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2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Active Engineering Education Modules: Summary Paper of Five Years of Incremental Improvements to the Modules

Presented at NSF Grantees Poster Session I

Active Engineering Education Modules: Summary Paper of Five Years of Incremental Improvements to the Modules

Abstract

The landscape of contemporary engineering education is ever changing, adapting and evolving.
Finite element theory and application has often been the focus of graduate-level courses in engineering programs; however, industry needs more bachelor's-level engineering graduates to have skills in applying this essential analysis and design technique. Today's globally competitive world requires fast redesigns of products/ processes that is well suited to using finite element analysis to reduced the design cycle. We have used the Kolb Learning Cycle as a conceptual framework to improve student learning of difficult engineering concepts, and to gain essential knowledge of finite element analysis (FEA) and design content knowledge.

Originally developed using MSC Nastran, followed by development efforts in SolidWorks Simulation, ANSOFT, ANSYS, and other commercial FEA software packages, a team of researchers, with National Science Foundation support for the past five years, have created and made improvements to seventeen active learning FEA modules. We summarize the incremental improvements of these learning modules during the past five years as we implemented them into undergraduate courses that covered topics such as machine design, mechanical vibrations, heat transfer, bioelectrical engineering, electromagnetic field analysis, structural fatigue analysis, computational fluid dynamics, rocket design, chip formation during manufacturing, and large scale deformation in machining.

This final summary paper covers the five years of incremental improvements to the modules comparing the student performance on pre- and post-learning module quizzes to gauge change in student knowledge related to the difficult engineering concepts addressed in each module. The researchers made significant changes to their finite element learning modules annually to improve student understanding of these difficult engineering concepts in their classes. Statistically significant student performance gains provide evidence of module effectiveness by gender and ethnic groups was found to be minimum. In addition, we present statistical comparisons between different personality types (based on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI subgroups) and different learning styles (based on Felder-Solomon ILS subgroups) in regards to the average gains each subgroup of students has made on quiz performance. Although exploratory, and generally based on small sample sizes in our five-year formative evaluation process, the modules for which subgroup differences were carefully reviewed and some instances re-administered in a different settings in an attempt to improve student improvements across specific personality and /or learning styles subgroups (e.g. MBTI Intuitive versus Sensing; ILS Sequential versus Global).

Authors
  1. Dr. Ashland O. Brown University of the Pacific [biography]

    Ashland O. Brown, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Pacific
    He has served as dean of engineering for ten years at both the University of the Pacific and South Carolina State University and headed engineering groups at Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp

  2. Dr. Joseph J. Rencis P.E. Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3207-7446 Tennessee Technological University [biography]

    Dr. Joseph J. Rencis is the dean of engineering by the Clay N. Hixson Chair for Engineering Leadership, and professor of mechanical engineering at Tennessee Technological University. From 2004 to 2011, he was in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and was Department Head, inaugural 21st Century Leadership Chair in Mechanical Engineering, and professor. From 1985 to 2004, he was professor and director of Engineering Mechanics in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. His research focuses on boundary element methods, finite element methods, atomistic modeling, and engineering education. He currently serves on the editorial board of Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements and the Journal of Online Engineering Education. He is an associate editor of the International Series on Advances in Boundary Elements. He currently serves as President of ASEE. He received the 2002 ASEE New England Section Teacher of Year Award, the 2004 ASEE New England Section Outstanding Leader Award, the 2006 ASEE Mechanics Division James L. Meriam Service Award, and the 2010 ASEE Midwest Section Outstanding Service Award. Rencis is a fellow of ASEE and ASME. He received a B.S. from Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1980, a M.S. from Northwestern University in 1982, and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1985.

  3. Dr. Daniel D. Jensen Westmont College [biography]

    Dr. Dan Jensen is the Westmont Endowed Professor of Engineering and the Director of the Engineering program at Westmont College.

  4. Prof. Paul Henry Schimpf Eastern Washington University [biography]

    Paul H. Schimpf received the B.S.E.E (summa cum laude), M.S.E.E., and Ph.D.
    degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1982, 1987, and 1995,
    respectively. Dr. Schimpf began his academic career in 1998, and is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, USA. His research interests include numerical methods for forward and inverse solutions to partial differential equations with biomedical
    applications. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Schimpf was employed as a
    Senior Principal Design Engineer in the electronics industry, where he
    enjoyed 15 years of experience developing parallel embedded signal and image
    processing systems.

  5. Dr. Richard H. Crawford University of Texas, Austin [biography]

    Dr. Richard H. Crawford is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and is the Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow No. 3. He is also Director of the Design Projects program in Mechanical Engineering. He received his BSME from Louisiana State University in 1982, and his MSME in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989, both from Purdue University. He teaches mechanical engineering design and geometry modeling for design. Dr. Crawford’s research interests span topics in computer-aided mechanical design and design theory and methodology. Dr. Crawford is co-founder of the DTEACh program, a ”Design Technology” program for K-12, and is active on the faculty of the UTeachEngineering program that seeks to educate teachers of high school engineering.

  6. Dr. Ismail I Orabi University of New Haven [biography]

    Professor Orabi received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cairo Institute of Technology (now Helwan University), in 1975, his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, in 1982, and his Ph.D. degree fro

  7. Prof. Kyle A. Watson University of the Pacific [biography]

    Kyle Watson earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Villanova University and his M.S. and
    Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. He has been a faculty member at
    the University of the Pacific since 2003 and has taugh

  8. Prof. Jiancheng Liu University of the Pacific [biography]

    Dr. Jiancheng Liu is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Pacific. Dr. Liu’s research experience and teaching interest have been in the areas of machine design and manufacturing engineering, with specific focuses on CNC machine tool design, mechanical micro machining, cutting process, flexible manufacturing system automation, sensing and control technology, and intelligent CAM technology. With his many years’ experience in industry and universities, Dr. Liu has published over 100 technical journals and conference papers. He was awarded four patents. Many of his research results have been successfully implemented as commercial products or practically applied. Among his many honors is the Industrial LEAD Award from SME.

  9. Dr. Kathy Schmidt Jackson Pennsylvania State University, University Park [biography]

    Kathy Jackson is a Researcher at Pennsylvania State University’s Teaching and Learning with Technology Group. In this position, she works with faculty across Penn State to study and research how learning works in today's media enhanced learning environments. In addition, she is an Affiliate Faculty in the Higher Education Department where she is teaches a class on college teaching.

  10. Dr. Mouchumi Bhattacharyya University of the Pacific
  11. Mr. Kevin Leigh Webster Jr.
  12. Dr. Chuan-Chiang Chen California State Polytechnic University, Pomona [biography]

    Chuan-Chiang Chen is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona since 2009. He earned his B.S. degree from National ChiaoTung University, Taiwan, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ohio State University, all in the field of mechanical engineering. His teaching and research interests include solid mechanics, system dynamics, measurements, acoustics, and vibrations.

  13. Dr. Firas Akasheh Tuskegee University
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