Engineering - Mechanical (56) Assessment/Research (91) This is a phase-one project exploring the best ways to introduce computing into the early undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum, focusing particularly on numerical analysis. Given the importance of computing in professional engineering practice, this project is trying to improve students' facility with computers while moving away from "cookbook" approaches that emphasize software-specific skills at the expense of more fundamental mathematical and conceptual understanding.
The project's four research questions are designed collectively to investigate when students know how to make effective choices about computer analyses: 1. What computer experiences (STEM and otherwise) do students have when they enter college-level engineering classes? 2. In what ways does varying the timing of the introduction of computer techniques affect students' expectations and creative use of these methods? 3. In what kinds of problems do computers specifically enhance understanding? In what kinds of problems does the computer act as an obstacle to understanding? 4. How can we emphasize the importance of setting up problems for computer-aided solutions instead of emphasizing the results of the process? These questions are being investigated through a sophomore course in numerical analysis. Each of the four topics is the source of several experiments using different teaching strategies and methods. These experiments are being assessed using students' grades, surveys and interviews, and two graduate student participant-observers. The Intellectual Merit of this project stems from the research itself. Computers are central to the practice of mechanical engineering. However, their introduction and use in the undergraduate engineering curriculum has been largely ad hoc. The Broader Impacts flow from the improved assessment of students' previous experience with computers. This will help engineering educators serve students from under-resourced school districts. The extreme contrast between resources in urban and rural school districts in South Carolina and its effect on early engineering coursework often follows along racial lines. Educating students to gain greater conceptual agility in setting up problems for computer-based analysis will help employers gain control over their software choices and ultimately produce better products for society.
