Conference Session

Civil Engineering Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Haluk M. Aktan, Western Michigan University; John Stephen Polasek P.E., Western Michigan University; Kevin James Phillips

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

, CMMI Program 20052008 Review Committee of Visitors in 2009, member of TRB Committee on Basic Research and Emerging Technologies on Concrete and ASCE committee on Performance Based Design.John Stephen Polasek, P.E., Western Michigan University John S. Polasek P.E. retired from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) after over 38 years of service in 2009. John received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from MSU in 1972 and was hired at MDOT. Over the years, he has worked in the Design Division, as a Staff Engineer for the Local Government Division, as the Kalamazoo District Design Engineer and Project Development Engineer, as well as Region System Manager. In June 2003, John was appointed Director of the

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ying Tang, Rowan University; Sachin Shetty, Tennessee State University; Xiufang Chen, Rowan University

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

), and finally to review what part of the problem has been resolved and what is yet to be solved (S). In this project, questions are deliberately presented in a coherent manner throughout the game to assist students in deciding what they already know about the problem and what needs to be explored further. Doing so forces students to conduct the sophisticated kind of thinking required for drawing inferences and developing interpretations. Fig. 2: A sample KWS enabled in Escape• Think-Aloud-Share-Solve (TA2S) training – As Vygotsky pointed out, learning is an inherently social and cultural rather than individual phenomenon [4-6]. The interactions among peers produce intellectual synergy of many

Conference Session

Simulation and Virtual Instrumentation

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nikunja Swain, South Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

. Page 22.1402.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011Teaching Spreadsheet-Based Numerical Analysis with Visual Basic for Applications and Virtual Instruments AbstractLabVIEW, EXCEL and VBA are currently used in a number of engineering schools and industries forsimulation and analysis. By introducing virtual instrumentation (LabVIEW) and EXCEL/VBA to theexisting laboratory facilities and course(s) the students can be well trained with the latest designtechniques and computer aided instrumentation, design and process control used throughout industry.This will also allow the students greater interaction with the subject matter and

Conference Session

FPD VII: Innovative Curriculum Elements of Successful First-Year Courses

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Plouff, Grand Valley State University; Deborah Morrow, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

with all ofthe program outcomes, ABET does not define lifelong learning or provide guidelines forassessing achievement of lifelong learning skills. Besterfield-Sacre et al.[2] identified keyattributes of lifelong learning as part of an NSF-funded Action Agenda study (listed on theEngineering Education Assessment Methodologies and Curricula Innovation website[3]). Theseattributes included the ability to: ● demonstrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills; ● demonstrate an awareness of what needs to be learned; ● follow a learning plan; ● identify, retrieve, and organize information; ● understand and remember new information; ● demonstrate critical thinking skills; and, ● reflect on one‟s own

Conference Session

Thinking Outside the Box! Innovative Curriculum Exchange for K12 Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samuel Abbas Johnson, University of St. Thomas; AnnMarie Thomas, University of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

onlyreceiving three volts a piece. However, the actual voltage to each LED will be less than thepreviously mentioned values due to a voltage drop from the dough‟s electrical resistance. Figure 8 Figure 9ResistanceThe conductive dough serves as a wire with a built-in resistor. Because it is a semisolid, the Page 22.672.6resistance in the circuit increases as the length of the dough increases. The circuit demonstratedin Figure 10 is essentially the same as the circuit shown in Figure 1, but it uses longer pieces ofdough as wires. Since the resistance of the dough “wire” increases with length, the

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn Dimiduk, Cornell University; Rajesh Bhaskaran, Cornell University; Haolin Zhu, Cornell University; Yingxin Gao, Cornell University

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

, the stresss field of a rectangular plate with a hole in tension(Fig. 3a),, was shown n. For simpliccity, symmeetry was conssidered so onnly a quarterr of the geom metrywas usedd for numericcal solutionss (as shown ini Fig. 3b). T This demonsstration helped studentsclearly viisualize the stress distrib butions and variations v arround the hole where streess concentrrationoccurs. Students S usedd the numeriical solutions as concretee visual aidss to interprett the abstracttanalyticaal solutions. Fig. 3a Fig. 3bFigure 3.. Plate with a hole demo onstration . (a

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mrinal C. Saha, University of Oklahoma; Zahed Siddique, University of Oklahoma; Firas Akasheh, Tuskegee University; Bipul Barua, University of Oklahoma; Christof Heisser, MAGMA Foundry Technologies, Inc.; Shaiful M. Arif, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

Experiential Learning, Games for Engineering Education, and Peer-to-Peer Learning.Dr. Firas Akasheh, Tuskegee UniversityBipul Barua, University of OklahomaMr. Christof Heisser, MAGMA Foundry Technologies, Inc. Christof received his equivalent of a Masters Degree in Foundry Technology at the Technical University of Clausthal in Clausthal/Germany. After his first employment as Leader of Research & Development at Thyssen Feinguss, an Aluminum Investment Casting Foundry in Soest/Germany, he joined MAGMA GmbH in Aachen/Germany in a Marketing & Support position. Christof moved to MAGMA Foundry Technologies, Inc.’s Chicago office in 1995 as Foundry Application Engineer. He now is the President of MAGMA Foundry Technologies

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Besterfield-Sacre, University of Pittsburgh; Nur Ozge Ozaltin, University of Pittsburgh; Angela Shartrand, National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA); Larry J. Shuman, University of Pittsburgh; Phil Weilerstein, VentureWell

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

information about institutional fac-tors, and common curricular and extracurricular practices.1. IntroductionDriven by changes in the global economy, entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing aca-demic areas within the nation‟s 335 engineering schools. As a result, literally hundreds ofcourses and programs in entrepreneurship for engineering students are now offered; yet little hasbeen done to define what constitutes appropriate content or to assess the degree to which these Page 22.1575.2educational experiences have resulted in their intended purpose: student learning of enabling en-trepreneurship knowledge, skills and attitudes. Building on

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tzu-Liang Bill Tseng, University of Texas, El Paso; Rong Pan, Arizona State University; Jun Zheng, University of Texas, El Paso; Carolyn Joy Awalt, University of Texas, El Paso, College of Education; Maria Veronica Gonzalez, University of Texas, El Paso; Francisco Medina

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

the two groups, a test was conducted afterthe class but during the course. The test consisted of ten questions in total related tocourse materials, particularly to the RP operation.The test scores from both groups were tabulated and shown below (see Table 1): Page 22.501.9 8 Table 1: Test results for students in group 1 and 2 Group 1 Group 2 (Control) (Experimental) S. No For 10 S. No For 10 1 7

Conference Session

Design Education II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald J. Bennett, Univeristy of Saint Thomas; Elaine R. Millam, Univeristy of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

22.522.4people.To reinforce the importance of manufacturing in the United States, the Presidents of Harvard andMIT have recently come out in support of strengthening manufacturing in the United States4.Said MIT president Susan Hockfield, “if manufacturing is old-fashioned, then we‟re not doing itright.” It‟s time to change that negative image, and it‟s time to change manufacturing.Manufacturing engineers need to raise the perception of their profession as being a majorcontributor to our standard of living. Without cost reductions created by manufacturingengineers, we wouldn‟t be able to produce and buy all the great things that improve people‟slives. The abundance of affordable products, once considered the luxuries of the elite if theywere available at

Conference Session

They're Not "Soft" Skills!

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ruth Wertz P.E., Purdue University, West Lafayette; Meagan C. Ross, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Senay Purzer, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Michael Fosmire, Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette; Monica E. Cardella, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

expedient manner, and wepresent results of data collected from 366 first-year engineering students. The instrumentrequires students to first read a technical memo and, based on the memo‟s arguments, answereight multiple choice and two open-ended response questions. The mean score on the multiplechoice portion was only 3.46 out of 8. A qualitative analysis of the open-ended responsesprovided more insights into students‟ abilities to identify and resolve conflicts betweeninformation sources, evaluate the reliability and relevancy of information sources, and usereliable information sources.IntroductionOne of the most important skills students can take away from a technical education is the abilityto become curious, persistent, and life-long learners

Conference Session

Rethinking PowerPoint and Other Acts of Communication

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joanna K. Garner, Old Dominion University; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Keri Lynn Wolfe, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Sarah E. Zappe, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Lauren Elizabeth Sawarynski

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

many common practice sets do not include them. However,in further work, we intend to include animated details using the same ‘Appear’ animationin the topic-subtopic slides as we used for the assertion-evidence slides.Table 2. Statistics on two slide sets for the experiment.Characteristic Topic-Subtopic Slides Assertion-Evidence SlidesNumber of slides 11 10Total number of words on slides 334 193Average words per slide 30.4 19.3Total length of presentation 6 m 17 s 6 m 17 sProjected words per minute

Conference Session

They're Not "Soft" Skills!

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan M. Lord, University of San Diego; Candice Stefanou, Bucknell University; Michael J. Prince, Bucknell University; John Chen, California Polytechnic State University; Jonathan D. Stolk, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

norms would be mostappropriate. However, because no engineering students were included in the sample that producedthe means provided in the MSLQ, we felt it was important to obtain a reference point from which tounderstand where the engineering students in this study started. We compared our engineeringstudents in individual classes to the means in the MSLQ manual. The results of this analysis areshown in Table 2 and inform some of the discussion later in the paper.Table 2 shows significant differences between the MSLQ reference data and course-specificengineering student groups in this study. Instructor 1’s students reported significantly higher meanscores in the learning strategy of time and study environment; and lower mean scores in the

Conference Session

Understanding Students and Faculty

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University; Qiong Zhang, University of South Florida; James R. Mihelcic, University of South Florida; Julie Zimmerman, Yale University; Nina J. Truch, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

, preserving nature [13] Unity with nature, fitting into nature [16] Respecting the earth, harmony with other species [14] Altruistic values Equality, equal opportunity for all [12] Social justice, correcting injustices, care for those who are less privileged [17] A world at peace, free of war and conflict [15]Methods of Instrument AdministrationThe instrument was administered in three parts at a private research university in the northeasternUnited States (E-group), a public research university in the southern United States (S-group) anda public masters university in the pacific coastal United States (P-group). Students wererequested to take the survey by the faculty in their courses. The

Conference Session

Computers and Software in Teaching Mathmatics

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Micah Stickel, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Mathematics

the opportunity to immediately apply the new mathematical “tool” to an engineeringproblem. This “tool” consisted of the core mathematical concept which they learned about in thelectures and tutorials of the AEM course, and the numerical implementation that they learnedthrough the Matlab modules. For example, the first module showed the students how to solve aset of simultaneous equations which was directly applicable to the multi-loop DC circuitproblems which they were solving in their Circuit Analysis course at the same time. While in thelast module the students learned how to determine the inverse Laplace transform of rationalfunctions using the residue command in Matlab. This enabled them to work through s-domaincircuit design problems

Conference Session

Engineering Mechanics Education

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Roman Taraban, Texas Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanical Engineering

sorting on a deeper, more meaningful level.6 Appliedresearch in engineering education has suggested that students strive to develop conceptualknowledge, but, unfortunately, do so at low cognitive levels. In a study of the learning effects ofa computer-based module on the topic of control systems10, the researchers found greater gains atlower cognitive levels of Bloom‟s taxonomy11 (Level 2: Comprehension; Level 3: Application) Page 22.1619.3than at higher levels (Level 4: Analysis; Level 6: Evaluation). Other research has identifiedmisconceptions held by engineering students regarding basic engineering concepts, like rate andenergy12, and concept

Conference Session

Computers in Education General Technical Session II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mihaela Vorvoreanu, Purdue University; Quintana Clark, Purdue University; Geovon Boisvenue, Purdue University; Stephen Paul Woodall, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

network. Page 22.1306.12References: 1. cross-tab. (2009). Online Reputation in a Connected World. Retrieved from: http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/ 2. Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Philadelphia: Basic Books. 3. Hoofnagle, C. J., King, J., Li, S., & Turrow, J. (2010). How different are young adults from older adults when it comes to information privacy attitudes and policies Retrieved from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1589864 4. Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A.-K., & Hughes, B. N. (2009

Conference Session

Assessment Methods and Learning Pedagogy II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Melissa I. Zelaya, Clemson University; Melissa Dorlette-Paul, Clemson University; Elaine L. Craft, Florence-Darlington Technical College; Anand K. Gramopadhye, Clemson University; Carey W. Castle, Greenville Technical College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

Release v. 2 http://www.economicmodeling.com/ accessed October 15, 2008.[15]. G.E Hoachlander, and R.D. Mandel, Developing Materials for Industry Based Education, NSF-ATE, (2002).[16]. H.W. Hodgins, Into the Future: A Vision paper, Produced for the Commission on Technology and Adult Learning co-sponsored by ASTF and the National Governors Association, (2000).[17]. Greenville Technical College, Office of Planning and Grants. 2002 Fact Book and 2001 Fact Book.[18]. A.K. Gramopadhye, B.J. Melloy, S. Chen, J. Bingham, Use of Computer Based Training for Aircraft Inspectors: Findings and Recommendations, In Proceedings of the HFES/IEA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, (2000).[19]. R. Held, and N. Durlach, Telepresence, Time Delay and

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zhigang Shen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Yimin Zhu, Florida International University

Tagged Topics

NSF Grantees

; Development, Vol. 50, No. 3, pp. 5-22. [6] Hong, N. S., Jonassen, D. H., and McGee, S. (2003). “Predictors of well-structured and ill-structured problem solving in an astronomy simulation.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 6–33. [7] Jacobson, M. (2000). “Problem solving about complex systems: Difference between expert and novices.” In B. Fishman and S. O’Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), Fourth International Conference of the Learning Science, Erlbaum Publishing, Mahwah, NJ. [8] Hmelo-Silver, C. and Pfeffer, M. G. (2004). “Comparing expert and novice understanding of a complex system from the perspective of structures, behaviors, and functions.” Cognitive Science, Vol. 28, pp. 127 -138. [9] Smith

Conference Session

Understanding Our Students

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Samantha Ruth Brunhaver, Stanford University; Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University; Ozgur Eris, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

-engineering extracurricular activities and internship experiences, her m/c peer viewed suchactivities as encroaching on her limited time. We argue that a student‟s level of non-academicinvolvement is related to the importance she ascribes to professional and interpersonal skills inengineering. Implications for engineering educators and suggestions for further research arediscussed.IntroductionFindings from the recent Academic Pathways Study (APS) sponsored by the Center forAdvancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) have shown that intrinsic psychologicalmotivation to study engineering and confidence in professional and interpersonal skills are keypredictors of engineering seniors‟ future plans1. Sheppard et al. (2010) have also shown that,when taken

Conference Session

IE Technical Session II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jo Min, Iowa State University; Wenbo Shi, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Industrial Engineering

discussion. In each phase, student teamswere required to analyze 3 or 4 questions, and make strategic as well as tactical decisions:For example, (i) How does the company allocate the production quantities to different plants while optimizing the profit of the whole company? (ii) At what tariff and exchange rate levels should the board of managers decide to shut down the off-shore plant in China? (iii) From both economic and environmental perspectives, which transportation mode(s) should be utilized? In what quantity? In the context of these technical contents, we present how the outcome items (d), (j), and Page 22.1003.4(m

Conference Session

Design Education I

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dhananjay Kumar, North Carolina A&T State University; Devdas M. Pai, North Carolina A&T State University; Mainul Kader Faruque, North Carolina A&T State University; Kwadwo Mensah-Darkwa, North Carolina A&T State University

Tagged Divisions

Manufacturing

Microscopy and Physical Properties MeasurementSystems.Graduate students and post-doctoral scholars have always been trained and mentored. Carefulplanning and grant-writing has enabled leveraging of this research work for deployment intocurricular education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Beyond extending classroomlectures to hands-on participation opportunities and demonstrations in the authors‟ labs, thestudents have been afforded the opportunity to experiences a day of touring at a world-renownednational research lab as well as to explore career opportunities. Further, multi-level outreachactivities that have been successfully organized utilizing the lab‟s resources have benefited alarge number of the community and other

Conference Session

Computers in Education Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Frank T. Fisher, Stevens Institute of Technology; Hong Man, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology. Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation, Directorate for Education and Human Resources: Arlington, VA, 1998.3. Carr, S., What Are We Waiting For? Put Engineering First! Excellence in Higher Education, 8(3), 1999.4. Belytschko, T., A. Bayliss, C. Brinson, S. Carr, W. Kath, S. Krishnaswamy, B. Moran, J. Nocedal, and M. Peshkin, Mechanics in the Engineering First Curriculum at Northwestern University. International Journal of Engineering Education, 13(6): p. 457-472, 1998.5. Grose, T., Starting over at Sherbrooke. ASEE Prism, 10(4): p. 24-27, 2000.6. Culver, R.D., D. Woods, and P. Fitch, Gaining Professional Expertise through Design

Conference Session

Topics Related to Telecommunications

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Antonio Francisco Mondragon-Torres, Rochester Institute of Technology; Mahesh Nandan Kommi, Rochester Institute of Technology; Tamoghna Bhattacharya, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Technology

. Pilot symbol and virtual carrier Source/ Serial to Parallel Data Bit Mapper Channel parallel IFFT Add CP Pulse Shaper to serial DAC RF Tx source interleaver (QAM / PSK) coder (P/S) (P/S) Bit stream QAM/PSK modulated symbol

Conference Session

WIED Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Myongsook Susan Oh, Hongik University; Yookyung Bae, Seoul National University, Institute for Gender Research

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

AC 2011-1680: EFFECT OF THE GROUP CULTURE ON THE LEADER-SHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR FEMALE ENGINEERING STUDENTS INKOREA.Myongsook S. Oh, Professor, Hongik University B. S. in Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley Sc. D. in Chemical Engineering, MIT Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Texaco, Inc Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Hongik University in KoreaYookyung Bae, Institute for Gender Research in Seoul National University B.A. in Socioloy at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea M.A. in Socioloy at Ewha Womans Uni- versity in Seoul, Korea M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Austin Ph.D Candidate in Gender Studies at Seoul National University, Korea

Conference Session

Professional Development from a Distance

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mitchell L. Springer, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Gary R. Bertoline, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Mark T. Schuver, Purdue University, College of Technology, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Continuing Professional Development

non-traditional in that they are notnecessarily on-campus programs; they may be on-campus utilizing an alternate format; weekend,etc., or, may be off-campus in approved locations. The Graduate School ensures fee-basedprograms do not compete with traditional on-campus programs. This latter point is seldom anissue as most students wishing to participate in on-campus programs are residential andanticipate a traditional experience. Alternatively, most student s who participate in non-traditional weekend programs are already in the professional ranks and not able to participate ina traditional program format. In fact, the greatest single stated advantage to a weekend formatprogram is that it is a weekend format which allows the working

Conference Session

Information Literacy: Theory and Practice

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nasser Saleh, Queen's University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Libraries

resolve a shared information need” 8. This definition impliesthat collaborative activities are different from individual ones as they include communicatingabout the information need, sharing the retrieved information within the team, and coordinatingthe constituent information retrieval activities across multiple participants.Another study has defined collaborative information behaviour as “an information access activityrelated to a specific problem solving activity that, implicitly or explicitly, involves human beingsinteracting with other human(s) directly and/or through texts (e.g., documents, notes, figures) asinformation sources in an work task related information seeking and retrieval process either in aspecific workplace setting or in a

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Technical Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kenneth Reid, Ohio Northern University; Susan M. Montenery, Ohio Northern University; Courtney M. Hetrick, Ohio Northern University

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

presented a research poster (Figure 1). They received very positivefeedback not only for their project, but for their presentation skills and enthusiasm. Page 22.179.4 Figure 1: Team Nursing poster presented at Ohio Northern University Undergraduate Research SymposiumFinal Report:The technical description of the team‟s accomplishments was presented to engineering andnursing in a technical report. This report details the results of the two design implementationsand a brief conclusion from the perspective of the group. The report is presented below

Collection

2011 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Authors

James Roche

or equipment.Students reviewed the operations manual to learn the operation of the HOBO® data loggers. Asa basic understanding was acquired from the manual, students next connected these instrumentsto a computer loaded with Onset’s HOBO® software to experiment with the capabilities of theinstruments. Along with adjusting the parameters in the data logger, the battery level and properoperation of each inventoried data logger was verified.The final instrument used by the students was a light intensity meter. This instrument is slightlydifferent from the HOBO®’s light intensity, as this instrument’s primary function is toaccurately measure light, whereas the HOBO® is used to gain a general understanding of arealighting use. A variety of light

Conference Session

A Systems-Thinking Approach to Solving Problems

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cecelia M. Wigal, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Tagged Divisions

Systems Engineering

to 6 “subfunctions” that, at a high level, definethe functional decomposition of the primary function. Then the destination and origins of inputsand outputs with respect to the subfunctions are identified to show functional transformationsand relationships. To help students complete the diagrams, students are told that miracles(function boxes with outputs and no input(s)) and black holes (functions with inputs and nooutput(s)) can not occur. A sample Level 0 diagram for the “encourage recycling” function isshown in Figure 6.0. CollectUsed Materials Recyclables Loose Garbage A1