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Engineering Commons

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Engineering Education

Old Dominion University

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Engineering education

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

First-Year Project Experience In Aerospace: Apogee Determination Of Model Rockets With Explicit Consideration Of Drag Effect, Hüseyin Sarper, Drew Landman, Linda Vahala Jan 2016

First-Year Project Experience In Aerospace: Apogee Determination Of Model Rockets With Explicit Consideration Of Drag Effect, Hüseyin Sarper, Drew Landman, Linda Vahala

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper describes a student team project using model rockets and engines to learn engineering solution methods for determining the apogee of model rocket when the drag effect is considered explicitly instead of estimating its effect later. Model rocketry is a powerful tool for instructors who wish to incorporate science, engineering, and mathematics into a fun, engaging, and challenging activity for the students. The apogee can be determined using a number of distinct methods: trigonometry, onboard altimeters, analytical calculations, and simulation. This paper emphasizes numerical analytical solution using spreadsheet programming instead of a full analytical solution that requires higher mathematics. …


An Instrument For Assessing Knowledge Gain In A First Course In Circuit Theory, Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Stephen A. Zahorian, Oscar R. González, Amit Kumar H., James Leathrum Jan 2002

An Instrument For Assessing Knowledge Gain In A First Course In Circuit Theory, Vishnu K. Lakdawala, Stephen A. Zahorian, Oscar R. González, Amit Kumar H., James Leathrum

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Although there has been considerable research on the development and use of assessment instruments to measure the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches to teaching introductory physics classes (Hestenes et al. 1, Hestenes et al 2, Hake 3, Saul et al. 4) and other science courses (for example, see Vosniadou 5), there is relatively little similar work that has been done to develop assessment instruments for the first circuit theory course that is taught in electrical and computer engineering. Given the large numbers of students nationwide who take such a course, the challenge this course presents to beginning engineering students, and …