Sundararajan, S., & Faidley, L. E., & Meyer, T. R. (2012, June), Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21190

\bibitem{asee_peer_21190}
  Sundararajan, S., \& Faidley, L. E., \& Meyer, T. R. (2012, June), \emph{Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21190

Sriram Sundararajan, LeAnn E. Faidley, and Terrence R. Meyer.  "Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21190 Internet.  10 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21190}
  Sriram Sundararajan, LeAnn E. Faidley, and Terrence R. Meyer.
  "Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21190 Internet.  10 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21190
author = "Sriram Sundararajan, LeAnn E. Faidley, and Terrence R. Meyer"
title = "Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21190}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21190}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                Developing inquiry-based laboratory exercises for a                      mechanical engineering curriculumThis paper describes the development of two inquiry-based experiments in a mechanicalengineering curriculum aimed at providing students with the opportunity to design andperform experiments. One experiment in systems dynamics and one experiment in fluiddynamics were developed. In each case, students working on teams were posed with ascenario and question to answer. For example, in the system dynamics experiment,students were asked to verify that a thermal system and electrical system weremechanically equivalent systems. In the fluid dynamics experiment, students were askedto investigate drag coefficients for flow over a sphere over a range of Reynolds numbers.The students were required to formulate the theoretical approach and solve based ongiven information and assumptions. Subsequently the students were required to plan anexperiment using available equipment to obtain data to support their theoreticalapproach. Once the experimental plan was reviewed to avoid critical errors, studentscompleted the experiment and compared solutions to theoretical predictions. Studentswere then required to discuss and explain observed differences between experimental andpredicted values, thereby allowing them to examine the validity of theoretical constructsand assumptions as well as uncertainties in the measurement process. Students write apaper on the laboratory exercise, which is graded against a defined rubric that assessesthe work on various areas including theoretical approach, experimental approach, datareporting and discussion of results. An assessment of these 'open-ended' laboratoryexercises showed that students found the open-ended approach 1) difficult andchallenging compared to other prescribed laboratory exercises; 2) beneficial tounderstanding how experiments can help understand validity of theoretical approachesand; 3) beneficial to understanding limitations of experiments.
AU  - Sriram Sundararajan
AU  - LeAnn E. Faidley
AU  - Terrence R. Meyer
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Developing Inquiry-based Laboratory Exercises for a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21190
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21190
ER  -