Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Morgan, Texas A&M University; Luciana Barroso, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

16 29 22 13 Report Requirements 1 13 21 41 29 5 Page 12.541.8Mid-term and final course evaluations for this class reflect that, though students find the coursechallenging, they indicate that these are courses where they see how the material relates to thepractice of civil engineering, and that these connections enhance their learning of the material.Table 3 shows the student’s responses to questions regarding course overall. Table 3: Results from Final Course Evaluation in Fall 2006

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arturo Fuentes, University of Texas-Pan American; Stephen Crown, University of Texas-Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. Web based games may not only provide opportunities to create environments thatmotivate students to think reflectively about mechanics of materials content and to invest energyand time in mastering its concepts, but an opportunity to involve students in learning throughteaching activities and to include student ideas that will further benefit the learning environment.The focus of this paper is on the development and use of interactive web-based games used toreinforce the learning in an undergraduate Mechanics of Materials course and the involvement ofstudents in the game design process. The games provide an interactive learning experience forstudents. One of the games developed involved the manipulation of forces and couples on abeam given

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amir Rezaei, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Mariappan Jawaharlal, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Kyu-Jung Kim, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Angela Shih, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

computer interactive games. The mainobjective for designing the new hybrid course is to reduce failure rate which is as high as 44%among approximately 800 students who enroll in this course annually in the college ofengineering at Cal Poly, Pomona. In order to measure the effectiveness of the newly developedcourse an assessment tool is needed. The commonly employed tools such as homework, quizzes,and exams that we use in a typical Vector Statics course serve as good indicators of students’understanding about the subject matter we teach and students are tested on; however, these toolsmay not reflect student’s knowledge accurately. For instance, Vector Statics may be aprerequisites course for advanced required courses in engineering, and students

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie Linsey, University of Texas-Austin; Austin Talley, University of Texas--Austin; Daniel Jensen, U.S. Air Force Academy; Kristin Wood, University of Texas-Austin; Kathy Schmidt, University of Texas-Austin; Rachel Kuhr, University of Texas-Austin; Saad Eways, Austin Community College

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

& effect. Focuses on subjective meaning and values. F THINKING FEELING Manner in Which a Person Comes to Conclusions J Focus is on timely, planned decisions. Focus on process oriented decision-making. P JUDGEMENT PERCEPTION3.2. Felder-Soloman’s Index of Learning StylesFelder- Soloman’s Index of Learning Styles24 are composed of four dimensions(active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) (Table 4). Richard M.Felder and Linda K

Conference Session

Improving Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Madhukar Vable, Michigan Technological University; William Kennedy, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

concrete experiences directly, employ reflective observations regarding thoseexperiences, engage in a periods of abstract conceptualization, and then participate in learningactivities that involve active experimentation such as projects and classroom discussions. Once,again, the inclusion of rich case studies from other domains such as MOM in Action would seemconsonant with Kolb’s ideas.Another influential contemporary educator long concerned with human learning, John Biggs,argues11 that a student’s choice of learning strategy and his/her motive for learning largely prede-termine the depth and durability of their learning. Biggs argues that students engage in superficiallearning when their study strategies primarily involve doing the least that

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Pramod Chaphalkar, Grand Valley State University; David Blekhman, California State University Los Angeles

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

a necessity for the today’sundergraduate mechanical engineering programs. At Grand Valley State University (GVSU), westrive to keep our curriculum up to date, reflecting the demands of industry. We have thereforebegun the process of integrating the use of FEA tools throughout the curriculum, instead ofdelaying it until the senior year either for senior design or elective courses. This paper describesthe introduction of FEA to students in the first course of Statics and Solid Mechanics. The firstpriority of this course is to build the foundation for Mechanics. The challenge therefore was todetermine the content without compromising the priority. Keeping this in mind, 1-D Barelements and 2-D Truss elements are introduced in the course. These

Conference Session

What's New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrea Surovek, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

likely toremember what they see rather than what they hear. The project is extremely visual in nature asit requires first hand observation of an object or structure, and it provides a visual archive of theprocess through photography and diagrams. The act of modeling the structures also requires thestudents to create their own visual representations. While students rarely remember specifichomework problems, they have mentioned specific examples from their project well after Page 12.178.10completing the class.Active and Reflective. Most students learn by actively doing; some learn by introspectivereflection. The project is geared towards active

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. could again show just after release. Fig. 6 Simulation which allows student to explore the roles of force magnitude and direction in causing rotation about a fixed point.The theme of building student intuition regarding equilibrium through observing motion iscarried further when we study what combinations of multiple forces result in equilibrium.Through the dynamic potential of the interactive medium, we can simultaneously allow studentsto adjust forces, to see how they combine in terms of total force and moment (with equationsautomatically adjusted to reflect the students chosen forces), and to see the net motion of thebody

Conference Session

Innovative Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean Nocito-Gobel, University of New Haven; Gregory Broderick, University of New Haven; Samuel Daniels, University of New Haven; Michael Collura, University of New Haven; Richard Stanley, University of New Haven

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

of courses taken by students during their first two years in the traditionalcurriculum reflects a traditional approach to learning mechanics in civil (CE) and mechanical(ME) engineering programs. Students took their first physics course, PH150Mechanics/Heat/Waves, in the traditional curriculum second semester freshman year in whichthey were introduced to basic particle kinematics and kinetics and force resolution. Firstsemester sophomore year, students gained an understanding of the behavior of simple structuresunder various loadings, and investigated stresses and deformations as they relate to the design ofsimple mechanisms and structures in CE205 Statics and Strengths. This 4 credit coursecombined topics from both Statics and Strength of

Conference Session

Internet Delivery of Mechanics Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Boyle, Saint Mary's University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

operational defects did have tobe accommodated.Students purchased the CMS access code, either online or from the campus bookstore. Nearlyall of the students bought both access code and the hardcopy text, reflecting the feeling thathardcopy reading was easier than reading from a screen.Navigating with the CMS was effortless in both instructor and student views, with some minornuisances. Involuntary logoff occurred too rapidly. Making alterations to assigned work createda new assignment which awkwardly coexisted with the old assignment. Exporting from thegrade book to Excel never worked properly. With the publisher’s help, some of these flaws wereeliminated.E-LecturesIn the courses discussed here, about one half of the course lectures were electronic