Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

John T. Tester

Management of a Large, Robotics-Oriented Design Class John T. Tester Northern Arizona UniversityAbstractPresented is the management of a learning-centered, hands-on engineeringclass at Northern Arizona University. The interdisciplinary sophomore design course –EGR 286 – is a relatively large class size for a single session, enrolling up to seventystudents. It requires the coordination of over twenty student teams using separatelyassigned, university-owned, Mindstorm kits and accessories. The teams are eventuallymerged into four to six larger teams by mid-semester. The assignments and anonymousstudent peer evaluations are managed through the

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Mariappan Jawaharlal; Cesar Larriva; Jill Nemiro

(after the 3 Rs, Reading, wRiting andaRithmetic). Robotics is a truly multi-disciplinary field which combines mechanical, electrical,electronics engineering and computer science. Even though robots are very complex machinesand building robots require multidisciplinary skills, current technology makes it possible foreveryone to build, program, and control their own robots. Experience indicates that learners whoare immersed in the activity, acquire important skills in math and science without realizing thatthey are intensively engaged in the learning process.Building robots: • Makes learning fun, engaging, and inspiring • Provides highly practical hands-on experience • Gives a head-start in preparing for high school and college. • Develops

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

M. M. Gilkeson

medicine, law, and education, particularly W.J.McGlothlin’s “Patterns of Professional Education.” 2 We were inspired by the work and writings oflandmark educators such as Lawrence Kubie3 and especially Abraham Flexner4, whose work hadrevolutionized medical education at the beginning of the last century. Flexner’s slogan, “we learn bygoing about” became my own byword.I should also mention the stimulation provided by the amusing "The Saber-Tooth Curriculum,”5 byHarold Benjamin (aka J. Abner Peddiwell) --a series of (imaginary) discourses on professionaleducation that take place between a professor and his former student. These informal ‘lectures’happen while the two are sipping many tequila daisies in "the longest bar in the world," located

Collection

2007 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Nhut Tan Ho

participating in MEPs were retained at higher rates and earned GPAsaveraging one letter grade higher than non-participating students. The fundamental success-enabling principle of an MEP model is the idea of building an education environment thatfacilitates collaborative learning, which has been shown through extensive research17 to improvestudents’ satisfaction with the learning experience, self-esteem, academic performance, andretention. Based on this principle, MEPs eliminate the causes of retention problems and lowacademic performance: lack of peer support, lack of role models, and low faculty expectations.MEPs foster student involvement and motivation through four programmatic structures:clustering of students in common sections of their key