Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Judith Collins; Alysia Starkey; Beverlee Kissick; Jung Oh

journals, to provide students with practice preparing their documents for a job search in their field, including resume, cover letter, interview skills, online application processes, and portfolios of educational experiences.Each of the objectives above is central to developing technical writing skills, yet eachalso requires high-level IL skills. (Assuming that students entering technical writinghave already developed some library skills, basic information skills are distinguishedfrom higher-level skills in that fundamental functioning entails knowledge and tool skills,whereas IL, literacy, requires the addition of cognitive strategies)8.IL is also a process: “attitudes and knowledge; the ability to learn, or complex of ways ofexperiencing

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Ing-Chang Jong

Learning Virtual Work Method in Statics in a Nutshell: Demystifying It as a Magic Black Box Ing-Chang Jong University of ArkansasAbstractStatics is a fundamental course in mechanics and is taken by students in most engineering curric-ula. At University of Arkansas, learning the energy approach using virtual work is given signifi-cant emphasis soon after learning the traditional approach using force and moment equilibriumequations. The transition from the traditional approach to the energy approach requires that stu-dents learn a number of relevant key concepts and strategies. Such a transition is often a chal-lenging

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Joseph J. Rencis; Hartley T. Grandin

for a majority of undergraduate engineeringstudents is simply to obtain the ‘answer’ in the back of the book. A common approach is tosearch the textbook chapter for the applicable formula or equation and immediately insertnumbers and calculate an answer. This approach is often successful with problems that requirefew equations, especially if the equations can be solved sequentially or are easily manipulated toisolate the unknown variable. The unfortunate aspect of this is that students may spend verylittle time focusing on the basic fundamental physics of the problem and, generally, no time at allon the very important verification of the ‘answer’! As problems become more complex, withincreased numbers of simultaneous equations and/or

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

K. Madhavan

of shallowand deep foundations.Required Courses in Geotechnical EngineeringMost of the fundamental concepts in geotechnical engineering are discussed in the basiccourse in geotechnical engineering. The students in the geotechnical laboratory course dothe basic laboratory soil testing and geotechnical report writing. Detailed soilinvestigation programs with field-testing of soils, additional ideas in geotechnical reportwriting, analysis and design of shallow and deep foundations are discussed in the designof foundations course. Students are required to complete six open ended projects indesign: the design of a soil investigation program, a shallow spread footing, a pilefoundation system, a pier foundation system, dimensions of a retaining

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

A. Lambert; D. J. Russomanno; P. Palazolo; S. Ivey

throughout each semester; • The Educational Psychologist/Researcher is a member of the faculty of the College of Engineering and Director of the Writing Lab Center, and is trained in both data collection/analysis procedures, and in teaching and research in technical communications; • Industry partners of the CSEMS program include the Tennessee Valley Association (TVA), Wright Technologies, The Solae Company, and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, and these team members provide internship and co-op opportunities for CSEMS students.Results to Date: In the 2002-2004 period, 59% of the CSEMS participants receivedbachelor’s degrees from The University of Memphis, and 34% were still activelyengaged in the

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Jason Weiss; Farshad Rajabipour; Thomas Schmit; Sebastian Fait

portion of the course contained a substantial amount of homework and lab problemsinvolving equations and calculations while the second portion of the course contained morediscussions and conceptual descriptions.Based on these observations, the first author began to investigate how students learn fromdifferent lecture methods. One of the first writings that caused the author to think more abouthow lectures could be modified to address the needs of all students was based on the work ofDavid Kolb in his learning styles approach [4]. It was observed that Kolb divided the learningprocess into a cycle where the student use an experience as the basis for reflection that is thendistilled into concepts that are used by the student for the next experience

Collection

2005 ASEE Midwest Section Conference

Authors

Melissa Miller; Randall Reynolds

project based upon sound curriculum. The challenge for the project was to create anactivity involving a simulation-based video game relating to a particular aspect of IndustrialEngineering. The activity was to then be used as a laboratory exercise for INEG 1103:Principles of Industrial Engineering and also modified for use as a classroom activity for juniorhigh school students. Obviously, a major issue was designing the activity with a proper level ofdifficulty for both age groups while keeping the subject matter relevant to meaningfulengineering and junior high instruction.The materials developed are intended to help students acquire fundamental problem solvingcapabilities as well as a basic understanding of some tools used in Industrial