Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew D. Lovell P.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Sean P. Brophy, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

greatdeal of research has been conducted to develop instructional models to guide these learningactivities. One such model to guide instructional design is the STAR.Legacy learning cycle.[9] Page 24.1273.3STAR stands for Software Technology for Action and Reflection. Central to the instructionalmethod is the focus on having students take action on what they know and reflect and refine thatunderstanding through exploration of the challenge. The learning cycle, shown in Figure 1, is aframework that guides the instructional approach. An entire course or unit within a course isstarted with the introduction of a challengeproblem. The challenge is usually

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanics of Materials

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Papadopoulos, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez ; Aidsa I. Santiago-Román, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez ; Genock Portela-Gauthier, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

problems. On the whole, we believe that our approach is both within reach of students’ abilities andaccelerates their exposure to use of simulation in design. Based on the results thus far, animmediate improvement that the instructors will make is to provide the introductory training inSAP2000 at an earlier stage of the course to allow students more time to adapt to the newmethodology, and hopefully to use it maturely as a design tool. In the long term, we plan totrack student performance of our students in subsequent courses to determine if they outperformother students in design oriented problems and tasks. We also plan to make further improvements in the content of the modules themselves.Further refinements can be made to reflect

Conference Session

New Teaching Pedagogies: Methods and Assessments

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey F. Rhoads, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Eric Nauman, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Beth M. Holloway, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Charles Morton Krousgrill, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics

complex engineering problems.Apart from the core components highlighted above, there is also considerable ongoingexperimentation within the PMFC with other pedagogy-driven instructional elements. Theseinclude:  Using the Index of Learning Styles (ILS)4-6 to categorize learning style preferences and tailor information delivery. The ILS is a relatively simple measure of how students prefer to receive information. The survey divides learning style preferences into four domains with opposing descriptors, visual-verbal, active-reflective, sensory-intuitive, and sequential-global. Using these domains, it has been established that students tend to prefer visual, active, and sensory modes, despite the fact

Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James M. Widmann, California Polytechnic State University; Brian P. Self, California Polytechnic State University; Michael J. Prince, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

process is beingemployed. An initial mass-pulley demonstration was developed that mimicked question 13 fromthe DCI (DCI – Q13) and was presented to an Intermediate Dynamics Class as a demonstration.Based on initial feedback, the IBLA was finalized and deployed as a hands-on activity tostudents in an introductory Dynamics class. Student learning through the IBLA is supported by ahomework problem assigned during the same week as the activity. Assessment of effectivenesswas provided through pre-post DCI results, in class quizzes, embedded midterm problems andwritten student reflections. At the same time, the authors videotaped individuals from separatecohorts to better understand and identify sources of student misconceptions and how they mightbe

Conference Session

New Teaching Pedagogies: Methods and Assessments

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan B. Swithenbank, US Coast Guard Academy; Thomas William DeNucci, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics

objectives for thispaper was to document the details of what we did to implement the flipped classroom, includingdetails such as software choices, video length, and topic used. Here are the things that we learnedand wished that we had known when we started this. 1. Do not be afraid to try new things. When Prof. DeNucci, first brought this idea to Prof. Swithenbank, she was not excited about this. It was new and different, but after further reflection, she thought “why not give it a try?” This may work for you and it may not, but it was definitely worth trying. We would use this method again after trying it while incorporating some of these lessons learned. 2. Preparation will reduce the amount of time it takes to produce the

Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brianno Coller, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

hypothesizing, probing, and reflecting. Information is given to players/learners at justthe time they will be able to make sense of it and to use it. In a videogame, knowledge ispowerful because it can be put to productive use.I make no claim that Spumone measures up to the ideal playing/learning environment describedabove. However, it would be interesting to take a deeper look into how students are usingSpumone, and to look for affordances provided by the game that are benefiting the learningprocess. The study described in this paper is more exploratory in nature, with a goal of findingdiscernible patterns of play and patterns of learning within the “click stream” captured by thegame log files.Videogame Challenge: Spumone DropSpumone contains more

Conference Session

New Teaching Methods in Mechanics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah L. Billington, Stanford University; Sheri D. Sheppard, Stanford University; Robert C Calfee, Graduate School of Education, Stanford University; Peggy C. Boylan-Ashraf, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

5.Correlations among the self-efficacy scale scores are generally moderate to high, ranging from .4to .6, which corresponds to 15 to 35 percent shared variance. A factor analysis was conductedacross administrations and scales (including Week 1) to determine the factor structure (Tables 2& 3); the solution was restricted to two factors. This method of data reduction is done to seekunderlying unobservable (latent) variables that are reflected in the observed administrations. Asseen in Table 2, the two factors selected had eigenvalues of 1.00 or greater. This approach is thedefault in most statistical programs, such as SPPS (the program used in the analysis of ourstudy), where eigenvalues are used to condense the variance in a correlation

Conference Session

New Teaching Methods in Mechanics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

should note that participation is a somewhat crude measure of student engagement    with online materials since it reflects only initiation of an activity. Performance for the purposeof this study was measured by the total score on exam problems. At School S, exams constitute75% of the final grade, while OLI quizzes are 10%; at School P, exams constitute 85% of thefinal grade, while OLI quizzes are 7.5%. Data on students’ participation and course performancehad been collected for the corresponding statics classes in Fall 2012 and for Fall 2013. Due  to  time  constraints  performance  data  from  only  Fall  2012  have  been  included  in  this  paper.  Data  from  students  who  took  all  exams

Conference Session

New Teaching Pedagogies: Methods and Assessments

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Cavalli, University of North Dakota; Jeremiah J. Neubert, University of North Dakota; Dustin McNally, University of North Dakota; Debbie Jacklitch-Kuiken

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics

to differences in student population (anecdotally,at-a-distance students have family commitments and a full-time job). Additionally, when there isnot a specific class time, students must have exceptional time management skills or they quicklyfall behind. This conclusion is supported by historical completion rates of approximately 65%. Table 2: The grade distribution of ME 101. The first column reflects the percentage of students that do not have to retake the course, students that obtained an A, B, or C. The second column contains the percentage of students that took the final exam, but must retake the course. The final column indicated the percentage of students that withdrew or stopped participating in the course prior to

Conference Session

Teaching Statics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Orval Powell, USAF Academy; Michael Richards, U.S. Air Force Academy; Daniel D. Jensen, U.S. Air Force Academy; Nicholas Matthew Brown, United States Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

was more a reflection of the fact that despite use of the softwarethey did not earn the grade they desired. An additional possible explanation is that somestudents may have seen value in the use of the software, but since they did not personally use it,for them, it was not helpful. It is also reasonable to suppose that the wording of the questions ledto the apparent contradiction. By answering question 6 in the negative, students could simply beindicating that the software was not helpful in understanding the equations because they already Page 24.733.7understood the

Conference Session

New Teaching Methods in Mechanics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ruben Pierre-Antoine, Stanford University; Sheri D. Sheppard, Stanford University; Mark Schar, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

the course4. A concept map is essentially a mental web of connected terms or topics,where the centermost term is the primary learning focus and lines are used to connect relatedconcepts. This results in a web of interconnected concepts that reflect the way studentsassimilate the new information. The three main questions guiding the study reported here are: 1) How can we decode the variety of ideas and structures that students include in their concept maps? 2) How can we use discoveries from this decoding to make lectures and labs more effective? 3) What improvements can be made to the way students are assigned drawing concept maps to further increase the usefulness of concept maps in capturing their learning? The

Conference Session

New Teaching Methods in Mechanics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian P. Self, California Polytechnic State University; Edward J. Berger, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

were to help faculty (quote3): 1) engage in reflection and continuous improvement of learning, both their own and their students 2) facilitate conversations about teaching and learning in the process of building a learning community 3) create a collaborative learning environment with faculty and peers 4) build confidence in curriculum development including designing, guiding, and assessing learning 5) learn with and about technology in the process of improving curriculum, and 6) connect teaching and research and bridge the gap between theory and practice.Recognizing the potential for widespread engagement of engineering educators, an initiative onAdvancing Engineering Education through Virtual Communities of Practice

Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew West, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Geoffrey L. Herman, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

assists in maintaining engagement.However, it remains to be seen whether recruitment of new faculty into the CoP will continue, andwhether the structure is sustainable in the long term.6. Reflections and RecommendationsThe formation of a CoP to reform and improve Introductory Dynamics has provided aproof-of-concept for the effectiveness of the CoP model of education reform. Not only has thecourse improved student and faculty attitudes toward the course, but it has also sparked the reformof additional courses. The reliance on community rather than individuals has sustained thereforms through multiple instructors and multiple semesters

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanics of Materials

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William E. Howard, East Carolina University; Odis Hayden Griffin Jr. P.E., East Carolina University; Ihab Ragai, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

from an Internet sourceand write a reflection summarizing the article and relating it to their careers. We have foundMachine Design magazine’s website12 in particular to be an excellent source for this type ofarticle. For outcome i, we found a white paper on non-linear analysis from SolidWorksCorporation13 to be appropriate. After completing the non-linear analysis assignment, we gavethe students the assignment as follows: In this assignment, we used tabulated results that have been available for many decades along with non-linear software that was not readily available to engineering graduates of only a few years ago. Without a doubt, you will need to keep learning throughout your career. Besides formal classes, trade

Conference Session

New Teaching Pedagogies: Methods and Assessments

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Benjamin W. Caldwell, LeTourneau University; Colleen M. Halupa, LeTourneau University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering, Mechanics

longer enough to ensure success of the majority ofstudents in the educational environment today. Professors must evaluate techniques and methodsthat can assist in meeting the multiple learning styles of the students in their classes. For thestudent, transformation includes reflection, practice, and creating personal relevancy andmeaning in the learning process. This is the framework of this pilot study on an onlineEngineering Statics class.Literature ReviewOnline courses were created and deployed in numerous fields throughout the 1990s and 2000s.Online engineering courses lagged behind because of the difficulty of converting face-to-facemathematics and science courses to an online format.1 The technology was not advanced enoughto deploy these

Conference Session

Teaching Statics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul S. Steif, Carnegie Mellon University; Levent Burak Kara, Carnegie Mellon University; Luoting Fu

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

toassociate any equations with a specific subsystem. Admittedly, students in statics do sometimeswrite down equations of equilibrium without specifying the subsystem or drawing its free bodydiagram. This design feature of the tutor reflects a trade-off between granting the user latitude tosolve freely vs constraining the user. The task of interpreting a bundle of equations, eachunclearly associated with a free body diagram, seemed likely to result in false errors. Note alsothat by clicking on ΣFx = 0, for example, the user signals to the tutor that the equation should bejudged by comparison with the correct summation of forces in the x-direction for that subsystem,in terms of the variables and constants as they appear in its free body diagram.The

Conference Session

Teaching Statics

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shraddha Sangelkar, Pennsylvania State University, Erie; Omar M. Ashour, Pennsylvania State University; Russell L. Warley, Pennsylvania State University, Erie; Oladipo Onipede Jr., Pennsylvania State University, Erie

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. The next subsection discusses theresponses of students to the open-ended questions in the survey. Table 3. Responses of previous students on some reflection type questions Strongly Strongly Question Disagree Neutral Agree Disagree AgreeMore likely to work at getting correctanswers on current courses 4% 15% 21% 45% 15%Looking