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Can It Work for Us Too? Results from Using West Point’s Fundamentals of Engineering Mechanics and Design Course Redesign

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Curriculum and Instruction in Engineering Mechanics

Tagged Division

Mechanics

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30172

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/30172

Download Count

424

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Paper Authors

biography

Scott R. Hamilton P.E. York College of Pennsylvania

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Scott Hamilton is the Coordinator for the new Civil Engineering Program at York College of Pennsylvania. He is a registered Professional Engineer and has both a MS and PhD in civil engineering and a Masters in engineering management from Stanford University and a BS from the United States Military Academy, West Point. He is a retired US Army Corps of Engineers officer who has had assignments in the US, Germany, Korea, and Afghanistan. During his military career he spent over 10 years on the faculty at the US Military Academy at West Point teaching civil engineering. He also served as the Director, Graduate Professional Development at Northeastern University’s College of Engineering.

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biography

Jakob C. Bruhl U.S. Military Academy Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-1645-4520

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Lieutenant Colonel Jakob Bruhl is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He received his B.S. from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, M.S. Degrees from the University of Missouri at Rolla and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Missouri. His research interests include resilient infrastructure, protective structures, and engineering education.

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Joshua Richard Wyrick York College of Pennsylvania

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Abstract

At the 2017 ASEE National Conference and Exhibition two papers from the US Military Academy (one in the Mechanics Division and one in the Civil Engineering Division) detailed a redesign of their initial mechanics sequence and the introduction of Inquiry Based Learning Activities. The authors of those papers extended an offer to share details and materials of their course redesign and associated lesson activities. The authors of this paper took them up on that offer and in the Fall of 2017 implemented the changes proposed at the US Military Academy at their institution. The question this paper strives to answer is, can a similar course redesign produce similar results at an institution, that in many respects is very different from the US Military Academy; essentially is the West Point redesign reproducible and the results replicable and if so under what conditions?

This paper will strive to use many of the same measures from the original paper in the analysis of the success or failure of the implementation. The paper will also examine and document the differences between the students and institutions. It will then note differences in the administration of the course, changes made, and conduct of the course, to include number of instructors, sections, section size, group size and the demographic make-up of students in the course and list the effect of the differences discovered at this time. Finally, considering differences and similarities, the paper will analyze and capture the results and the effects of the two applications of the course redesign to come up with an answer to the research question.

Hamilton P.E., S. R., & Bruhl, J. C., & Wyrick, J. R. (2018, June), Can It Work for Us Too? Results from Using West Point’s Fundamentals of Engineering Mechanics and Design Course Redesign Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30172

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