip Cornwell is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989 and his present interests include structural dynamics, structural health monitoring, and undergraduate engineering education. Dr. Cornwell has received an SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award in 1992, and the Dean’s Outstanding Teacher award at Rose-Hulman in 2000.Charles Farrar, Los Alamos National Laboratory Chuck Farrar has 25 years experience as a technical staff member, project leader, and team leader

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrea Surovek, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

factor to early attrition rates in engineering students2.Unfortunately, addressing real world applications in engineering courses is typically left untilupper division, discipline specific classes. Contextual learning is often left out of engineeringcore course such as Statics and Mechanics of Materials, despite both the significance of thematerial taught in these courses to upper division classes and the pedagogical advantages tousing such an approach in engaging multiple types of student learning styles3. Labs and casestudies can help in developing context; this paper presents a project that can easily be adaptedinto any mechanics class, regardless of discipline or lab component, that helps students topersonalize the material.In order to

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Douglas Carroll; Hong Sheng, University of Missouri

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

student learning and understanding. It should be better than a traditional lecture. 2. The new technology should be easy to use. Learning to use the technology should not create excessive work for the faculty member. Class preparation should take approximately the same amount of time as for a traditional lecture. 3. The new technology should be reliable and convenient. The author is currently using a technological method for teaching engineering mechanicscourses that meets the criteria listed above. A key component to the method is that the facultymember projects complex figures on the board and then uses chalk (or markers or a smart boardor a tablet) to modify the figures. This teaching method blends the traditional lecture

Conference Session

Mechanics Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wayne Johnson, Armstrong Atlantic State University; Priya Goeser, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. Themain objective of the Computational Modeling course is to study the fundamentals of numericalmethods and to develop computer programs for solving engineering problems using MATLAB.Examples of numerical methods include solving roots of equations, linear algebraic equations,integration and differentiation. Assessment of this effort was accomplished with supplementarycourse evaluation questions given at the end of the semester. This paper will discuss the resultsof the student projects and evaluations, and the authors’ experiences with this intradisciplinaryteaching effort.IntroductionThis paper presents efforts over two semesters to integrate course materials between twosophomore level engineering courses. The two courses, Statics (ENGR 2001

Conference Session

Mechanics Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raghu Echempati, Kettering University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

back on track in either the SolidMechanics or in the Machine Design courses. This paper describes the teaching andlearning experiences of incorporating some of the teaching and assessment tools toimprove the overall performance in the Solid Mechanics course. Some of these simpletools include reaching out the students during their work term by sending them theupcoming course review materials, implementing cooperative learning and project basedlearning through in-class group work and group homework, assignment of mini-projects,etc. It was observed that using some of these tools improved their overall understandingand better performance as measured by their scores on the final examination. The finalexamination questions have been carefully

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amir Rezaei, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Mariappan Jawaharlal, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Kyu-Jung Kim, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Angela Shih, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

students.The problems addressed by the hybrid courseThe ME department has addressed the failure problem in many different ways. One way was toprovide an additional one-unit Vector Statics Mechanics Laboratory, which was developed basedon the study on cooperative learning in engineering through academic excellence workshop [3].Under the cooperative learning environment, the students demonstrated significantly betterperformance in learning Vector Statics as noted in their final grade of 2.88 as compared with1.33 for those who only took Vector Dynamics [4]. In the laboratory, the students learnfundamental concepts of Vector Statics through teacher demonstrations, group projects &discussion, and additional exercises. However, it is a co-requisite to

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching Techniques in Mechanics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rick Williams, East Carolina University; William Howard, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2007-1174: A VERSATILE AND ECONOMICAL APPARATUS FOREXPERIMENTS IN STATICSRick Williams, East Carolina University Rick Williams is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at East Carolina University. Prior to joining ECU, he was a faculty member and Associate Research Professor at Auburn University. Williams has sixteen years of industrial experience in design and project engineering functions. He received BS and MS degrees from Georgia Tech, and his PhD degree from Auburn University. Williams is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.William Howard, East Carolina University William E.(Ed) Howard is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at East Carolina University. Prior to

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kurt Gramoll, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

, updating andtechnical support.In 2001, an NSF-sponsored workshop was held to find ways to improve undergraduatemechanics across the curriculum11. One of the discussion topics was the use of multimediatechnology to enhance engineering education in general, and fluid mechanics education inparticular. The panel suggested initiating and developing a central web site for mechanics whereuniversities, colleges and industries can all share the resources.Realizing the need for a comprehensive text for solid mechanics in electronic form was, in part,the motivation for the current project to develop a web-based Multimedia Engineering SolidMechanics eBook (www.eCourses.ou.edu), which is both informative and interactive. The goalis to enhance the learning

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Madhukar Vable, Michigan Technological University; William Kennedy, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

concrete experiences directly, employ reflective observations regarding thoseexperiences, engage in a periods of abstract conceptualization, and then participate in learningactivities that involve active experimentation such as projects and classroom discussions. Once,again, the inclusion of rich case studies from other domains such as MOM in Action would seemconsonant with Kolb’s ideas.Another influential contemporary educator long concerned with human learning, John Biggs,argues11 that a student’s choice of learning strategy and his/her motive for learning largely prede-termine the depth and durability of their learning. Biggs argues that students engage in superficiallearning when their study strategies primarily involve doing the least that

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Steif, Carnegie Mellon University; Anna Dollar, Miami University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

each section in a modulesignal to students if additional studying is needed to meet learning objectives.1. IntroductionThere is an increasing demand for engineering education around the world, as well as increasingopportunities to leverage technology for this purpose. As one response, we are seeking to createa complete on-line introductory-level Statics course for novice learners. This project is part of awider Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University, supported by the Williamand Flora Hewlett Foundation, to develop cognitively-informed high quality on-line courses.With this Statics course we hope to increase the number of learners that can be reached(including independent learners), and to support other instructors with

Conference Session

Innovative Teaching Techniques in Mechanics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rungun Nathan, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

using sine and cosine law). For concepts that the whole class haddemonstrated a clear understanding – a review is first carried out which is very similar towhat most instructors would do in a typical class. (Known in DI circles as DirectInstruction). Then the concept is posed in the form of an inquiry–based learningapproach. For example, this semester the concept of “dot or scalar products of vectors”was clear to all the students, so a brief review of the definition was followed by aninquiry/problem based approach with the question, “how to find the angle between twovectors using dot or scalar products?” This exercise was carried out with the help of ahandout given to the class. This was later followed by how to find the projection of onevector

Conference Session

What's New in Dynamics?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

men could also be discussed at the end of the course to show what topicsstudents could expect to see in an upper level course. Another way to incorporate this material issimply to have a “Dynamics throughout history” mini-lecture or slide at the beginning of eachweek or even each lecture. As students are entering the classroom some piece of historicalinformation or trivia could be projected on a screen for students to read as they prepare for theday’s lecture.When using history and trivia in dynamics, I typically include it on a PowerPoint slide that isbeing projected as students enter the classroom. Students were surveyed near the end of thequarter about this use of history and trivia. Specifically, the students were asked the followingtwo

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arturo Fuentes, University of Texas-Pan American; Stephen Crown, University of Texas-Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

the presentation of knowledge, application, andcorrection all occurred in a limited time frame it was possible for the student to examine andrestructure their thinking process before it solidified. Furthermore, this opportunity toimmediately organize and apply their knowledge often sent students back to the presentation ofinformation for further reflection in order to gain a deeper understanding.ConclusionsThe impact on the student learning environment of the involvement of students in the web-basedgame design process was one of the greatest outcomes of the project. The impact was at leastthreefold in terms of providing mechanisms for student learning through teaching, for fostering astudent learning environment that is manageable for

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ghodrat Karami, North Dakota State University; Robert Pieri, North Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

), 2006, pp.157-170.8. A. Dellar and P.B. Steif, Learning Modules for Statics, International Journal of Engineering Education, 22(23), 2006, pp.381-392.9. L. Glenn Kraige and D. Morris, Recent changes in engineering science and mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic and State University, International Journal of Engineering Education, 16(5), 2006, pp.436-440.10. I. E. Eronini, Multiple-feature/Multidisciplinary design project in an introductory engineering mechanic course, International Journal of Engineering Education, 16(5), 2006, 16(5), pp.417-422.11. M. Neghaban, Results of implementing a computer based mechanics readiness programs in Statics, International Journal of Engineering Education, 16(5), 2006, pp.408-416.12

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Linsey, University of Texas-Austin; Austin Talley, University of Texas--Austin; Daniel Jensen, U.S. Air Force Academy; Kristin Wood, University of Texas-Austin; Kathy Schmidt, University of Texas-Austin; Rachel Kuhr, University of Texas-Austin; Saad Eways, Austin Community College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Spectrum of Active Learning Activities in Engineering Mechanics Keywords: Active learning, hands-on activities, learning styles, Myers-BriggsAbstractThe introduction of active learning exercises into a traditional lecture has been shown to improvestudent learning. Hands-on learning opportunities in labs and projects provide a primaryapproach in the active learning toolbox. This paper presents a series of innovative hands-onactive learning activities for mechanics of materials topics. These activities are based on aMethodology for Developing Hands-on Active Learning Activities, a systematic approach forefficient and effective activity development, and were robustly evaluated at three institutions ofhigher learning. These

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Boyle, Saint Mary's University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Page 12.591.10Windows Paint was used to enhance textbook illustrations as shown here.ConclusionsThe author’s observations on the ePAC project, four courses to date, are experiential rather thanstatistical in nature. Course evaluations helped with student feedback on the ePAC concept. 1) Students reported satisfaction with the ability to study course material at any time. 2) A considerable allocation of the instructor’s time, along with funding and technical assistance, is required in the ePAC start up phase. 3) Electronic packaging produces a visually attractive course assembly that engendered student enthusiasm for the ePAC format. 4) There was no evidence to suggest that using commercial software as a computational