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Lessons Learned from the Use of Active Learning Strategies in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Courses

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

MECH - Technical Session 6: Curriculum Development and Pedagogical Strategies

Tagged Division

Mechanical Engineering Division (MECH)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47727

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Paper Authors

biography

Jeffrey N Phillips Hanover College Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3608-8211

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Launched Hanover College's Engineering program in 2018 after working for more than 30 years in R&D organizations in the energy industry. Currently teach Mechanical Engineering and design-related classes at Hanover.

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Abstract

Active learning strategies, defined by one university’s learning center as any type of activity during class that engages learners in deep thought about the subject matter, have been used by the author in a variety of undergraduate Mechanical Engineering courses and have been shown to increase student knowledge. While the majority of the courses have employed a strategy similar to the Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) pedagogy, other strategies have been used in specific courses. Those strategies include assignments in which students develop wiki-pages that are shared with classmates via a learning management system (LMS), student mini-lectures, and design-your-own lab projects. The POGIL pedagogy was started in the 1990s by a group of Chemistry professors to improve learning in their field but has since spread to other STEM subjects and even non-STEM subjects such as music. However, the availability of materials to facilitate the use of POGIL in Mechanical Engineering courses has so far been limited to Materials Science classes. This paper will describe the development and use of more than 120 guided inquiries or worksheets on which students work in small groups of 3 or 4 to answer a series of questions in Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, and Instrumentation courses. Results from end of course grades in six different courses have shown an increase in student knowledge in the classes taught with the POGIL-like strategies compared to the same course taught with a traditional lecture style. End-of-course feedback from students has also been positive. This paper will also describe a sampling of other active learning assignments which were used in these courses as well as a 300-level course on Manufacturing & Design and a 400-level course on Power Generation and Energy Storage.

Phillips, J. N. (2024, June), Lessons Learned from the Use of Active Learning Strategies in Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47727

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