Conference Session

Innovations in Solid Mechanics

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ning Fang, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

most difficult undergraduate courses to succeed in because the coursecovers a broad spectrum of foundational concepts such as force, velocity, angular velocity,acceleration, angular acceleration, work, energy, linear impulse, angular impulse, linearmomentum, angular momentum, and vibration 1-3. Many students fail the dynamics coursebecause they lack a solid understanding of these foundational concepts and do not know whenand why to apply what concepts and associated equations 4-6.Concept mapping, developed upon constructivist learning theory, is a graphical representation(like a flow chart) that shows how individual concepts are related to and connected with oneanother to form large wholes 7, 8. In a concept map, concepts are arranged in a

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Burkhardt Ph.D., U.S. Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

validations in one or more of the courses considered in thestudy, Calculus I or Chemistry I, and thus had an invalid grade as defined by the analysis. Forthis reason these students were assumed to be not-at-risk and were placed in the EM211-Corestudent pool for the remainder of the analysis. The distribution of students by type and academicyear is shown in Table 1. EM211-Core EM211A EM211A-Like Total Count Percent Count Percent Count Percent Count Percent 2001 306 80.7% 62 16.4% 11 2.9% 379 100% 2002 270 79.6% 5 19.2% 4 1.2

Conference Session

Mechanics Classroom Demonstrations

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Genevieve Gagnon Ph.D., University of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

values (100-500) areused and five specific categories are selected in this study. The master slide shows a gridof twenty-five icons on a 5 x 5 grid for a chapter, each containing a different question(see Figure 1). Page 25.601.2Figure 1: Slide comprising all the selection of questions in a Jeopardy game chapterStudents in the class are divided into two teams and questions are asked successively witheach team needing to consult with all their team members before coming to a consensus.Students need to convince each other of the right answer, thus helping them in theirlearning process. If the response is given is wrong, the other team has a chance to

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shawn P. Gross, Villanova University; David W. Dinehart, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

skills.Recent work has focused on evaluation of problem solving skills in statics courses and areas ofdifficulty (Newcomer and Steif 1, Newcomer 2). Additionally, evaluations of conceptualunderstanding and problem solving skills have been studied and concept inventories have beendeveloped and pre-tests and multiple choice questions analyzed to highlight typical studentshortcomings (Douglas et al. 3, Steif and Dantzler 4, Steif and Hanson 5). Follow up studiesfocused on improving problem solving performance by assessing pre-post tests and written andverbal protocols (Steif, et al. 6). It was shown that problem solving could improve if studentsdevelop strategies for recognizing when and how to apply techniques.There has been significant educational

Conference Session

Evaluation of Teaching Methods for Mechanics Courses

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Somnath Chattopadhyay, Georgia Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

this purpose.Proportional loading is defined as any state of time varying stress where the orientation of theprincipal stress axes does not change with respect to the axis of the shaft. Non-proportionalloading is defined as any state of time varying stress where the orientation of the principal axeschanges with respect to the shaft axis. The students study the “proportionality” of loadings usingMohr’s circle for four specific cases for a shaft under combined bending and torsion, which are: 1. Time harmonic bending moment and time harmonic torsion that are in phase. 2. Time harmonic bending moment and time harmonic torsion that are 90 out of phase. 3. Time harmonic torsion and steady bending moment. 4. Steady torsion and time harmonic

Conference Session

Statics and Strength of Materials

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zachary Vick, University of Oklahoma; Kurt C. Gramoll, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

developed to explore the potential for remote versus localcomputing of complex geometry stress analysis using FEM. In this engineering tool, 3D modelsin a COLLADA (COLLAborative Design Activity)1 (.DAE) file format can be uploaded fromlocal memory or from a pre-designed geometry library. The 3D solids tool then volumetricallymeshes the geometry using tetrahedral elements to a user defined level of refinement. Loads andboundary conditions can be applied to the model, and the program solves for nodaldisplacements and stresses.It was found that the use of the 3D solids tool has many advantages in engineering education totraditional, locally installed FEM software packages. The engineering tool is accessible from anymachine with internet access and

Conference Session

Innovations in Solid Mechanics

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Irina Nicoleta Ciobanescu Husanu, Drexel University; Yalcin Ertekin, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

objectives of the course are to expose the students to principles of the moments andcouples using a variety of equilibrium of simple force systems, to analyze the simple stress, shearand axial strain by coplanar parallel force systems and concurrent force systems, to determinereactions, centroids, moment of inertia, shear and moment in beams, the flexure formula and loadcapacity of a beam.Upon completion of this course students will be able to: 1. Add forces and resolve them into components using parallelogram law. 2. Express force and position in Cartesian vector form and obtain vector’s magnitude and direction. 3. Understand the concept of the moment of a force and how to calculate it in 2D/3D. Define a moment of a couple

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

physical model, the way it was usedto energize learning is presented. We discuss how errors made by students on test day can berelated to gender and to being in class when the model was shown.MethodShames provides the motivation for the physical model14. Its vector algebra chapter presents amature treatment emphasizing 3-D vector representations. Figure 1 is from the originalproblem. It asks one to calculate the projection of the 500 N force along the diagonal from Bto A. As emphasized by Roberts, the two important quantities that students must becomefamiliar with in an introductory statics course are distance (length) and force15. There is nodifficulty in visualizing length as a position or a displacement vector. However, a force vectoris more

Conference Session

Statics and Strength of Materials

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffery S. Thomas, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Timothy A. Philpot, Missouri University of Science & Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

-based sections. Homework in theinverted sections is assigned but not graded. The in-class exams are given in a computer lab, andeach student receives an individualized set of questions. Over 1200 students in 18 course sections have participated in either the inverted sectionsthemselves or the other non-traditional sections that preceded the particular format used today.A subset of this group was compared to students in the traditional sections. No statisticallysignificant difference between the two groups was found based on (1) performance on thecommon final exams or (2) course grade in a structural analysis course. The animations and videos used by students in the inverted sections are available on aclass web site. There are 167

Conference Session

Technology in Mechanics Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Franco Capaldi, Merrimack College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

structures.By allowing interaction, students may change the view angle to discern the three dimensionalnature of the problem. In addition, the software may be used to guide a student through thesolution process.While students have different learning styles, and professors often have different teaching styles,it is becoming increasingly clear that effective assessment and immediate student feedback canproduce beneficial results in the classroom [1]. Computer systems are ideally suited for suchimmediate feedback. They can also be used to present interactive case-based problems [2].Systems have emerged which are capable of analyzing student response and providing targetedfeedback to students when their response is incorrect. Systems such as ARCHIMEDES [3

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaobin Le P.E., Wentworth Institute of Technology ; Richard L. Roberts, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Ali Reza Moazed, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Anthony William Duva, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

concentration phenomena, andthe assumptions of stress formulas under shear, bending and torsion loadings. The application ofSolidWorks in Statics and Strength of Materials courses since 2010 will be summarized,presented and discussed in this paper. Results of student surveys conducted in the fall of2011using the application of SolidWorks in these two courses will also be presented in thispaper. According to the survey, students favored the application of SolidWorks in these twocourses and would like to see more integration of SolidWorks in Statics and Strength ofMaterials courses.1. Introduction For the course Statics [1, 2], the definition of a vector and vector operations: theparallelogram law, the triangle rule and the polygon rule are

Conference Session

Mechanics Classroom Demonstrations

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Josué Njock-Libii, Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

ball bouncing off a rigid surfaceand the duration of the impact was investigated analytically and experimentally. Three differentkinds of balls were used: basketballs, tennis balls, and ping pong balls. Data were collectedusing digital cameras and processed using software freely available on the web.For each of the tested balls, analysis and experimental data agreed. They showed that when theduration of impact increased, so did the amount of energy that was dissipated. Similarly, whenthe duration of impact decreased, so did the amount of energy that was dissipated.Consequently, for each tested ball, the longer the duration of the impulse, the more energy wasdissipated.1. IntroductionDynamics is a very challenging course [1-14]. One way to

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Olufunmilola Atilola, Texas A&M University; Francisco Vides, Texas A&M University; Erin M. McTigue, Texas A&M University; Julie S. Linsey, Texas A&M University; Tracy Anne Hammond Ph.D., Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

have great potential to quickly identify concepts and topics students do notunderstand. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of concept inventories available and asingle inventory may not be targeted for a particular intervention. This paper demonstrates theuse of two concept inventories in combination to quickly identify concepts that Mechanix, asoftware tool for free body diagrams and truss analysis developed by the authors, needs toprovide better tutoring for. Figure 1 shows a screen shot of a student using Mechanix. Figure 1: Screen shot of Mechanix and picture of a student using Mechanix with a tablet.BackgroundMechanixWhile many professors are aware of the importance of open-ended and creative problems fortheir ability to

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sinead C. Mac Namara, Syracuse University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2012-4322: THE DESIGN COMPETITION AS A TOOL FOR TEACH-ING STATICSDr. Sinead C. Mac Namara, Syracuse University Page 25.1283.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 The Design Competition as a Tool for Teaching Statics.1. IntroductionThis paper describes ongoing efforts at Syracuse University to re-engineer the traditionalstatics course. This course forms part of a larger NSF funded project aimed at increasinginnovation and creativity in engineering curricula. The principal aim of the overallproject is to find strategies to foster and reward creativity in engineering students.This study examines a design

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

statics in the form of a course-wide conceptmap. This paper details the process of capturing expert knowledge of a course and organizingthis information into a concept map that accurately represents the information taught in thecourse.1. Introduction and MotivationConcept maps are node-link diagrams that are designed to visually mimic a person’s cognitiveschemas. They have been widely and effectively used as instructional tools in engineeringclassrooms (Sections 2.1 and 2.2). Concept maps highlight the relationships between informationthat the students learn, and help promote a more cohesive view of the content that is beinglearned.Large scale maps, maps that could be used to outline and link all the information taught in anentire course or even

Conference Session

Innovations in Solid Mechanics

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Birdsong, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

learn thecourse material compared with the other course components. The surveys were given at themiddle and end of the course to identify trends and compared with results from a control group.IntroductionMany agree that Engineering Dynamics is among the more challenging courses in undergraduateengineering programs.1, 2 It is often presented to students in the first or second year of collegebefore they have developed a mature sense of perspective and experience. It requires students tointegrate physics, calculus and geometry. It requires students to solve complex problems wherethe methods and solutions are not immediately apparent and the results can be counterintuitive.It is often taught to diverse student populations and with varying majors

Conference Session

Technology in Mechanics Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sean Moseley, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Shannon M. Sexton, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

engineering science classes asa method of helping students see a “correct” solution procedure for the assigned problems. Thiswork-in-progress reports on an initial investigation into providing homework solutions indifferent media. Specifically, homework solutions are presented as static screenshots of acompleted analysis (Treatment 1) and annotated videos of the analysis being developed(Treatment 2). Student performance on a pre/post Statics Concept Inventory is used as ameasure of the effectiveness of the two different homework solution treatments. Treatment 1 hasbeen administered once and Treatment 2 has not been administered at all, so this paper ispresented as a work in progress.Background/Justification The pedagogical theories that

Conference Session

Mechanics Classroom Demonstrations

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brianno D. Coller, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Page 25.1055.3green flames in Figure 1. With a little practice, students can quickly learn to manually land thespuCraft softly on a landing pad. There is another part of the game in which students/players cangain such practice.The tricky part of the challenge can be seen at the top and left side of Figure 1. As the craft isdescending, a roof is closing over the landing pad. Therefore, if the student slows down too soon,the roof crosses the spuCraft’s path and prevents it from reaching the landing pad. Conversely, ifthe student slows down too late, it will hit the landing pad with a lethal amount of speed.   Figure 1: Screenshot of the

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

core that includes mechanics.1 Still, “disjointedness” betweencourses is often apparent when students are asked to recall content from prerequisite courses.2This unreadiness can be especially harmful in the course sequences that directly involveengineering mechanics as a foundational core, but the problem of unreadiness is universal.Indeed, as one reviewer of the abstract for this paper put it, this is “a topic that every professor isdying to hear the answers to.”Student unreadiness, in this paper, is defined as lacking needed content knowledge from priorcourses. It is the commonly-observed phenomenon in which students are not prepared for acourse because they have not retained concepts from prerequisite courses. Anecdotal evidencesuggests

Conference Session

Evaluation of Teaching Methods for Mechanics Courses

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

performance on alearning objective, the instructor clicks on that bar and the more detailed view shown in Figure 2is revealed. Further clicking on the dots would show display the names of students in each of theabove categories.There are many other “hot links” on the bottom of the main LD page (Figure 1), each allowingthe instructor to view different aspects of students’ activities and performance. In particular, atthe bottom left of the LD main page is a link to a list of percentages of activities in the module inwhich each student engaged. Page 25.1112.4 3 Fig 1. Screenshot of the main page of the

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

changes.We also summarize the feedback we received during the pilot games and describe our next stepsin terms of further changes. Ultimately, we hope that the game can be used to increase students’engagement and conceptual understanding in learning solid mechanics, and to help students drawconnections between the course material and real-world applications.IntroductionThe Introduction to Solid Mechanics class (ENGR 14) at Stanford University has undergonesignificant changes in the course structure over the last year. The changes aim to make the classmore interactive in order to help the students gain a firmer understanding of and appreciation forsolid mechanics, as suggested by Mazur (2003) [1] and Smith, et al.[2]. The principal method

Conference Session

Statics and Strength of Materials

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ing-Chang Jong, University of Arkansas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

problems of deflections of beams and statically indeterminate reactions at supports viaseveral head-to-head contrasting solutions of the same problems, and (c) ways to effectivelyintroduce and teach either of these methods to students.I. IntroductionBeams are longitudinal members subjected to transverse loads. Students usually first learn thedesign of beams for strength. Then they learn the determination of deflections of beams underloads. Methods used in determining statically indeterminate reactions and deflections of elasticbeams include: 1 - 1 3 method of integration (with or without use of singularity functions), moment-area theorems, Castigliano’s theorem, method of superposition, method of segments, method ofmodel formulas, and conjugate

Conference Session

Innovations in Solid Mechanics

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Wolfsteiner, Munich University of Applied Sciences

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

andeigenmodes. Based on a couple of small examples the paper gives a detailed introduction tothe proposed method including all necessary equations and also the related Matlab code.1 IntroductionThe author of this paper is convinced that an up-to-date teaching of Multibody Systems isnot sufficient without an application of the theoretical framework to real-life problems. Onlyby applying the theory by creating numerical models students are able to gain appreciationof the potentials and limitations of this theoretical concept. This paper describes a tightlyintegrated and easy-to-use combination of mathematical description and numerical solutionwithout using specialized Multibody simulation software. Based on the software Matlab,the derivation of