An approach for in-class learning of mechanical engineering design subjects

摘要

The objective of this paper is to present a simple approach currently being used by the author forteaching mechanical engineering design courses at Kettering University.Most basic engineering design courses currently being taught at the university are four-creditcourses. These usually follow a format of two blocks (two hours) per week, with four hours oflecture or, when the course requires, a lecture and a laboratory (both consisting of two hours).For basic design courses, where no laboratory is included or in-class activities are not required,the two-hour lecture blocks can be more efficiently utilized if part of the block is used for studentlearning of the material presented by the instructor instead of using the entire block just forinstructor presentation.This paper presents a simple idea for achieving this goal. The idea was implemented and testedin three distinct engineering courses, namely ME-309 (Vibrations), MECH 210 (Mechanics I –Statics), and MECH 310 (Mechanics III – Dynamics). For evaluation purposes, student feedbackand comments are included in the text. An example that relates to the subject discussed is alsogiven.