Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Class Contact Time on Student Performance in Statics

John Burkhardt

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Mechanics Concepts I
Tagged Division: Mechanics
Page Count: 15
Page Numbers: 25.592.1 - 25.592.15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21349
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21349
Download Count: 395

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John Burkhardt Ph.D. U.S. Naval Academy

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John Burkhardt received a bachelor's of engineering in civil engineering from the Cooper Union followed by master's and doctoral degrees in engineering mechanics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is currently on the mechanical engineering faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy.

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Abstract

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Class Contact Time on Student Performance in StaticsRetention and recruitment of engineering majors, particularly those from underrepresented groups, is, as at most universities, an area of considerable interest at the USNaval Academy. As the primary source of junior officers for both the US Navy and USMarine Corp it is an objective of the US Naval Academy to provide graduates with thetechnical skills necessary to contribute to the modern navy as well as graduates with amake-up that reflects the country and Navy as a whole. The US Naval Academy offersten STEM majors, five of which are in engineering: Aerospace Engineering, Electricaland Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture and OceanEngineering, and Weapons and Systems Engineering. Major selection occurs in thesophomore year after a common freshman year. Each year approximately one-third of anentering class enrolls in an engineering major with about 300 of those students enrollingin statics. Performance in statics has been a strong predictor of success in followingengineering courses and retention in the engineering majors as well. Consequently,efforts have been made to improve student performance in statics. One effort, used overthe last 12 years, has been to identify at risk students and place them in special sections ofstatics that have an additional weekly contact hour. Traditional students take a class with3 hours of lecture while at risk students have an additional hour of class weekly. How theadditional hour is used is left to the discretion of the instructor. In some cases it is used asadditional lecture time to reinforce previous concepts while in other cases it is used as amore traditional recitation session. Anecdotal evidence has shown improved performanceof at risk students placed in the course with the additional hour of contact. No formalinvestigation has been conducted, however. Ideally, an evaluation would be performed byplacing a representative group of at risk students in the traditional course while leavingthe remainder in special sections. The performance of each could then be comparedallowing a reasonable comparison to be made. No such controlled study has beenconducted, however. To avoid conducting such a study, and the potential of placing the atrisk students at a disadvantage, a statistical analysis of the existing record has beenperformed. Using 10 years of legacy data a group of students in the traditional staticssections were identified that had a statistical profile similar to the at risk students placedin the special sections. The performance of these students in statics, and the follow ondynamics course, were then compared with the at risk students placed in the specialsection. It was found that the statics and dynamics performance of each group werestatistically identical indicating that the additional contact hour in statics had a minimalimpact on the performance of at risk students.

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Format

Burkhardt, J. (2012, June), Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Class Contact Time on Student Performance in Statics Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21349

TY - CPAPER
AB - Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Class Contact Time on Student Performance in StaticsRetention and recruitment of engineering majors, particularly those from underrepresented groups, is, as at most universities, an area of considerable interest at the USNaval Academy. As the primary source of junior officers for both the US Navy and USMarine Corp it is an objective of the US Naval Academy to provide graduates with thetechnical skills necessary to contribute to the modern navy as well as graduates with amake-up that reflects the country and Navy as a whole. The US Naval Academy offersten STEM majors, five of which are in engineering: Aerospace Engineering, Electricaland Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture and OceanEngineering, and Weapons and Systems Engineering. Major selection occurs in thesophomore year after a common freshman year. Each year approximately one-third of anentering class enrolls in an engineering major with about 300 of those students enrollingin statics. Performance in statics has been a strong predictor of success in followingengineering courses and retention in the engineering majors as well. Consequently,efforts have been made to improve student performance in statics. One effort, used overthe last 12 years, has been to identify at risk students and place them in special sections ofstatics that have an additional weekly contact hour. Traditional students take a class with3 hours of lecture while at risk students have an additional hour of class weekly. How theadditional hour is used is left to the discretion of the instructor. In some cases it is used asadditional lecture time to reinforce previous concepts while in other cases it is used as amore traditional recitation session. Anecdotal evidence has shown improved performanceof at risk students placed in the course with the additional hour of contact. No formalinvestigation has been conducted, however. Ideally, an evaluation would be performed byplacing a representative group of at risk students in the traditional course while leavingthe remainder in special sections. The performance of each could then be comparedallowing a reasonable comparison to be made. No such controlled study has beenconducted, however. To avoid conducting such a study, and the potential of placing the atrisk students at a disadvantage, a statistical analysis of the existing record has beenperformed. Using 10 years of legacy data a group of students in the traditional staticssections were identified that had a statistical profile similar to the at risk students placedin the special sections. The performance of these students in statics, and the follow ondynamics course, were then compared with the at risk students placed in the specialsection. It was found that the statics and dynamics performance of each group werestatistically identical indicating that the additional contact hour in statics had a minimalimpact on the performance of at risk students.
AU - John Burkhardt Ph.D.
CY - San Antonio, Texas
DA - 2012/06/10
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Additional Class Contact Time on Student Performance in Statics
UR - https://peer.asee.org/21349
DO - 10.18260/1-2--21349
ER -