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Paper # 1124 Session # 1138

A Proposal for a Nationally Normed Engineering Graphics Concepts and Skills Test Frank M. Croft, John T. Demel, and Frederick D. Meyers Engineering Graphics Section, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University

Abstract

The sciences and physics in particular have found that nationally normed tests allow educational researchers to measure the effect of changes in methodology and technology. In particular, physics uses the Force Concept Inventory. and the Mechanics Baseline test for testing students in physics mechanics. Another test on the concepts of electricity and magnetism has also been created. These are used and cited frequently in the physics education literature. In Engineering Graphics, we have the Purdue Visualization Tests, Young and Sorby’s placement exam, and some now outdated tests. The question is, ‘Does engineering education need such a test?’ and ‘What form should it take?’. Do we want to measure mastery of concepts (and what are they?), measure sketching skills, measure visualization skills, reading working drawings, etc. This paper will lay the background for a discussion to be held as part of the session at ASEE 2001 and, if this is accepted by the Engineering Design Graphics Division (EDGD) as a worthy task, such discussions and work on creation of a test or tests will continue over the next couple of years.

Introduction and Rationale

There is a need for Engineering Graphics faculty who are doing educational research to have a test or a set of tests to measure the effectiveness of changes in methodology and technology. Background work done with surveys of engineers in industry indicates that there are certain graphics topics that are needed by all engineers. Can the EDGD create such a test or tests that would both measure the effectiveness of changes and insure that engineers have sufficient graphics to be effective in their jobs?

Background from Physics

The Physics education research community now has several nationally normed tests. These tests allow the physics education researchers to make changes to methodology and technology and determine the results on student learning. The first paper in the series we reviewed was by Halloun and Hestenes at Arizona State 1. This paper dealt with the creation of a test that measured whether students had the correct concepts about physics mechanics i.e. Newton’s Laws. This test was created by establishing questions about Newtonian concepts and giving them to faculty who understood and used the concepts. Once the series of questions was established, these same questions were given to students before they had taken college physics. Their misconceptions were gathered as alternative answers to the questions.

“Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Meyers, F., & Demel, J., & Croft, F. (2001, June), A Proposal For A Nationally Normed Engineering Graphics Concepts And Skills Test Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9695