Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Estelle M. Eke

programming languageincluding C and C++, (ii) engineering materials, (iii) circuits and (iv) engineering mechanics –statics. The mode of course delivery is two 50-minute lectures and a 3-hour laboratory per week.Emphasis was on the introduction to numerical computation and assigned problems were solvedon a PC/Workstation. Tests and final exams that rely heavily on computation were used toevaluate student performance; laboratory reports were used to assess writing skills. It wasobserved that a typical class was made up of two types of students; those who enjoyedprogramming, and students who considered programming as drudgery and were not motivated todo more than the minimum amount of work required to get a passing grade. The latter group alsohad

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Kurt Colvin

lesson is to listen to their estimate, then double it.ConclusionThe development of a blended course requires not only a mastery of the related technology, butalso a fundamental understanding of curriculum design. Perceptions of a blended course may bethat it is simply moves the delivery of course content online. We have likely all witnessedexamples of poorly implemented use of technology and realize that, in fact, not all teaching-related technology is useful. However, if properly designed, implemented and delivered using anestablished method such as backward design, the use of technology can improve theeffectiveness of our teaching, even if the improvements are qualitative in nature.Backward design was applied to the redevelopment of an

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Pradip Peter Dey; Thomas M. Gatton; Mohammad N. Amin; Mudasser F. Wyne; Gordon W. Romney; Alireza Farahani; Arun Datta; Hassan Badkoobehi; Ralph Belcher; Ogun Tigli; Albert P. Cruz

try to work through the problem. The role of the instructors inthis environment is mainly as the facilitator and the guiding mentor. Students are given moreresponsibility for their own learning and are engaged in active or discovery learning in the sensethat students discover and work with content that they determined to be necessary to solve theproblem. It is believed that by working through the problems, students are better able tointernalize the problem and understand the underlying concepts and fundamental relationshipsneeded to solve the problem. In a traditional setting, instructors tend to simply provide studentswith facts, this is known as teacher-oriented instruction and many students may not be receptiveto or grasp the new concepts

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

David Lanning

forseveral semesters before eventually dropping out of the engineering program. Therefore, thissemester is critical to student retention.The author has taught the course in solid mechanics for eight (8) semesters at ERAU, which lastincluded the Autumn 2008 semester. During this time, the author has found many studentslacking in the necessary fundamental concepts from prior courses. The inadequate preservationof skills and knowledge from one semester to the next has been noticed by many instructors inthe engineering degree programs at ERAU, although this is certainly not unique to our programor institution. In the case of Solid Mechanics, the most important prerequisite course isunquestionably Statics.The author was approached several years ago by

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Said Shakerin

had seen the educational value of these toys and had written about them.Thus, he decided to write this paper to share his findings about these toys and theirpotential in education.Fluids ToysThree inexpensive novelty toys that display an array of fluid mechanics phenomena areshown in Figure 1. They cost $7 to $11 each, and are available through online storesspecializing with science and educational kits and at science museum gift shops26. Thecommon tread among these toys is that the fluid motions they display are driven bydensity difference between the fluids (or other substance) contained in them. The toyscould be used in a variety of educational settings, including class demonstrations toenhance lectures and student understanding, design

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul Blowers

called "longitudinaladvising". . One faculty/staff member is responsible for a student during their entire program ofstudy at the university, leading to long term and sustained contact over time. Faculty in thismodel get to know the students well and can provide the most relevant advice as needed becausethey know the students' abilities, their weaknesses, and what works well for them. The intimateand close contact allows the faculty member to write much stronger and more specific letters ofrecommendation for students when they apply for positions, graduate school admission, orscholarships, as well. Students get to know one faculty member well and this can enable them toknow the faculty more as a person than just an institutional representative

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Paul Blowers

problems with greater confidence. Students have also indicated that they havedeveloped concept maps for subsequent courses on their own, even though it was not requiredand instructors did not encourage these efforts. Students seem to benefit from these activities.IntroductionFaculty in engineering often suspect that prerequisite courses in science and mathematics arefocused on formulaic approaches to solving problems. This is sometimes called the "plug andchug" method where students may not understand the fundamental concepts but willsuperficially link mismatched concepts together, leading to poor performance in the prerequisitesand a weak foundation for building the core engineering topics. Sket and Glazar observed highschool chemistry students

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

the ‘storage’region, and the aluminum oxide a ‘blocking’ barrier. I will discuss the write/erase, retention and endurancecharacteristics of these devices. I will discuss the modeling and challenges faced by these devices, whichare being considered for the 32nm International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) nodehttp://www.itrs.net/. The third nanostructure, a BioMEMS planar implementation of a 3D ‘patch-clamp’measurement system, characterizes ion transport in ion-channels on a biological cell with a high-gain,transimpedance amplifier to convert kHz, pA ion-channel currents to several volts. Ion-channelunderstanding is essential for the development of pharmaceutical drugs as ion-channels are linked to morethan 40% of human

Collection

2009 Pacific Southwest Section Meeting

Authors

Teresa M. Ogletree; Brian P. Self; James Widmann

: Smith Publishing Inc. Date: 10.27.08 Subject: Multimedia Based Student Learning ToolsWe are pleased to announce the completion of our new website for college levelengineering students. In order to expand our current educational product offeringsbeyond textbooks, we are currently offering additional educational information on theweb. Our website is intended to provide additional aid outside of the classroom to helpstudents understand fundamental engineering concepts.Currently, our website offers a wide selection of example problems to supplementstatics, dynamics, thermodynamics and heat transfer textbooks. We are pleased withthe responses that we have been receiving regarding this new site, but we want to domore. Here at Smith