Conference Session

Anything New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

STAR Legacy learning cycle2,3. The authors have Page 13.676.2supplemented the HPL theory with explanations of the Legacy learning cycle from a new pointof view and with new implementation ideas. The author’s contributions to the Legacy learningcycle and the focus of the solid mechanics challenges are discussed in this section.First, a brief description2 of the Legacy learning cycle as described by it’s developers isparaphrased below.Look ahead: The learning task and desired knowledge outcomes are described here. This stepalso allows for pre-assessment and serves as benchmark for self-assessment in the Reflect Backstep.Challenge 1: The first

Conference Session

Enhancing Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Francesco Costanzo, Pennsylvania State University; Gary L. Gray, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

[sic] and discussion ...”Some students had negative comments to make, such as “I did not like the style of solving problems. I can’t see everything I’m going to need right off the bat.” “The “5 steps” half the homework time was wasted Roadmap and discussion rather than learning to problem sole [sic] . . . ”A student, in response to the question “What, if anything, would you change about this course?Please explain.”, stated “Difficult to understand certain problem solving methods [sic].”Despite the presence of negative comments, we wish to remark that the positive and negativeanswers reported above accurately reflect the proportion of positive vs. negative comments weobtained. Therefore, we conclude that the use of a

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sridhar Condoor, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Eng.; Sanjay Jayaram, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Eng.; Lawrence Boyer, Saint Louis University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

five topics: free body diagrams, equilibrium,equivalence, separation of rigid bodies, and friction. In this approach, students use a consistentmethod to draw free body diagrams, develop equilibrium equations, and solve the equations forunknowns. Conceptual warm-up exercises are used to assess student misconceptions in eachtopic and enhance their learning. Gardner and Jacobs19 developed a structural experience forstudents that help them to make abstract theoretical concepts that they learn in early stages morerobust. Embedded in this experience were strategies that reflected both ‘good teaching’ practiceand relevant management strategies. The authors have developed a case study withaccompanying worksheets that became the scenario for rich

Conference Session

Anything New in Dynamics?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Geoff Rideout, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

F34 x ? / F43 x F34 y ? / F43 y F14 ? k SD y SD - RSD v SDywhere negative signs come from the fact that in Figure 5, springs and dampers are defined asbeing positive in extension. Eq’ns (19) reflect the fact that tension forces at point B, forexample, will create negative forces F23x and F23y as drawn on the free body diagrams of Figure6. In Figure 6 all constraint forces have been arbitrarily drawn in positive directions. One mayinstead choose to draw equal and opposite forces on the free body diagrams and remove thenegative signs from Eq’ns (19). If only the equations for bodies 2 and 3 were considered, with jforce F32 omitted, then the resulting equations would

Conference Session

Enhancing Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary L. Gray, Pennsylvania State University; Francesco Costanzo, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

amount of material that can be taught and that the students’ interest in the material isenhanced.IntroductionTo maintain and enhance our nation’s ability to be on the forefront of technology development,colleges and universities have been called to adopt the most effective teaching practices of Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses as well as to provide undergraduateswith opportunities to study STEM “as practiced by scientists and engineers as early in theiracademic careers as possible”.1 In fact, the practice of engineering today requires that graduatesbe prepared in a large variety of ways, which are reflected in ABET criteria as well as other recentstudies.2, 3 In addition, as supported by a wide body of literature

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Papadopoulos

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

work of their peersand provide critiques at a draft stage. Out of this process, final work is improved, andcommunications skills are also developed. Cloete5 emphasizes the importance of self-reflection in fostering critical thinking. Although these efforts did not attempt directmeasures of student cognition, perhaps in the future, data can be collected to evaluatestudent cognition in peer review exercises.Longer-term Assessment. To complement direct observation of student reasoning andcognition during problem-solving exercises, how can we determine if students are Page 13.226.10retaining knowledge and problem-solving skills into the future? Most methods