Conference Session

Technology in Mechanics Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Franco Capaldi, Merrimack College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

entries.  A feedback mechanism which identifies student errors and passes this information to both the student and the professor.Desired Educational OutcomesWhile this computer package was designed to be as flexible as possible and handle problemsfrom a variety of fields, the statics solver was initially designed with the following limited set oflearning objectives in mind: 1. Students should be able to represent physical quantities in vector notation and to use vector math to analyze a system. In fact, a good grasp of vector math and the relevant notation is necessary for all advanced engineering fields. 2. Students must be able to formulate appropriate free body diagrams when solving statics problems. 3

Conference Session

Evaluation of Teaching Methods for Mechanics Courses

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jacob Preston Moore, Virginia Tech; Robert Scott Pierce, Sweet Briar College; Christopher B. Williams, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2012-4578: TOWARDS AN ”ADAPTIVE CONCEPT MAP”: CREAT-ING AN EXPERT-GENERATED CONCEPT MAP OF AN ENGINEERINGSTATICS CURRICULUMMr. Jacob Preston Moore, Virginia Tech Jacob Moore is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.Dr. Robert Scott Pierce, Sweet Briar College Robert Scott Pierce is an Associate Professor of physics and engineering at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1993. Prior to his teaching career, he spent 13 years in industry designing automated equipment.Dr. Christopher B. Williams, Virginia Tech

Conference Session

Innovations in Solid Mechanics

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ning Fang, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

a gateway exam in the junior-level Mechanisms course. The assessment results 15showed that due to the use of the concept map, the students‟ average score of the Mechanismsexam increased from 68% to 90%, and standard deviation decreased from 16.9 to 10.0.Concept maps for engineering dynamics have also been developed by engineering instructors atvarious institutions of higher learning 4, 16, 17. For instance, Cornwell 4 developed a concept mapfor particle kinematics, an essential topic in dynamics, to help students understand therelationships among kinematics concepts and organize the material in student‟s minds. He set uphis concept map on a corner of the classroom front wall. When he presented new materials, heshowed their location in the

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sinead C. Mac Namara, Syracuse University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. Page 25.1283.10The respondents were also offered an opportunity to comment on the experience of hands
 9
on work more generally as a method of exploring and learning engineering coursematerial. “the physical world is rarely as well behaved as the calculations and adjusting to and accounting for unforeseen problems is a good engineering lesson” “I realized that even though we had the same task in mind we all went about it differently by using different materials to add an illusion to our work.”6. School of Education Evaluation ResultsThe assignment described here forms part of a course for which the primary aim is toimprove innovation and

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert E. Efimba P.E., Howard University; Tori Rhoulac Smith, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2012-4991: PREREQUISITE COURSES AND RETENTIVITY AS ACHALLENGEDr. Robert E. Efimba P.E., Howard University Robert E. Efimba, Sc.D., P.E., Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental En- gineering at Howard University in Washington, D.C., received his four degrees in civil engineering and structural mechanics from MIT, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. He is listed in Who’s Who in Engineering, was named the 2010 Outstanding Advisor of Tau Beta Pi, was installed as a 2011-2014 Governor of ASCE’s Region 2, and is a past recipient of the ASCE Mois- seiff Award for best paper in the field of structural design. His research is on finite elements in design

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Luciano Fleischfresser, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná; Mariana Nascimento Casarin, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná; Evandro Eizo Roncaglia Yabushita, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

consistency, as well as on thevalidity of the conclusions. However, we feel that a bigger sample size would be required toincorporate these measures in our analysis. While we bear these limitations in mind, somereflections on the assessment performed are given below.As a group, female students gained more from the concrete experience than their malecounterparts. Here, 64% of them solved the problem correctly compared with only 31% ofmales. This might suggest the physical model is helping these students improve their spatialvisualization skills, which in turn help them become better engineering problem-solvers. Thefact that 9 out of the 11 students missing class had error 1 on exam day is at least curious.These 11 students had an overall attendance of

Conference Session

Technology in Mechanics Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michelle Marie Grau, Stanford Univeristy; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Samantha Ruth Brunhaver, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2012-4827: REVAMPING DELTA DESIGN FOR INTRODUCTORY ME-CHANICSMs. Michelle Marie Grau, Stanford Univeristy Michelle Grau is a junior in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, and was one of the students in the first revision of ENGR 14, Introduction to Solid Mechanics. Her research interests include engineering education, robotics in space applications, and using robots to introduce engineering to middle school students. She is passionate about the FIRST Robotics program, in which she coaches teams and volunteers at competitions. She also does wushu and gymnastics.Dr. Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University Sheri Sheppard, Ph.D., P.E., is professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University. Besides