source. This is aunique approach to high school science laboratory activities.All watershed data is collected and organized using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and graphingsoftware. Students are able to form conclusions using technology that is used in today’sworkplace. Initial findings regarding student response to this innovative teaching approachindicate that the actual application of molecular technology methods, employed to solve aproblem with an unknown conclusion, is very meaningful to students. Unlike other traditionalclassroom labs, neither the teacher nor the students know what the results of the watershed testsare before-hand. This type of innovative teaching approach, supported by research on inquirylessons, provides a more memorable
Hartford, Connecticut, USA,and Herat University (HU) in Herat City, Afghanistan was initiated in August 2007 to developand implement a modern program to strengthen and modernize engineering education at HU.The program includes a number of activities such as curriculum review and revision, facultydevelopment, and laboratory upgrading.Under the partnership, junior HU faculty members, who currently have only a bachelor’s degree,applied to enroll in the master’s degree program at the UH and are working toward obtainingtheir master’s degree. Earning this graduate degree will enable Herat faculty to be better teachersas well as better prepared to implement curriculum revisions. More qualified faculty also willattract better students and will provide the
culminating class, involving a major designexperience. Students participating in the 1+2+1 program are assumed to arrive with thefollowing coursework already completed in their home universities: • 1 year of Calculus • 1 year of Calculus-based Physics, including laboratories • 1 quarter of Chemistry, including laboratory • Page 15.60.6 1 quarter of computer programmingWith those prerequisites, students are in line with Sophomore level students at the University,allowing them to delve directly into the technical portion of the curriculum. A sample course ofstudy is shown in Table 1. Note that students take their
Teaching Digital Signal Processing with MATLAB,Simulink and DSP Kits A Practical, Cohesive, and Hands-On Approach Siben Dasgupta Associate Professor, Wentworth Institute of TechnologyAbstractThis paper provides an introduction to Digital Signal Processing topics taught in the undergraduateelectronics /computer engineering programs at Wentworth Institute of Technology. This paper describeshow Wentworth Institute of Technology provides “hands on” experience with real signals by using a“laboratory” based on MATLAB and SIMULINK running on PC’s. In addition, an innovative approach isprovided in this paper for integrating DSP course in to the graduate program
: Alternate energies of the United States with respect to the developing world.Teaching ScheduleThe teaching schedule for the 12 weeks online delivery is as follows. All course materials(except the text book) are available online.Week Topic#1 Introduction to alternative energy sources.#2 Wind energy: Fundamentals of wind energy, alternate wind turbines, using wind data to evaluate a potential location, estimating output from a specific turbine#3 Economics of wind power, environmental impacts, wind energy application, and Exam #1.#4 Solar energy: Availability of energy from the sun and geographic availability, fundamentals of PV Cell
AC 2010-1873: EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF COMPLEX MANUFACTURINGTOPICS TO UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERS UTILIZING A NOVEL, BROADLYBASED, INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL COMPANYMartin McCarthy, University of Auckland Martin McCarthy has a Masters Degree in Engineering Management from the University of Auckland and has recently submitted a PhD thesis. He is a is a Senior Tutor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Auckland and is a Chartered Engineer by profession with many years experience in mechanical and electronics product design, manufacturing systems and fire prevention. Mr. McCarthy's current interests include research into the effective teaching of engineering design and manufacturing with
AC 2010-1800: A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO TEACH TECHNOLOGY ANDENGINEERING CONCEPTS TO MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOLSTUDENTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLICSteve Shumway, Brigham Young University Dr. Shumway is an associate professor of Technology & Engineering Education program at Brigham Young University. Prior to completing a doctorate degree he taught high school electronics/technology education classes for six years. His primary responsibilities at BYU include teaching graduate and undergraduate classes, supervising student teaching, and he is currently the Technology Teacher Education program chair.SClaudina Vargas, Complex Systems Optimization Lab SClaudina Vargas is Founder and Director of
AC 2010-1860: ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING A COMPUTERGAME TO BRIDGE A RESEARCH AGENDA WITH A TEACHING AGENDAKristen Sanford Bernhardt, Lafayette College KRISTEN L. SANFORD BERNHARDT is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lafayette College, where she teaches courses related to transportation, civil infrastructure, and engineering ethics and researches issues related to infrastructure systems modeling. Dr. Sanford Bernhardt received her Ph.D. and M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and her B.S.E. from Duke University, all in Civil Engineering.Sharon Jones, Lafayette College SHARON A. JONES is a Professor at Lafayette College in both the Department of Civil
laboratory sessions.This activity allows engagement of students in step 3 of the Kolb cycle, practice underconstrained conditions. The two-hour laboratory contains a maximum section size of 24 students.A worksheet is provided to students for each laboratory. The worksheet is designed to both as ascaffold for students to direct them through the laboratory tasks and as a tool to provideopportunities for reflection on the meaning of the tasks in terms of the course content. Studentshave to complete worksheets individually, but are encouraged to collaborate and discuss amongstone another.The course instructor typically introduces the laboratory and periodically checks in; however, itis primarily instructed by a Graduate Teaching Assistant. In 2008, an
an integral part of almost every course offered. Most courses include aweekly three hour lecture and a two hour laboratory. Recently a laboratory componentwas successfully added to the department’s introductory electrodynamics course. Thepurpose of this paper is to illustrate how students used the design of microwavemicrostrip circuits to improve their grasp of theoretical electrodynamics concepts. Inaddition, students were exposed to the practical aspect of design including limitationsinherent in the simulation, design, fabrication and testing of high frequency circuits.This paper will explain the details of laboratory exercises developed for the course andthe supporting software, fabrication facility and test equipment. Additional
Laboratory) in the following.3.1 Lecture EvolutionThe content of the lecture section of the course changed in reaction to the following influences:1) The content of the freshman engineering program, 2) The need for additional curriculumcontent in professional engineering skills, and 3) The expertise of the instructor. Each of theseinfluences is discussed below.Freshman Engineering Content: The freshman engineering course changed from a design,graphics and programming course to one that surveyed the various fields of engineering. This puta greater demand on the Design & Analysis class to teach the concepts of the design process,design for manufacture and cost estimation.Professional Skills: Course material was added to the lecture part of the
, who can dedicate two hours per week to supporting the facility, plus atrained student teaching assistant, who staffs the lab for ten hours per week, has proven to be anefficient model. The staff member provides the necessary oversight and departmentalknowledge of the equipment and its capabilities, including laboratory safety and compliance withstandards. The teaching assistant supervises the space while students work: orienting, assisting,and ensuring safe lab practices.Integration of the Laboratory Facilities throughout the CurriculumWith the advent of the redesigned ECE curriculum, the number of courses with extensive hands-on, project-based content has increased dramatically over course offerings of just a few yearsago. Whereas previously
, information technology, and libraryresources) as well as enhanced faculty skills and competencies. Specific goals include: A. Rehabilitate the physical infrastructure B. Equip laboratories, offices, libraries, and classrooms C. Raise the quality of the faculty D. Reform the curriculum E. Improve teaching F. Increase access to information technology and library resources G. Raise the level of English proficiency H. Improve management I. Establish relationships with external constituenciesResources for pursuing these goals come from three sources: The Partnership funds, the SHEPBlock Grant Funds, and other resources and funds from other donors and agencies. ThePartnership administration seeks to
Reversing Table 7- Summary of the Student Lab SurveyConclusionsIn this paper, we described our experience teaching a multidisciplinary course in an EngineeringTechnology program. We described how the redesign of the laboratory component has greatlyenhanced the student learning experience independently of their majors of studies. It wasobserved that activities relating concepts to real world applications were most appealing. Forinstance, students enjoyed performing experiments involving the use of transducers.Assessments results including direct and indirect measurements to meet certain accreditationcriteria were also discussed in this paper. Several lessons learned from this course revisionprocess for in future
in the laboratory or in the field.Additionally, students must know enough about the details of technical standards to specifytesting for a project and potentially supervise testing in a laboratory management situation.Key Examples from Accredited UniversitiesFollowing are summaries of how professors have successfully used technical standards in theclassroom. The overviews and syllabi of selected courses are available in their entirety on the“Peer-to-Peer Resources” page of the ASTM International Students and Professors website.10Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s “Properties of Engineering Materials II”11 is offered as a thirdyear second semester course within the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Thiscourse teaches the
organization andarchitecture, programming models, and control theory.The lectures and laboratory exercises form a complete teaching module centered around amicrocontroller-based “smart” house. The students use a low-cost microcontroller to measurestatus and control functions such as temperature in the house. The house is essentially a foambox with electric heater, thermoelectric “air conditioner” and an attic vent fan. After anintroduction to basic microcontroller functionality and a small subset of the microcontroller’sinstruction set, the students learn to measure inside and outside temperatures and actuate thecooling and heating elements. They then program the microcontroller to implement aconventional hysteresis-based control system and measure
& Learning Practice. University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. October 19-20, 2007.3. Edwards, R., G. Recktenwald, and B. Benini. A laboratory exercise to teach the hydrostatic principle as a core concept in fluid mechanics. ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. Austin, TX. June 14-17, 2009, American Society for Engineering Education.4. Recktenwald, G., et al. A simple experiment to expose misconceptions about the Bernoulli equation. 2009 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Lake Buena Vista, Florida. November 13-19, 2009, American Society of Mechanical Engineers.5. Recktenwald, G., et al. Using a blender to teaching qualitative reasoning with the first law of
. Biochem. Mol. Biol. Educ. 32, 7-10.7. Hesketh, R.P., Slater, C.S., Farrell, S., and Carney, M. (2002). Fluidized bed polymer coating experiment.Chem. Eng. Ed. 36, 138-143.8. Burrows, V.A. (2004). Experiments and other learning activities using natural dye materials. Chem. Eng. Ed.38, 132-135, 141.9. Komives, C., Rech, S., and McNeil, M. (2004). Laboratory experiment on gene subcloning for chemicalengineering students. Chem. Eng. Ed. 38, 212-215, 221.10. Wankat, P. (2001). Teaching separations: why, what, when, and how. Chem. Eng. Ed. 35, 168-171.11. Lefebvre, B.G, Farrell, S., and Dominiak, R.D. (2007). Illustrating chromatography withcolorful proteins. Chem. Eng. Ed. 41, 241-246.12. Lefebvre, B.G. and Farrell, S. (2005). Illustrating
development ofskills related to teaching, professional communication and the job search3.Table 1: GSGA Survey ResultsSKILL RATINGConduct independent research 3.57Teach (small “seminar” or “problem-based” learning courses 2.00Teach (large “lecture” course) 1.79Teach (laboratory) 2.05Assess performance outcomes from teaching, supervising, or leading 1.70Prepare written credentials (CV, resume, cover letter) 2.14Interviewing skills
hands-onplatform from which to teach both areas of control can be found in the process controlindustry—the programmable logic controller (PLC).A few industrial, chemical, and electrical engineering as well as various technology programshave included some introduction to PLCs into their programs, where they are often presented aspart of a laboratory course. However, several programs have begun offering courses dedicated tolearning and applying PLCs. In contrast, very few mechanical engineering programs offer anyexposure to PLCs throughout the curriculum. 14,25 Yet, they remain the most common and usefulcomponent in controlling manufacturing processes and machinery. Mechanical engineers need tounderstand how issues of control can affect their
track REU students 1999-2009, as well as a study on same-sex camps effects on course choice in high school and college. Dr. Dixon is also an adjunct instructor at Flagler College, developing their Science Methods for Elementary Teachers syllabus and teaching the course since 2001. In addition to overseeing all educational programs K-20 at the Magnet Lab, Dr. Dixon is actively engaged in educational research on the effects of programs from national laboratories on students and teachers.Sharon Schulze, North Carolina State University Dr. Sharon K. Schulze is the Director of The Science House and an Associate Faculty member of the Physics Department. She manages the day-to-day operations
ECE consist of several studio and project labs and the curriculum is developed withthe intent of incorporating multidisciplinary courses with a modern approach to teaching communication,basic science, and mathematics skills. As students can now own portable versions of a laboratory stationin the form of computer attachments small enough to carry in their backpacks7 the choice of the labequipment was the use of traditional laboratory stations with stand-alone instruments along with sets ofcomputer-based measurement equipment8. One of the ECE faculty is currently based in the Physicsdepartment teaching courses related to electrical engineering. The inherited Electronics course and labwere in need of significant restructuring. The goal of this
contents.CONCLUSIONThis paper presents a collaborative effort by the faculty of the Electrical and ComputerEngineering department at Rowan University and the Engineering Science department atCamden County College to integrate SoC concepts across the curricula. In particular, thepaper addresses the activities of reconfiguring and developing courses at CCC tofacilitate their students’ transition to major in ECE at a 4-year educational institution.These newly developed or modified laboratory-oriented courses not only teach studentsbasic ECE principles, but also give students skills and tools necessary to advance theirknowledge in SoC.ACKNOWLEDGMENTThis work is supported under a Course and Curriculum Laboratory Improvement grant#0633512 from the National Science
-solvingcompetencies has been developed. First, an engineering conceptual and procedural taxonomywill be presented. The taxonomy is organized into seven taxa and three cognitive levels.Further, an exercise of conceptual and problem-solving analysis will be performed on a spring-pulley problem. Using this analysis, a model of a CPI was developed. An assessmentinstrument was then constructed to aid in the placement of students at their appropriate levels ofthe taxonomy. A sample laboratory assignment will be presented to show how such hands-onexperiences could effectively complement the classroom teaching activity. Finally, preliminarytesting results and concluding remarks will be reported.II. Development of the Conceptual and Procedural TaxonomyA. The eed for
AC 2010-415: IMPROVED STUDENT LEARNING OF MICROPROCESSORSYSTEMS THROUGH HANDS-ON AND ONLINE EXPERIENCE:Brock LaMeres, Montana State University Brock J. LaMeres is an Assistant Professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Montana State University (MSU). LaMeres teaches and conducts research in the area of digital systems and engineering education. LaMeres is currently studying the effectiveness of online delivery of engineering education including the impact of remote laboratory experiences. LaMeres’ research group is also studying the effective hardware/software partitioning using reprogrammable fabrics. This work involves exploiting the flexibility of modern FPGAs to
meetonce per week for 110 minutes each. The instructional team is composed of faculty membersfrom each of the nine engineering programs in the College. Each member of the team develops Page 15.589.10and presents at least one of the lecture sessions during the semester. In addition, graduatestudent teaching assistants are charged with conducting the laboratory sessions. A group of threeundergraduate mentors per lab section (juniors and seniors in their respective majors) aid thestudents with homework and projects during the laboratory sessions. Lectures are held in atraditional auditorium, whereas the laboratory sessions are held in a
systems23.ConclusionIn this paper, we described teaching plans to introduce the hybrid design approach at the Page 15.805.9undergraduate level from two different universities. These plans were successfully applied in arequired/elective classes in the ECE department at The University of Akron and Ohio NorthernUniversity. The paper includes a detailed description of the laboratory plans from these courses.Future plans include introducing other projects that make use of the interface capabilities of theconfigurable processors especially with external memory devices. Frame grabbers for exampleare usually built in hardware because of the real-time video
Concluding RemarksThe combination of lecture topics and laboratory exercises proved to be useful while teaching thecourse. The course was taught for the first time in the Fall of 2009. The students that took thecourse either belong to the mechanical engineering technology or power engineering program. Itwas a required course for the students in the power engineering technology program, but just atechnical elective for the ones in the mechanical engineering technology program.There are several lessons that were learned after teaching the course once. Firstly, the instructorneeds to make sure all registered students have the proper prerequisites to be able to take thecourse. Secondly, the professor should spend some time with the students reviewing
teaching subject matter through student-centeredapproaches ensure effective student learning 3. These approaches promote activities valued byindustry that encourage active student participation in the learning process 4, 5. Moreover, it isalso important for the students to be exposed to the open-ended nature of design problems 6.These facts emphasize strong cohesion between the materials covered in a lecture class and itsassociated laboratory activities 7. In addition to this, students need to appreciate the practice ofdesign trade-offs among several competing requirements 8.Limitation of traditional courses: Normally a course covering computer architecture andorganization uses built hardware as the platform that has little configurability for
particularly useful to teach concepts of reverse engineering.A three-dimensional co-ordinate measuring machine (3D CMM) is shown in Figure 5while Figure 6 shows the cold isostatic press (CIP) used in the manufacturing of powdermetallurgical parts. The laboratory is equipped with a conventional workshop thatcontains lathe, milling machine, drill press, belt grinders and power saw as shown inFigure 7. An advanced HAAS CNC machining center is shown in Figure 8. An injectionmolding machine that produces polypropylene and polyethylene parts is shown in Figure9 while a MIG welder is shown in Figure 10. Figure 11 is a display case that exhibitssome of the components made by the students in this lab. Figure 12 is a SAE Baja vehiclemanufactured by RMU