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

viewers, they are notdirectly useful as advance organizers. Though expert-generated course-wide concept maps aretoo large and unwieldy to be useful advance organizers, they do have potential uses aspedagogical tools.The first potential use of course-wide concept maps is to use the concept map as a lesson orcurriculum planning tool. By mapping all course concepts and their interrelationships, theinstructor gains insights into the order in which information should be presented and can quicklyidentify any conceptual gaps that may be present in their instructional plan. Research has shownthat instructors who were introduced to concept mapping as part of the lesson planning processhave found the strategy helpful and have continued to use the strategy

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

investigationsare planned to determine if the audio commentary (as compared to written parentheticalcomments) adds significantly to the student benefit. Finally, detailed studies of the extra timerequired to develop annotated video solutions are planned to help understand the cost/benefitratio of developing this resource for students. Page 25.1491.7References[1] Steif, P. S., and Dantzler, J. A. (2005). “A Statics Concept Inventory: Development and Psychometric Analysis.” Journal of Engineering Education 94 (4): 363-71.[2] Steif, P. S., and Hansen, M. (2006). “Comparisons Between Performances in a Statics Concept Inventory and Course

Conference Session

Mechanics Concepts II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sinead C. Mac Namara, Syracuse University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

creativity in engineering student problem solving. Specifically itwas hoped that the students would become: more comfortable taking on unfamiliarproblems and working on open-ended problems; more confident in their ability to take onunfamiliar problems; and more knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the role ofinnovation and creativity in engineering design. There were forty students in thisexperimental course, and the remaining sixty students in the cohort experienced atraditional lecture format with another instructor.An evaluation plan for the course has been prepared and implemented by a team led byDr. Scott Shablak who directs the Office of Professional Research and Development atthe Syracuse University School of Education. As part 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

we had originally planned to prohibit quarter-and three-quarter length joints between deltas, allowing only full side or half joints, to make calculationseasier, but this was too limiting in the creation of successful designs. We also consideredincreasing the internal area requirement from 100 quarter-deltas to 150. However, a larger areawould require more deltas and thus make it difficult for the entire class of twenty teams to play atonce, resource-wise.Writing New InstructionsThe last change we made to the game was writing a new set of instructions (see Appendix) thatincorporated all of the changes that we made. We divided these instructions into three parts: theDesign Task, instructions for the Project Manager, and instructions for the

Conference Session

Mechanics Classroom Demonstrations

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brianno D. Coller, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

their counterparts in anequivalent non-game course12.As stated earlier in the paper, Spumone collects detailed information about how students play thegame. The logs contain information on how frequently students “play”, how long it takes them toachieve certain milestones within each challenge, and copies of each iteration of theirmathematical rules. Additionally, we attempted to measure student engagement by embeddingexperience sampling surveys19 into the game. In the near future, we plan to analyze this data tolook for patterns that might support or refute our working hypothesis. References   1.  M. Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

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

://ecluster.ou.edu/apps/solid3d/default.aspx. Once the tool appears in the webpage (seeFigure 2), the user controls are located at the top of the window. The 3D solids tool has onlybeen recently incorporated into the mechanics eBook, and, as a result, there has been insufficienttime to assess the impact of the tool in an actual classroom setting. The effects of the 3D solidstool on professor pedagogy and any observed improvements in student performance will betopics of a planned future paper. Page 25.1010.5 Figure 2: Tool interface with loaded geometry1. Loading a geometry fileThe user can choose to upload a geometry file from

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

requested to answer (with a five pointscale: 1-very poor, 2-poor, 3-satisfactory, 4-good and 5-very good) an anonymous questionnaireas shown in Table 1, and based on their feedback we will refine and improve the laboratoryactivities and manuals. Similar surveys were or are planned to be conducted at the end of eachquarter of the current and next academic years. Also, more in-depth evaluation and assessment ofthis course will be performed starting with the next academic year. The future procedure isdescribed below. Page 25.516.9Evaluation of the course and data collection will begin soon after the start of the course. On thefirst meeting of each

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

majorconceptual errors are drastically reduced by the end of the course and the majority of errors areminor execution and non-conceptual.Moving forward, there are plans to develop a macro for the spreadsheet that would generatetabular and graphical data for each student on their personal performance at three pointsthroughout the semester (following each exam). Students would get a breakdown of the specificmistakes made on all quizzes and exams as well as a pie chart similar to Figure 11 that presentsthe percentage of mistakes within the categories of Major Conceptual, Minor Execution, andNon-Conceptual Errors. The next step that would coordinate this personalized report would beto develop specific remediation exercises to support each type of error. For