{"title":"A First Attempt at Introducing Problem-Based Learning in an Engineering Dynamics Course","authors":"T. Khraishi","doi":"10.18260/1-2-620-38499","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The engineering education literature, and other literature, is rich with references to the importance of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in enhancing the educational experience of undergraduate students. In particular, PBL is supposed to strengthen concept learning in students. Such belief motivated the author to experiment with PBL in a required Dynamics class in the mechanical engineering (ME) department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Due to the overall size of UNM and its mission, such a class typically involves a relatively large number of students (more than 40 typically). Such an enrollment figure encouraged the PBL experiment further since more interaction among students, or student groups, is probable and at least possible. The author found out that the most difficult part in the PBL experiment was picking one. The other thing found was that an extensive amount of effort went into making the experiment a successful one. The PBL experiment consisted of asking student groups to design an apparatus of some sort that is capable of shooting a golf ball in the air such that it lands in the middle of a sand-filled box at least one meter away. It was vital for the students to build their designs based on concepts learned in their Dynamics class and to explain, by equations, how their design works. The problem statement, as can be inferred, was open-ended and generated a spectrum of response from the students, i.e. different designs of the apparatus. A demonstration of all designs was held at the end of the semester. Although the students’ learning, at least some of them, was enhanced by this experiment, the results did not prove to be as optimistic as initially hoped. Many students made major assumptions, namely neglecting friction in the workenergy equation, without verifying that such an assumption was a good or bad one. Indeed, this assumption turned out to be a bad one for some of the designs. Other problems arose when some groups tried to use a spring mechanism to initiate ball flight. This and other issues like what lessons were learned from this experiment are discussed in the paper.","PeriodicalId":355306,"journal":{"name":"2003 GSW Proceedings","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"2003 GSW Proceedings","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2-620-38499","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
The engineering education literature, and other literature, is rich with references to the importance of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in enhancing the educational experience of undergraduate students. In particular, PBL is supposed to strengthen concept learning in students. Such belief motivated the author to experiment with PBL in a required Dynamics class in the mechanical engineering (ME) department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Due to the overall size of UNM and its mission, such a class typically involves a relatively large number of students (more than 40 typically). Such an enrollment figure encouraged the PBL experiment further since more interaction among students, or student groups, is probable and at least possible. The author found out that the most difficult part in the PBL experiment was picking one. The other thing found was that an extensive amount of effort went into making the experiment a successful one. The PBL experiment consisted of asking student groups to design an apparatus of some sort that is capable of shooting a golf ball in the air such that it lands in the middle of a sand-filled box at least one meter away. It was vital for the students to build their designs based on concepts learned in their Dynamics class and to explain, by equations, how their design works. The problem statement, as can be inferred, was open-ended and generated a spectrum of response from the students, i.e. different designs of the apparatus. A demonstration of all designs was held at the end of the semester. Although the students’ learning, at least some of them, was enhanced by this experiment, the results did not prove to be as optimistic as initially hoped. Many students made major assumptions, namely neglecting friction in the workenergy equation, without verifying that such an assumption was a good or bad one. Indeed, this assumption turned out to be a bad one for some of the designs. Other problems arose when some groups tried to use a spring mechanism to initiate ball flight. This and other issues like what lessons were learned from this experiment are discussed in the paper.