Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

W. R. Penney; G. J. Thoma; R. R. Beitle

one another in solving real environmental problems. Typical projects include thethinning of forests to minimize the potential for fire damage, the prevention of foodborneillnesses due to bacterial contamination of tomatoes, and the design of a mobile treatmentfacility to treat mixed transuranic wastes. The students must select the “best” technologyfrom a number of alternatives, run the necessary experiments to prove the concept,construct a scale model of their design, prepare a market analysis and business plan whileaddressing community relations and environmental regulations, and make oral and posterpresentations at the competition. This paper compares and contrasts the WERCexperience with the traditional classroom capstone design experience.

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Lorin P. Maletsky; Charles E. Gabel

, hands-on projects wherestudents are asked to proceed from concept to production are invaluable. Frequently this type ofexperience may be an integral part of a senior capstone design project that may last a semester oryear. Shorter projects are a common part of semester-long courses and usually focus on basicdesign concepts and practices that may result in production of a single item, if fabrication isrequired at all beyond the design analysis. At the University of Kansas the senior-level courseDesign for Manufacturability taught students design techniques that were important for massproduction. Course topics included subjects such as reliability, quality control, robust design, andcommon mass production fabrication methods. A project was

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Kathy Vratil Brockway

1 The Income Tax Return: A Framework for Engineering Economics Kathy Vratil Brockway Kansas State University at SalinaAbstract StatementThis paper will explore the use of the income tax return as a capstone project in an EngineeringEconomics course.IntroductionAs educators, we are faced with the task of connecting textbook theory to real-world application.In Engineering Economics courses, the income tax return is the ideal way to tie together all‘engineering economics’ topics while, at the same time, demonstrating the practicality of thecourse topics

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Theodore W. Manikas; Douglas E. Jussaume; Gerald R. Kane

approximately twenty students. The room is used for microprocessordesign and senior capstone design courses in the fall semester, and digital logic and electronicslaboratory courses in the spring semester. Because the enrollment in these courses typicallyexceeds room capacity, we had to deviate from the traditional model for developing theselaboratory courses.A traditional laboratory course is often scheduled for a three-hour time slot during the week, andstudents work on the assignments during this period. However, due to our resource constraints,we have modified this approach. To ease space constraints in the lab, assignments are “self-paced” with specific deadlines. The lab is open all day during the week, and students may workon the assignments as

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Larry N. Bland

, [30, 31] and co-curricularactivities, [32] most such efforts tend to be little more than a senior capstone design course withan international client or destination. Actual student travel to these locations and focus onunderstanding the cultures has been limited. Technical solutions have been the focus and anyunderstanding of cultures has been incidental. For example, in both Guatemala and Uganda, JBU projects have brought new cookstoves into underdeveloped communities. These stoves solve multiple problems. The currentcooking technology consists of open fire pits, usually directly on the floor of the living quarters.These have many inherent safety and health issues, not to mention high loss of energy from thecombustion process

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

F. Edwards; T. Daniel; W. Hale; A. Hanson; E. Richardson

employeetoward ‘becoming an empowered lifelong learner’. 12 “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Midwest Section Conference" 4Self-Directed LearningDewey stated, ' most important attitude that can be formed is that of the desire to go on Thelearning' Montessori compared the freedom or independence of self directed learning to .breaking the bonds of servitude.13It has been proposed that SDL is based on seven pillars: a project-oriented pedagogy, acontractual arrangement, a mechanism for induction and pre-training, new roles for trainers, anopen

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Julia L. Morse

(especially in spreadsheet form)for easy compilation of performance on specific outcomes. Quadrato and Welch3 furtherapplied grade sheet concepts to the evaluation of a civil engineering capstone design project andnoted the same three results: (1) improved student performance (largely attributed to improvedcommunication of expectations), (2) more equitable evaluation of student work, and (3)improved ability to assess student performance of program outcomes.More recent attention has emphasized the application and creation of rubrics to assess studentwork, typically breaking down expectations into component categories for hard-to-assessprojects and problems and clarifying different levels of accomplishment for each category.Rubrics, in the context of

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

R. L. Kolar; K. M. Dresback; E. M. Tromble

includesthe following: holistic, interdisciplinary approach to civil and environmental infrastructure prob-lems; collaborative research within and outside CEES that teaches valuable partnering skills; par-ticipation in CEES’s novel educational efforts, including integrated curriculum projects,multidisciplinary design experiences, team learning, team teaching, and K-12 alliances; a full yearin the classroom team teaching with a faculty member; and participation in new faculty seminarsand at least two educational methods courses. Table 1 below lists 10 measurable objectives takenfrom our GAANN contract, that we are using to track progress of the fellowship program. Ourbroad-based program exposes GAANN Fellows to all of the rigors associated with a

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Judith Collins; Alysia Starkey; Beverlee Kissick; Jung Oh

. Strategic selection of information sources based on audience needs and quality of information. An annotated bibliography demonstrating the relevance of each selected source to the rhetorical situation (audience and purpose).Overall, the assignment sequence and related skill-development require 10 weeks of a16-week semester. After students receive this major assignment, the librarian providestwo full-hour visits to technical writing sections to give specific instruction in skills fordeveloping key words (the controlled vocabulary of a discipline), and for navigatingsubscription databases. After each visit, students are required to apply the demonstratedskills to their own major project and turn that work in as an exercise for evaluation