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Using A Materials Concept Inventory To Assess An Introductory Materials Class: Potential And Problems

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Conference

2005 Annual Conference

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 12, 2005

Start Date

June 12, 2005

End Date

June 15, 2005

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Useful Assessment in Materials Education

Page Count

8

Page Numbers

10.1396.1 - 10.1396.8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--14180

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/14180

Download Count

551

Paper Authors

author page

William Jordan

author page

Henry Cardenas

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Chad O'Neal

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Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Using a Materials Concept Inventory to Assess an Introductory Materials Class: Potential and Problems William Jordan, Henry Cardenas, and Chad B. O’Neal College of Engineering and Science Louisiana Tech University Ruston, LA 71272

ABSTRACT

In every engineering course there is a concern about how much the students are actually learning. The physics community has addressed this through the development of an assessment instrument called the Force Concept Inventory. More recently this has been expanded to the development of Engineering Concept Inventories. Universities affiliated with the N.S.F. sponsored Foundation Coalition have developed a number of these inventories.

A Materials Concept Inventory has been developed by faculty from Arizona State University and Texas A & M University. They have reported on their work at the 2003 and 2004 A.S.E.E. Annual Conferences1,2. They have encouraged further refinement of the inventory as a way to help measure the effectiveness of introductory materials engineering courses. A Beta version of this inventory has been graciously provided to Louisiana Tech University.

This inventory has been used in seven different sections of our introductory materials engineering course taught during the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years. Approximately 210 students have taken the inventory at the beginning and end of the course. The use of this assessment instrument in our course has provided insight into what is being taught effectively and what areas need improvement. There was a reasonably good correlation between student performance on the inventory post test and the student grade in the course.

INTRODUCTION TO A MATERIALS CONCEPT INVENTORY

In every engineering course there is a concern about how much the students are actually learning. The physics community has addressed this through the development of an assessment instrument called the Force Concept Inventory. More recently this has been expanded to the development of Engineering Concept Inventories. Universities affiliated with the N.S.F. sponsored Foundation Coalition have developed a number of these inventories.

A Materials Concept Inventory has been developed by faculty from Arizona State University and Texas A & M University. They have reported on their work at the 2003 and 2004 A.S.E.E. Annual Conferences1,2. They have encouraged further refinement of “Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

Jordan, W., & Cardenas, H., & O'Neal, C. (2005, June), Using A Materials Concept Inventory To Assess An Introductory Materials Class: Potential And Problems Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14180

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