Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Hildebrand, Lake Superior State University; Wael Mokhtar, Grand Valley State University; Steve Bryan, Continental Automotive Systems

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

, reflecting that the instructors felt a strong degree of confidence in the students’abilities. The student confidence level was high in all categories, as well, excepting themaritime/aerospace category; regrettably, practical reasons dictated that the assessmentquestionnaire obtaining this statistic was circulated before instruction on this topic wascompleted in the course, so the low score likely reflects that circumstance.What is lacking here, however, is any external calibration of such data. Tentatively, theonly supporting external data is knowledge that current option graduates are working inmore than one vehicle-related industry (at least one in maritime, and at least one inautomotive, others unknown).6. ConclusionsIt has been demonstrated that

Conference Session

Teaching Statics

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anna Dollar, Miami University; Paul Steif, Carnegie Mellon University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

, learning-intensiveclassroom activities can be chosen appropriately.2. DESCRIPTION OF OLI ENGINEERING STATICS COURSEAs judged for example by design instructors, students often fail to utilize Statics adequately inthe analysis and design of mechanical systems and structures, which they confront subsequently[15]. A detailed critique of traditional Statics instruction was presented by the authors [11],including the observation that mathematical analysis had come to overwhelm physical reasoningin Statics instruction. As a remedy, a more deliberate, sequential, object-centered, concept-driven approach to Statics was proposed [11]. This rather substantial reorganization ofinstruction in Statics was devised to reflect conceptual difficulties exhibited by

Conference Session

Teaching Mechanics of Materials and General Mechanics Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Henry Christiansen, Brigham Young University; Steven Benzley, Brigham Young University; Spencer Guthrie, Brigham Young Univeristy; Gaurab Paudel, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Engineering Technology students take bothstatics and mechanics of materials with the engineering students. The College decision to givethe Civil and Environmental Engineering Department this overall responsibility has significantlycontributed to the economy of the resulting program.As shown in the five year average enrollment graph, Figure 1, the average mechanics course sizewas growing modestly but remained under 40 students until in the early nineteen eighties. Then,during the late nineteen eighties and into the early nineteen nineties, the average class size grewto about 100 students per class and has remained approximately at that level. The early growthrate reflected a desire and ability to keep classes small and the average rate of increase

Conference Session

Teaching Dynamics

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Benson Tongue, University of California, Berkeley

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

problems can be given. Even so, the number of students complaining of time pressurewill remain non-zero. Although sometimes this complaint is specious (when non amount of timewould help that particular student) at others it reflects the fact that some people approachproblems slowly but truly do understand the material.By eliminating such exams, these problems can be avoided. In the miniquiz format there is only asingle problem and the students are told ahead of time what the area of coverage will be. Hencetheir studying is directed toward that area. Only a fraction of the class time is taken up with thequiz and since there’s only one problem, a goodly amount of time can be allocated to it, reducingthe “no time!” complaints.Since there are many