Using Post-Assessment Reflection to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes in a Fluid Mechanics Course

Boni Yraguen; Anna Lummus; Hannia Koolman; Roxanne Moore; Katherine Fu

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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: ERM: Problem Solving and Conceptual Understanding
Page Count: 23
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41025
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41025
Download Count: 364

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Paper Authors

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Boni Yraguen Georgia Institute of Technology

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Boni Yraguen is a PhD student at Georgia Tech. Her dissertation work is in the field of combustion/thermo./fluids. She studies a novel diesel injection strategy: Ducted Fuel Injection (DFI), which is used to drastically decrease soot emissions during diesel combustion. In addition to her thesis work, Boni is passionate about engineering education. She has led and participated in various educational studies on the impact of student reflections, authentic learning assignments, ad the use of technology in the classroom. Boni hopes to pursue a career in academia with a focus on teaching and engineering education.

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Hannia Koolman Georgia Institute of Technology

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Roxanne Moore Georgia Institute of Technology

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Roxanne Moore is a Senior Research Engineer in the G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on design and engineering education with a focus on promoting diversity and inclusion. She has served as PI and co-PI for grants from multiple sponsors including NSF and Amazon totaling more than $9M. In addition, her STEM outreach programs and curricula have impacted hundreds of thousands of K-12 students nationwide. She is the co-founder and director of Georgia Tech’s K-12 InVenture Prize, a statewide invention competition, open to all students and teachers in Georgia. She earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2007, and her Masters and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2009 and 2012. Dr. Moore received the Georgia Tech Teaching Effectiveness Award in 2018.

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Katherine Fu Georgia Institute of Technology

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Anna Lummus Georgia Institute of Technology

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Abstract

This evidence-based practice paper will assess the impact of reflecting on student learning levels as compared to typical assessments of understanding (quizzes) in a fluid mechanics course.

Problem solving skills are critical to becoming an effective engineer. With minimal application opportunities for upper-level course material in the typical engineering curriculum, students are often not sufficiently prepared to accomplish rigorous design projects in industry immediately following graduation. Having the requisite knowledge is only one part of the task; being able to effectively utilize and apply prior knowledge requires more advanced learning outcomes. Fluid Mechanics is a lecture-based course in which deep understanding of the material is required to comfortably approach new problems. It is also generally considered to be one of the harder and less intuitive engineering courses in mechanical engineering (ME) curriculum. Reflections encourage students to understand the problem, analyze their problem-solving strategies, identify areas of improvement, and correct themselves, thus encouraging a higher level of learning. Introducing post-assessment reflection in the classroom could improve student understanding of the course material and encourage higher levels of learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy categorizes levels of problem-solving and learning in a tiered system, the bottom of which is the most basic level of learning and the highest is the most complex and critical level of learning. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to code student quiz reflections, the level of understanding the students employed while completing different tasks in the assessment and during the reflection process can be identified. To conduct this study, post-assessment reflections written by 54 students in a Fluid Mechanics class have been coded sentence-by-sentence for each tier of Bloom’s Taxonomy to characterize levels of learning. Using keywords, sentences coded under each category were then sorted depending on whether they indicated a student reflecting versus the student’s assessment performance alone. Based on preliminary analyses, we hypothesize that students achieved higher levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy during the reflection assignment than during the quiz assessment. In this paper, we will describe the assessment, reflection assignment, and coding scheme, and use coded student data to test this hypothesis.

Keywords: reflection, bloom's taxonomy, fluid mechanics

Citation
Format

Yraguen, B., & Koolman, H., & Moore, R., & Fu, K., & Lummus, A. (2022, August), Using Post-Assessment Reflection to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes in a Fluid Mechanics Course Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41025

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This evidence-based practice paper will assess the impact of reflecting on student learning levels as compared to typical assessments of understanding (quizzes) in a fluid mechanics course. 

Problem solving skills are critical to becoming an effective engineer. With minimal application opportunities for upper-level course material in the typical engineering curriculum, students are often not sufficiently prepared to accomplish rigorous design projects in industry immediately following graduation. Having the requisite knowledge is only one part of the task; being able to effectively utilize and apply prior knowledge requires more advanced learning outcomes. Fluid Mechanics is a lecture-based course in which deep understanding of the material is required to comfortably approach new problems. It is also generally considered to be one of the harder and less intuitive engineering courses in mechanical engineering (ME) curriculum. 
Reflections encourage students to understand the problem, analyze their problem-solving strategies, identify areas of improvement, and correct themselves, thus encouraging a higher level of learning. Introducing post-assessment reflection in the classroom could improve student understanding of the course material and encourage higher levels of learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy categorizes levels of problem-solving and learning in a tiered system, the bottom of which is the most basic level of learning and the highest is the most complex and critical level of learning. Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to code student quiz reflections, the level of understanding the students employed while completing different tasks in the assessment and during the reflection process can be identified. To conduct this study, post-assessment reflections written by 54 students in a Fluid Mechanics class have been coded sentence-by-sentence for each tier of Bloom’s Taxonomy to characterize levels of learning. Using keywords, sentences coded under each category were then sorted depending on whether they indicated a student reflecting versus the student’s assessment performance alone. Based on preliminary analyses, we hypothesize that students achieved higher levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy during the reflection assignment than during the quiz assessment. In this paper, we will describe the assessment, reflection assignment, and coding scheme, and use coded student data to test this hypothesis.  

Keywords: reflection, bloom's taxonomy, fluid mechanics 

AU  - Boni Yraguen
AU  - Hannia Koolman
AU  - Roxanne Moore
AU  - Katherine Fu
AU  - Anna Lummus
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Using Post-Assessment Reflection to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes in a Fluid Mechanics Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41025
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41025
ER  -