PROMOTING AND ASSESSING INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDINGIN A JUNIOR-LEVEL MODELING COURSE

摘要

Many faculty have observed that even the best engineering students have difficulty taking arncomplicated real-life device and developing a tractable mathematical model of its operation for thernpurposes of simulation or control design. We feel that the major obstacles to this desired outcomernstem from three deficiencies.rn1. Difficulty in using appropriate simplifying assumptions to render a tractable mathematicalrnmodel of a complex device.rn2. A lack of experience in designing experiments to measure physical parameters of a devicernand a lack of intuitive understanding of the appropriate ranges of these parameters.rn3. Failure to use electronic resources such as databases and internet to discover how morerncomplicated devices, not discussed in lecture, operate.rnIn fact these issues are explicitly addressed in ABET’s Criteria for Accrediting EngineeringrnPrograms.rnWhile traditional textbook and exam problems do a fine job conveying the procedural andrnmathematical concepts of modeling physical systems, it is much more difficult to give students anrnunderstanding of the artful aspects of the modeling process outlined above. In this paper werndescribe a series of laboratory and homework exercises designed to help students hone these skills,rndiscuss how to assess their performance on the exercises and share the results of student opinionrnsurveys.