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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Techniques From Workshops On Teaching: Implementing The Concepts And Evaluating Our Approaches, Michael R. Foster, Justin R. Vander Werff
Techniques From Workshops On Teaching: Implementing The Concepts And Evaluating Our Approaches, Michael R. Foster, Justin R. Vander Werff
Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering
The challenges for new engineering educators abound and there are never enough hours in a day or days in a week. Young educators may lack confidence in course subject material given that they have never taught (the topic and/or in a classroom) before. In addition, their knowledge of teaching pedagogy and classroom management strategies often lacks refinement since their education is almost exclusively in a field of engineering rather than education. Teaching workshops have been developed to expose instructors in higher education to practical teaching pedagogy and effective classroom management. These workshops often emphasize research-based methods including use of clearly …
A Review Of Programmable Logic Controllers In Control Systems Education, Michael R. Foster, Chad Hammerquist, Robert Melendy
A Review Of Programmable Logic Controllers In Control Systems Education, Michael R. Foster, Chad Hammerquist, Robert Melendy
Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering
A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a standard industrial control device that provides a simple, yet robust, method of controlling manufacturing and dynamic processes. As a result of their low cost, adaptability, and reliability, PLCs are by far the most common control mechanism used by manufacturing businesses of all sizes for environment control, food processing, motion control, and automated test equipment. Yet even though PLCs are heavily used by industry, their use in teaching control theory concepts is uncommon for mechanical engineering programs. Traditional control systems engineering courses focus on the theory and mathematics of continuous-based control systems and rarely …
An Investigation Of Students’ Conceptual Understanding In Related Sophomore To Graduate-Level Engineering And Mechanics Courses, Devlin Montfort, Shane Brown, David Pollock
An Investigation Of Students’ Conceptual Understanding In Related Sophomore To Graduate-Level Engineering And Mechanics Courses, Devlin Montfort, Shane Brown, David Pollock
Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering
Interviews were conducted with students from a sophomore-level mechanics of materials class, a sophomore/junior-level structures class, a senior-level steel design class and a graduate-level advanced steel design class to investigate students’ conceptual understanding of bending and normal stress. The graduate students generally demonstrated higher computational skill and confidence but they were not significantly different from the sophomores in terms of conceptual understanding. Interestingly, the seniors showed markedly lower confidence in their ability to solve the problems posed in the interviews. Common difficulties include a conceptual definition of stress and reasoning involving the normal stresses developed under bending.
Efficacy Of Interactive Internet-Based Education In Structural Timber Design, Aaron B. Henson, Kenneth J. Fridley, David Pollock, C Jayne Brahler
Efficacy Of Interactive Internet-Based Education In Structural Timber Design, Aaron B. Henson, Kenneth J. Fridley, David Pollock, C Jayne Brahler
Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering
While traditional teaching methods (e.g., real-time, synchronous lectures) have proven effective for training future engineers, the Internet provides an avenue to reinforce the material and augment student learning, comprehension, and retention of material. This paper presents the integration and assessment of a library of interactive instructional modules specifically for a senior-level undergraduate elective course in civil engineering. An ongoing, comprehensive assessment process was implemented in the fall 1999 semester. The results of this quantitative assessment indicate that the use of well designed and pedagogically sound Internet-based supplemental modules provide students with a better understanding of course material. However, when Internet-based …