Curriculum Design of Statics and Dynamics: An Integrated Scaffolding and Hands-on Approach

Abstract

Statics and Dynamics are necessary fundamental components of the engineering curriculum for Mechanical Engineering (ME), Civil Engineering (CE), and some other engineering disciplines. Students typically take these courses at the beginning of their second (sophomore) year and data suggests that many students drop out of engineering majors around this time. While this may not be directly attributed to Statics and Dynamics, it is widely agreed that these courses are challenging for many students. This paper presents the outline of a recently designed combined course in Statics and Dynamics with many new features that are not observed in the traditional courses in Statics and Dynamics. The need for designing a new combined course has been necessitated by four factors-a need for incorporating hands-on skills that are increasingly demanded by employers, navigating students through a challenging course that is a prerequisite for other courses, attempting to improve retention of ME and CE students, and balancing the credit hour load of students in a liberal education environment where general education requirements are sizeable. This course has added new learning outcomes to accommodate laboratory experience as well as use of simulation software to enhance student engagement and at the same time provide the students with multiple options that encourage different learning styles. The course has been designed for four credit hours consisting of 180 minutes of lecture time, 120 minutes of laboratory time and 60 minutes of tutoring time every week of the fourteen week semester. The contact time has been distributed so as to promote scaffolding of the learning process. The learning outcomes established for this course include ABET 1 outcomes 'a' and 'e' as well as ABET 1 outcomes 'b' and 'k'. Although it may be argued that the inclusion of more learning outcomes may overburden the students and require them to allocate more time for this course, the feedback from students for the last two semesters has been generally positive. This paper provides the details of the curriculum and explains the rationale behind the changes in a critical course for ME and CE students. It is expected that the curriculum will lead to a broader discussion on the need to revamp critical courses in the engineering curriculum in order to enhance student engagement, and in an attempt to improve student retention in engineering.

Work in Progress: Hands-on Engineering Dynamics using Physical Models in Laboratory Sessions

“…Student needs to develop an in-depth analytical skill of a dynamic system to succeed in these upper-level courses. Students find the Dynamics course very challenging and often define it as the hardest course [1]- [3]. In Dynamics, students have to deal with theories and problems of motion and apply combined concepts from math and physics.…”

Improve Technical Communication Using Scaffolding Method in Mechanical Engineering Courses

“…These small tasks are meant to build and refine component skills necessary for the achievement of the large learning outcomes. Scaffolding has been shown to be successful in improving student learning at multiple education levels and across various subjects [9,10,11,12]. Additionally, scaffolding has recently proven to be a successful tool in improving student learning in writing environments [13].…”

Identification and Creation of Experiential Learning Modules for Engineering Statics and Dynamics (Work in Progress)

“…From designing a simple ladder to the formulation of a space shuttle trajectory, a deep comprehension of these core courses is required. Thus, these courses serve as a prerequisite for many upper-level engineering courses in most universities; however, a high drop-out rate in Statics and Dynamics is widely reported [1], [2].…”

“…Wang Ken defined "Learning" as the process of entering into the experience of pleasure, and pleasure is the state of being brought about by what you learn [1]. Experiential learning is the process of learning by inquiring about the nature of experience [1].…”

“…Wang Ken defined "Learning" as the process of entering into the experience of pleasure, and pleasure is the state of being brought about by what you learn [1]. Experiential learning is the process of learning by inquiring about the nature of experience [1]. Kolb stated that experiential learning includes all modes of the learning cycle and ensures effective knowledge acquisition [1].…”