Industry Feedback Leads to an Instructional Scaffold Approach to Teaching Geometric Dimensioning

Jenifer Blacklock; Greg Vanderbeek

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Manufacturing Workforce Development
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40756
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40756
Download Count: 295

Paper Authors

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Jenifer Blacklock University of Colorado Boulder

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Dr. Jenifer Blacklock is the Director of the Western Colorado University and CU Boulder partnership program, supporting Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science degree programs.

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Greg Vanderbeek University of Colorado Boulder

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Abstract

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is a powerful tool for designing and manufacturing products. If used correctly, GD&T can streamline and optimize the manufacturing of products, saving companies a tremendous amount of time and money. In trade schools, GD&T is traditionally taught in the machine shop in parallel to learning equipment in the machine shop. At the university level, traditional engineering curriculum conventionally teaches GD&T in design courses, many times without the use of the machine shop or understanding of the machine shop equipment capabilities. Students at universities tend to struggle with grasping GD&T concepts if ‘hands-on’ assignments or projects are not designed to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. (Waldorf, 2016)

At UNIVERSITY, the incorporation of GD&T into the classroom began with a recommendation from the UNIVERSITY’s industrial advisory board in addition to interviews with several companies both locally and nationally. The recommendations stemmed from students not having adequate GD&T and machine shop skills for both designing and manufacturing products upon graduation. Based on these recommendations, UNIVERSITY redesigned a traditional field session course into a successful 1) online and 2) ‘hands-on’ scaffolded approach to teaching GD&T and machine shop skills to engineering students with the goal of translating these teaching modules into modules for the current workforce development.

Throughout the past year, over 23 interviews have been conducted at companies across the country (support NSF-PEER, Award Number 1935674). These interviews have focused on manufacturing-centric companies, specifically asking about current work force development. From initial qualitative interview results, an aspect of GD&T or engineering design had 84 occurrences throughout these interviews. Many interviewees, were engineers within companies, stating that GD&T is currently lacking from the skillsets of engineers. There is a need to improve GD&T curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as within the current work force.

This paper discusses the development of a three-tiered instructional framework to teach core GD&T concepts to undergraduates, graduates and the current work force. The goal of using instructional scaffolding is to bring abstract concepts to life through ‘hands-on’ experiences and repetition. Additionally, the UNIVSERITY’S Teaching and Learning center created an asynchronous online platform for online course development based on best practice guidelines through Engineering and Facilitating Online Learning (EFOL). Finally, this paper will report on the assessment practices that took place over a two-year time period, to evaluate students understanding of GD&T concepts throughout their academic careers.

Citation
Format

Blacklock, J., & Vanderbeek, G. (2022, August), Industry Feedback Leads to an Instructional Scaffold Approach to Teaching Geometric Dimensioning Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40756

TY - CPAPER
AB - Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is a powerful tool for designing and manufacturing products. If used correctly, GD&T can streamline and optimize the manufacturing of products, saving companies a tremendous amount of time and money. In trade schools, GD&T is traditionally taught in the machine shop in parallel to learning equipment in the machine shop. At the university level, traditional engineering curriculum conventionally teaches GD&T in design courses, many times without the use of the machine shop or understanding of the machine shop equipment capabilities. Students at universities tend to struggle with grasping GD&T concepts if ‘hands-on’ assignments or projects are not designed to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. (Waldorf, 2016)

At UNIVERSITY, the incorporation of GD&T into the classroom began with a recommendation from the UNIVERSITY’s industrial advisory board in addition to interviews with several companies both locally and nationally. The recommendations stemmed from students not having adequate GD&T and machine shop skills for both designing and manufacturing products upon graduation. Based on these recommendations, UNIVERSITY redesigned a traditional field session course into a successful 1) online and 2) ‘hands-on’ scaffolded approach to teaching GD&T and machine shop skills to engineering students with the goal of translating these teaching modules into modules for the current workforce development.

Throughout the past year, over 23 interviews have been conducted at companies across the country (support NSF-PEER, Award Number 1935674). These interviews have focused on manufacturing-centric companies, specifically asking about current work force development. From initial qualitative interview results, an aspect of GD&T or engineering design had 84 occurrences throughout these interviews. Many interviewees, were engineers within companies, stating that GD&T is currently lacking from the skillsets of engineers. There is a need to improve GD&T curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as within the current work force.

This paper discusses the development of a three-tiered instructional framework to teach core GD&T concepts to undergraduates, graduates and the current work force. The goal of using instructional scaffolding is to bring abstract concepts to life through ‘hands-on’ experiences and repetition. Additionally, the UNIVSERITY’S Teaching and Learning center created an asynchronous online platform for online course development based on best practice guidelines through Engineering and Facilitating Online Learning (EFOL). Finally, this paper will report on the assessment practices that took place over a two-year time period, to evaluate students understanding of GD&T concepts throughout their academic careers.

AU - Jenifer Blacklock
AU - Greg Vanderbeek
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Industry Feedback Leads to an Instructional Scaffold Approach to Teaching Geometric Dimensioning
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40756
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40756
ER -