Collection

2004 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Christopher R. Carroll

thatexercise the technical abilities of students in all of these areas is daunting. Most topics that cometo mind will require only rudimentary knowledge from one or more of the engineering programs.For example, take the problem “Design a battery.” Okay, it’s electrical – check. Okay, it mustbe packaged, so it’s mechanical – check. Okay, it must be manufacturable, so that’s industrial –check. And then there’s the chemistry involved, so it’s chemical – check. So, true, all four ofthe engineering disciplines at UMD are included. But probably the chemical engineeringcomponent will dominate the design work, so the chemical engineering students would havesome “advantage” with this problem, or examined from the other viewpoint, engineeringstudents from non

Collection

2004 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Chris Papadopoulos; Adeeb Rahman; Josh Bostwick

Assessing Critical Thinking in Mechanics in Engineering Education Chris Papadopoulos1, Adeeb Rahman2, and Josh Bostwick3 Typically, mechanics education in engineering schools focuses on communicating explicit content to students, but deemphasizes the critical thought that underlies the discipline of mechanics. We give examples of the failure of students to apply basic principles of mechanics in solving problems. We develop assessment tools to measure critical thinking in student work, and how well mechanics textbooks engage students in critical analysis. Both tools focus on the treatment of three criteria that we judge to be fundamental, but which are commonly overlooked or

Collection

2004 ASEE North Midwest Section Conference

Authors

John Mirth

What are They Thinking? – Assessment and the Questions Students Ask John A. Mirth, Ph.D. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Wisconsin – Platteville Platteville, WI 53818 608.342.1642 mirth@uwplatt.eduAbstract This paper presents an assessment method whereby an instructor can gain insight into howa student is thinking about a project. The method relies upon the submission of a series ofindividual progress reports during the course of a semester. Each progress report is submittedas the set of questions that the student has