Establishing Metrics to Assess a Retraining Initiative
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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16
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41525
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41525
- Download Count
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290
Paper Authors
Joshua Dean
Josh Dean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He is a graduate of West Point, earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering; he later earned a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. His research interest areas include energetic materials, thermodynamics, and engineering education.
Gunnar Tamm United States Military Academy
Dr. Gunnar Tamm has taught at West Point since 2004 within the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, where he is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He teaches courses on thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, renewable energy and energy conversion, heat transfer, and mechanical engineering design. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, where he researched thermodynamics and renewable energy systems. His research at West Point has included laser target interaction, sustainable energy for installations, deployed military energy usage, and designing field expedient capabilities and weapons systems for soldiers.
Jacob Reddington United States Military Academy
Josh Dean is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY. He is a graduate of West Point, earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering; he later earned a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. His research interest areas include aerospace vehicle control, hypersonic rocketry, and engineering education.
Frederick Davidson United States Military Academy
Dr. F. Todd Davidson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering, and an Associate Director of the Center for Innovation and Engineering at the United States Military Academy. Dr. Davidson has taught courses on fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and energy technology and policy during his teaching career at both West Point and the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Davidson’s research focuses on the technical, financial, security and policy challenges related to the interdependent nature of energy systems, including transportation, energy storage, renewable resources, water, food, and oil and gas. Dr. Davidson’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Applied Energy, Desalination, Environmental Research Letters, and the Journal of Turbomachinery. He has also authored publications in national outlets, including Fortune, TheHill, Forbes, ASME Magazine, Bloomberg, and The Conversation. Dr. Davidson has been called upon as an expert to advise the Texas General Land Office, has been interviewed by national media, including NPR’s Marketplace and The New York Times, and testified before the Committee of Agriculture, Water & Rural Affairs within the Texas State Senate. Before joining academia, Dr. Davidson was the CEO & co-founder of nCarbon, Inc., a startup focused on the development of advanced energy storage devices. He started his career as a systems engineer working for Raytheon where he worked on four different missile defense products. Dr. Davidson holds an affiliated research position with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and is a Managing Partner with IdeaSmiths, LLC, a consulting firm providing expertise in analyzing energy systems. Dr. Davidson holds a B.S. in Engineering Science from Trinity University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UT Austin.
Michael Osmon
LTC Michael Osmon was commissioned into Aviation from the University of Central Florida in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He served operationally with the 2-17th Cavalry Regiment (101st Airborne Division) and 3 17th Cavalry Regiment (10th Mountain Division), including two tours in Iraq conducting Aerial Reconnaissance and Security operations. In 2008, LTC Osmon transitioned to FA51 (Acquisition Corps) upon his selection as an Experimental Test Pilot. He earned a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (2010) and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (2012). He served as the Attack/UAS Division Chief at the Redstone Test Center and the Chief of Flight Test for the Aviation and Missile Center at Ft Eustis, VA. LTC Osmon has piloted 18+ different rotary-wing and 10 different fixed-wing aircraft and his research and development experience includes the evaluation of aircraft performance, handling qualities, software, human factors, and mission equipment. LTC Osmon currently serves as an Instructor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering, U.S. Military Academy.
Abstract
The intent of this study was to measure students’ historical performance within an undergraduate thermal-fluid systems course at the US Military Academy to assess the effectiveness of incorporating “retraining” classes into the syllabus. Retraining classes occur shortly after a mid-term exam; these sessions act as a forcing function for students to review any mistakes made, with the teacher available as a guide to clear any confusion on the topics covered by the exam. The goal of these retraining exercises was to rapidly mitigate the risk of knowledge gaps that can compound as course content becomes increasingly rigorous. Prior to assessing the retraining effects on students’ performance, the authors needed to determine whether the final exam in the course could be used as a metric to compare the performance of different cohorts. Subsequently, this study analyzed the final exam performance of 2,392 students taught by twenty-eight instructors during a thirteen-year period. Unique insights into grade inflation, the predictive power of an incoming student’s grade point average (GPA) for their performance in the course, and the impact played by a teacher’s experience became known during this survey of the historical data. One of the more interesting conclusions from the analysis found that teacher experience had no significant impact on student performance. This suggests that the rigorous teacher training efforts within the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at West Point ensure that students are not at a disadvantage by having a junior instructor. During the fall semester of 2021, the retraining exercises were implemented with 155 students. Due to conflating factors and the small sample size (relative to the historical dataset), the authors could not draw a statistically confident correlation between the incorporation of the retraining classes and improved academic performance. A longer duration study is needed to quantify the benefits of retraining classes. From a qualitative standpoint, survey results showed that retraining classes were beneficial in improving student confidence and comprehension of the course material, suggesting that teachers should incorporate these exercises into the classroom, especially in the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering.
Dean, J., & Tamm, G., & Reddington, J., & Davidson, F., & Osmon, M. (2022, August), Establishing Metrics to Assess a Retraining Initiative Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41525
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