Development of Veteran-friendly Military Technology and Instrumentation Mechanical Engineering Course

Jerry Lynn Dahlberg; Jae Hoon Lim; Peter Thomas Tkacik

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Military and Veterans Division Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Military and Veterans
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34462
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34462
Download Count: 377

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Paper Authors

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Jerry Lynn Dahlberg Jr University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Jerry Dahlberg is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Chair of the College of Engineering Senior Design Committee at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering Science in 2014, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 and PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2018 from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Jerry retired from the Army in 2010 as a Sergeant First Class. .

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Jae Hoon Lim University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Jae Hoon Lim is an Associate Professor of Research Methods at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. Dr. Lim’s research explores the intersection of gender, race, and class in STEM education and highlights the dialogical process of identity construction across various groups of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. She has served as a co-PI and qualitative evaluator for three federal grants including a 1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Her research has been published in many scholarly journals including Journal of Educational Psychology, Race, Ethnicity, and Education, and Journal of College Student Development. She is a contributing author to several books published by Oxford University Press, University of California Press, and Springer.

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Peter Thomas Tkacik University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Peter Tkacik is a Professor of mechanical engineering within the motorsports focus area. His largest area of research is in the engagement of student veterans through hands-on learning activities and exciting visual and experiential research programs. Other research activities are related to the details of the visual and experiential programs and relate to aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics, tire dynamics, and color-Schlieren shock and compressible flow imaging.

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Abstract

This paper presents the successful outcomes of a three-year long curriculum development and implementation undertaken by the team of engineering professors and student veterans at the University of North Carolina. This paper covers on the development of the class, the topics chosen and the relevance of those topics as well as the assessment and long-term impact.

Background. To support an ongoing veteran recruitment and retention program, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department developed an elective undergraduate course (ENGR 3999). This course was designed to use imagery and hands on, military based research laboratory experiences to engage veteran engineering students. The class is available to all engineering students, but predominately attended by Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Technology students.

Methods. The evaluation team conducted an extensive mixed methods study that included both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative part of the evaluation measured student learning outcomes and other psychological constructs such as student motivation and career interest and aspiration. The qualitative data were collected from all key stakeholders involved in the class (e.g., faculty, student veteran TAs) as well as the students enrolled in the class. Based on the qualitative data, the evaluation team examined exactly how student made sense of the course contents and structures, and identified key features of the class that contributed to its successful learning outcomes.

Results. Three-year evaluation data consistently showed a statistically significant difference between the pre and post measures of student learning outcomes as well as on other psychological measures (e.g., motivation, interest). Students gained a significant knowledge base while developing a higher level of motivation and sense of competency. Qualitative data indicated that the overall curriculum integration that focused on direct hands-on application and research tools served as a fertile ground for student meaningful academic engagement and increased their interest and motivation. The course was structured in such a way that a class lecture was followed by one to three days of lab exercises which helped students to reinforce and apply the content of the proceeding lecture to real-world situations. Furthermore, military members (reservists and veterans) were actively recruited into the class; all of the teaching assistants (TA) were also veterans who effectively bring real world military experience to the topics. The success of the course as evidenced on multiple outcome measures are well-aligned to the fundamental premises of Constructivist Learning Theory and Integrated Curriculum Design, which underscore the dialectic relationships across knowledge/contents, instructors, and learners.

Citation
Format

Dahlberg, J. L., & Lim, J. H., & Tkacik, P. T. (2020, June), Development of Veteran-friendly Military Technology and Instrumentation Mechanical Engineering Course Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34462

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This paper presents the successful outcomes of a three-year long curriculum development and implementation undertaken by the team of engineering professors and student veterans at the University of North Carolina. This paper covers on the development of the class, the topics chosen and the relevance of those topics as well as the assessment and long-term impact.

Background. To support an ongoing veteran recruitment and retention program, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department developed an elective undergraduate course (ENGR 3999). This course was designed to use imagery and hands on, military based research laboratory experiences to engage veteran engineering students. The class is available to all engineering students, but predominately attended by Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Technology students. 

Methods. The evaluation team conducted an extensive mixed methods study that included both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative part of the evaluation measured student learning outcomes and other psychological constructs such as student motivation and career interest and aspiration. The qualitative data were collected from all key stakeholders involved in the class (e.g., faculty, student veteran TAs) as well as the students enrolled in the class. Based on the qualitative data, the evaluation team examined exactly how student made sense of the course contents and structures, and identified key features of the class that contributed to its successful learning outcomes. 

Results. Three-year evaluation data consistently showed a statistically significant difference between the pre and post measures of student learning outcomes as well as on other psychological measures (e.g., motivation, interest). Students gained a significant knowledge base while developing a higher level of motivation and sense of competency. Qualitative data indicated that the overall curriculum integration that focused on direct hands-on application and research tools served as a fertile ground for student meaningful academic engagement and increased their interest and motivation. The course was structured in such a way that a class lecture was followed by one to three days of lab exercises which helped students to reinforce and apply the content of the proceeding lecture to real-world situations. Furthermore, military members (reservists and veterans) were actively recruited into the class; all of the teaching assistants (TA) were also veterans who effectively bring real world military experience to the topics. The success of the course as evidenced on multiple outcome measures are well-aligned to the fundamental premises of Constructivist Learning Theory and Integrated Curriculum Design, which underscore the dialectic relationships across knowledge/contents, instructors, and learners. 

AU  - Jerry Lynn Dahlberg Jr
AU  - Jae Hoon Lim
AU  - Peter Thomas Tkacik
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Development of Veteran-friendly Military Technology and Instrumentation Mechanical Engineering Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/34462
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--34462
ER  -