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Exhibiting Productive Beginnings of Engineering Judgment during Open-Ended Modeling Problems in an Introductory Mechanics of Materials Course

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Conference

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Tampa, Florida

Publication Date

June 15, 2019

Start Date

June 15, 2019

End Date

June 19, 2019

Conference Session

ERM Technical Session 18: Student Learning and Problem Solving

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods

Page Count

21

DOI

10.18260/1-2--32786

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/32786

Download Count

548

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Paper Authors

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Jessica E. S. Swenson University of Michigan

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Jessica Swenson is a post doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. She received her doctorate and masters from Tufts University in mechanical engineering and STEM education respectively. Her current research involves examining different types of homework problems in undergraduate engineering courses, teaching in flexible classroom spaces, active learning, responsive teaching, and developing elementary engineering teachers.

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Aaron W. Johnson University of Michigan

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Aaron W. Johnson is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014, after which he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. Aaron also obtained a master's degree from MIT in 2010 and a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 2008, both in aerospace engineering.

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Timothy G. Chambers University of Michigan

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Dr. Chambers is the instructional laboratory supervisor and instructor for advanced lab courses in Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan.

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Laura Hirshfield University of Michigan

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Laura Hirshfield is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Lecturer and engineering education researcher at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Purdue University, both in chemical engineering. She then transitioned into the engineering education field with postdoctoral positions at Oregon State University, Olin College of Engineering and University of Michigan. Her research interests lie in assessing and amending curricula to help students transition from undergraduate to professional practice.

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Abstract

This paper presents a study of students solving open-ended modeling problems (OEMPs) in a sophomore level aerospace mechanics of materials course. OEMPs are homework problems that have no correct answer and ask students to create a model to solve a problem in a real world context. Students were asked to solve two of these problems as part of their regular homework assignment. Through interviews, five students in the course described their problem solving process and evaluated their models. Our analysis found students exhibited the productive beginnings of engineering judgement when creating their models. We also found students enjoyed and wanted more OEMPs given in their classes. Implications include creating more OEMPs for different types of engineering science courses and implementing a discussion or reflection for students after they turn in the problems.

Swenson, J. E. S., & Johnson, A. W., & Chambers, T. G., & Hirshfield, L. (2019, June), Exhibiting Productive Beginnings of Engineering Judgment during Open-Ended Modeling Problems in an Introductory Mechanics of Materials Course Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32786

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