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Establishing Consistent Evaluation Metrics to Combat Pre-Requisite Deficits in Entry-Level Mechanical Engineering Courses

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Conference

ASEE Southeast Section Conference

Location

Arlington, Virginia

Publication Date

March 12, 2023

Start Date

March 12, 2023

End Date

March 14, 2023

Conference Session

Mechanical Engineering 2

Tagged Topic

Professional Engineering Education Papers

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--45008

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/45008

Download Count

35

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Paper Authors

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Alta Knizley Mississippi State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-5578-0847

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Alta Knizley is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. Her professional interests and research fields include engineering education and outreach, energy sustainability, and numerical modeling of thermodynamical applications. She is the founder and primary faculty advisor of the Mechanical Engineering Ladies Organization. Alta has been a part of the faculty at MSU since 2012 and teaches mechanical engineering courses primarily in the thermal sciences.

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Morgan Green Mississippi State University

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Morgan Green is an Instructor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Engineering Education, where her research is focused on the development and assessment of professional skills in mec

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Shanti Bhushan Mississippi State University

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Dr. Bhushan is an Associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Director - CFD at Center of Advanced Vehicular Systems. He is engaged in the research area of high fidelity CFD with emphasis in turbulent flow modeling and simulation, and teaches courses in Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics.

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Abstract

In the aftermath of emergency online instruction, significant faculty turnover, and departmental restructuring, this university has faced challenges in maintaining appropriate, consistent instruction in some pre-requisite, entry-level mechanical engineering courses. This is most clearly seen in the Thermodynamics I to Thermodynamics II sequence. At this university, Thermodynamics I is a multi-section course, and has had varied instructors, including GTA instructors, over the past several semesters. Despite strict requirements for adherence to ABET course topics and student outcome assessment, student experience and learning comprehension continues to have significant variation between sections. This is readily observed in the Thermodynamics II course, as it typically only has a single course section and has been consistently taught by the same instructor over several semesters. In this study, the authors examine the factors contributing to the deficit comprehension, obstacles to addressing the deficit, and the proposed solutions to combatting the pre-requisite instruction/comprehension deficit.

Knizley, A., & Green, M., & Bhushan, S. (2023, March), Establishing Consistent Evaluation Metrics to Combat Pre-Requisite Deficits in Entry-Level Mechanical Engineering Courses Paper presented at ASEE Southeast Section Conference, Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--45008

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