John Krupczak | Hope College (original) (raw)

Papers by John Krupczak

MRS Communications, Nov 7, 2022

Springer eBooks, 1994

The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Gammas, Electrons, Muons (GEM) magnet is a large superco... more The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Gammas, Electrons, Muons (GEM) magnet is a large superconducting solenoid with a total mass of 1.05 x 106 kg and a stored energy of 2.5 GJ. A cryogenic system to cool and to maintain the GEM magnet to liquid helium temperature is described. The system is designed to operate effectively under a variety of operating conditions, including cooldownlwarm-up, steady state operations, and quench. Primary cooling during steady-state operation is based on natural circulation thermo siphon flow through cooling tubes in the solenoid support bobbin. Additional cooling loops are included for lead and joint cooling and conductor stabilization. A helium refrigerator/liquefier rated at 2 kW and 20 gls will be specified to meet the refrigeration requirements. Cooldown of the magnet from 300 K to liquid nitrogen temperatures is accomplished using a counterflow helium-to-liquid-nitrogen heat exchanger independent of the helium refrigerator. The system incorporates provisions for maintenance access during accelerator beam operation.

Journal de physique. Colloque, Dec 1, 1981

We describe the source of a beam of liquid helium temperature state-selected hydrogen atoms to be... more We describe the source of a beam of liquid helium temperature state-selected hydrogen atoms to be used in the development of a very low temperature atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard. Recent experimental results which affect the design of such a beam are presented, and future experimental plans are outlined.

Thermal noise limits the precision of H maser standards out to averaging times of order 104 secon... more Thermal noise limits the precision of H maser standards out to averaging times of order 104 seconds, beyond which it is limited by other factors despite attempts to stabilize everything that could cause a frequency shift. This paper examines the dependence of the hydrogen maser frequency on factors other than thermal noise, in order to provide a guide to improving stabilization efforts.

Energy technology, Apr 3, 2023

The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key chall... more The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key challenge to solar applications due to intrinsic processes. Herein, an alternative strategy is developed by modulating the solar light spectrum with a series of photonic hybrids. Transparent thin films are synthesized with the solutions of porphyrin compounds and iron oxides which exhibit strong absorptions in the UV and IR regions. These spectral modulating thin films are photonically tuned via compositional optimization to absorb photons near 400 nm and above 1127 nm from solar spectrum to reduce thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption. These spectral modulators are applied in a particular configuration above a commercial silicon panel to partially filter the simulated solar light. The PCE of the silicon panel suffers a significant decrease due to temperature increase from 22.9 to 92.9 °C after 60 min solar irradiation, resulting in a PCE decrease from 25.1% to 16.3%. With the transparent spectral modulators, upon solar irradiation for 60 min, the maximum PCE has maintained at 20.5%. The mechanisms of PCE enhancement are identified based on reduced thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption.

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 3, 2020

This work describes an effort to identify and utilize insights from non-engineering students in t... more This work describes an effort to identify and utilize insights from non-engineering students in technological literacy courses to identify themes that may enliven introduction to engineering courses. Beginning engineering students may have interests more closely aligned with their non-engineer peers than current engineering professionals. Technological literacy courses on a number of campuses have established that explaining technology from a "how things work," perspective captivates the interest of a broad range of students. This "how things work" approach is characterized by a focus on technology familiar to the students in their everyday life, use of visual and graphical explanations such as concept maps, and inclusion of information that helps to establish a sense of empowerment upon understanding the technology. Incorporating this "how things work" approach into introduction to engineering will help achieve engineers that exhibit "practical ingenuity," and an ability to communicate technical issues to non-engineers, two critical attributes of the Engineer of 2020 as identified by the National Academy of Engineering. This work suggests that the visual and concept map approach is analogous to the engineering design technique of functional analysis or functional decomposition. Functional analysis provides a mechanism to discuss how things work with engineering students that is rooted in established engineering design methodology. Additionally, important devices or components in familiar technology can be treated as sub-functions in the functional analysis context. As these sub-functions consistently reappear throughout products or processes developed by the various engineering disciplines, authentic engineering knowledge can be introduced to introductory engineering students. Initial implementation of this approach in an Introduction to Engineering course at Hope College is outlined.

Physical review, Apr 1, 1982

The temperature dependence of the mean surface dwell time for hydrogen atoms adsorbed on polycrys... more The temperature dependence of the mean surface dwell time for hydrogen atoms adsorbed on polycrystalline molecular hydrogen surfaces has been measured over the temperature range 3.2 to 4.6 K using magnetic resonance of the hydrogen-atom ground-state hyperfine transition. The mean surface dwell time is reproducible from one surface preparation to another and is exponential with inverse temperature with exponent 39.79(32) K. A detailed theory is presented of the magnetic-resonance signal of a dilute gas subject to perturbations awhile adsorbed on the surface of its container. the initial stages of this work. 8. Mirhashem did the numerical signal simulations. We thank T. J. Greytak, D. Kleppner, and N. F. Ramsey for the loan of equipment and the Williams College Computer Center for generous allocations of computer time. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-80-C-0240, by the NSF under Grant No. PHY79 10967, and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under Contract No. 955441.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings, Aug 20, 2021

He has published over 50 articles in different journals and conference proceedings. He has served... more He has published over 50 articles in different journals and conference proceedings. He has served as an investigator for research projects sponsored by National Science Foundation, Ford Motor Company, and the US Army. Before working at Indiana State University, he was a faculty in the University of Louisville for 10 years. He also has over four years of industrial experience. He received his D.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lamar University (USA) in 1999, M.Sc. in Materials Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in 1991, and B.Sc. in Metallurgical Engineering from Tehran University in 1988. He is a member of ASEE, ASME, and ATMAE.

Applied Physics Letters, Feb 15, 1984

Trapezoidal gratings, both with and without thin dielectric overcoatings, have been used to coupl... more Trapezoidal gratings, both with and without thin dielectric overcoatings, have been used to couple up to 70% of a 119-μm laser beam into surface plasmons on a metal surface. The results indicate significant grating induced shifts in the dispersion relations.

Solar Energy, Jul 1, 2023

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Jul 1, 1994

Thisis apreprintofa paperintended forpublicationin ajournalorproceedings. Since changes may be ma... more Thisis apreprintofa paperintended forpublicationin ajournalorproceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprintis made available with the understanding thatit will not be cited orreproduced without the permission of the author. MA OY-_ oi il OI_ttlUTION OFTtlS I]OCUMEIT IS UAILIMI N DISCLAIMER This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes an)' warrant)', express or implied, or assumes ant' legal liability or responsibility for the accurac); completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privatel) owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Jul 1, 1994

This is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes... more This is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprint is made available with the understanding that it will not be cited or reproduced without the permission of the author.

ABSTRACT An experimental investigation is presented for a seasonal earth thermal storage system. ... more ABSTRACT An experimental investigation is presented for a seasonal earth thermal storage system. Results of operation from May 1983 to March 1985 of a full scale seasonal earth storage system are reported. The seasonal storage system under study consists of an underground insulated storage enclosing 1926 cubic meters of earth. The storage is charged by 171 square meters of flat plate solar collectors. Energy transfer to and from the storage is accomplished via a single layer of pipes installed horizontally at the storage mid-plane. The earth storage and collectors are coupled to water source heat pumps which provide space heating for a building of 5000 square meters of floor area. This system is located in Hatfield, Massachusetts, USA. This was a retrofit into an existing building. Construction required no special equipment or techniques. After full charging, the earth storage reaches a temperature of approximately 50°C. The use of seasonal storage resulted in a 136% increase in solar fraction compared to conventional storage during the month of December, and a 97% increase in January. These results indicate that successful seasonal solar energy storage and recovery can be achieved with a system of scale and design used in this experiment.

This panel will report the results of a workshop and symposium on the technological literacy of u... more This panel will report the results of a workshop and symposium on the technological literacy of undergraduates convened at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on March 26-27, 2007. The NAE advocates that all Americans become more knowledgeable about technology. Here technological literacy is defined as the broad understanding of all types of technological devices and process not just computers. The opportunity to utilize undergraduate education to further technological literacy of all students must not be neglected. Educators in Computer Science, Engineering and Technology have a responsibility to educate all students not just those intending technical careers. Despite the need for all Americans to become technologically literate, technical literacy is not likely to gain wide acceptance until the scholarly community develops standard courses that are supported by textbooks and other course materials. This National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored workshop sought to identify and define several models of technological literacy courses. In this FIE panel, short presentations about these models will be made by participants in the NAE/NSF symposium. This will be followed by a discussion with the audience. A goal of the discussion will be to seek the input from FIE participants on the technological literacy course models.

Energy Technology

The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key chall... more The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key challenge to solar applications due to intrinsic processes. Herein, an alternative strategy is developed by modulating the solar light spectrum with a series of photonic hybrids. Transparent thin films are synthesized with the solutions of porphyrin compounds and iron oxides which exhibit strong absorptions in the UV and IR regions. These spectral modulating thin films are photonically tuned via compositional optimization to absorb photons near 400 nm and above 1127 nm from solar spectrum to reduce thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption. These spectral modulators are applied in a particular configuration above a commercial silicon panel to partially filter the simulated solar light. The PCE of the silicon panel suffers a significant decrease due to temperature increase from 22.9 to 92.9 °C after 60 min solar irradiation, resulting in a PCE decrease from 25.1% to 16.3%. With the transparent...

2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2019

This innovative practice work-in-progress paper examines the application of design thinking in en... more This innovative practice work-in-progress paper examines the application of design thinking in engineering literacy courses and argues that, for engineering and technological literacy applications, design thinking exercises benefit from situating design activities within technological domains. This approach also facilitates assessment of the student design abilities. Design thinking is a well-known process for problem solving. However, when used in engineering literacy courses for non-engineering majors, the outcomes of the ideation stage are severely constrained by the student's internal technological knowledge base. Student design thinking exercises can result in technologically vague concepts. Liberal arts students from non-technical disciplines become frustrated and see the design process as suspect and fail to embrace a multidimensional perspective on design. Non-engineering students lack critical engineering science knowledge relevant to the problem but the nature of engineering literacy courses for non-engineers precludes in-depth mathematics-based engineering science prerequisites. We have found that the platform of technological domains effective in supporting students between the innovation of design thinking and the empowerment of engineering science. Technological systems form clusters or domains of related systems around a set of shared components based on similar underlying physical principles, for example, vapor-compression refrigeration systems. We have found that students benefit if design exercises are conducted in the context of a technological domain. In the work reported here, students studied the familiar domestic refrigerator as typifying the technology enabled by the engineering science underlying the vapor-compression cycle. Students were then presented with a design challenge involving a cooling application but different from the function of a domestic kitchen refrigerator. Non-engineering students were able to develop potentially feasible system design concepts at the component level that were novel to them. This approach made it possible to assess knowledge transfer and design ability of liberal arts students in a general education engineering literacy course.

Proceedings Frontiers in Education 35th Annual Conference

Since 1995 engineering faculty at Hope College have taught a course for non-engineering students ... more Since 1995 engineering faculty at Hope College have taught a course for non-engineering students called: "Science and Technology of Everyday Life" The course examines the science and engineering underlying modern consumer technological devices. Distinguishing features are study of a broad sample of familiar technological devices, construction by students of working devices, and writing assignments on technological topics. Over nine years, the total enrollment of more than 1000 students has averaged 60% women and 26% pre-service teachers. To evaluate student outcomes, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was applied. Statistically significant increases were found in intrinsic motivation, task value, and self-efficacy. A decrease in test anxiety was also found. The results are consistent across all semesters analyzed. The case study shows that non-engineering students can have increased motivation for learning science and technology, increased perceived value for science and technology, increased self-confidence about learning science and technology.

MRS Communications, Nov 7, 2022

Springer eBooks, 1994

The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Gammas, Electrons, Muons (GEM) magnet is a large superco... more The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Gammas, Electrons, Muons (GEM) magnet is a large superconducting solenoid with a total mass of 1.05 x 106 kg and a stored energy of 2.5 GJ. A cryogenic system to cool and to maintain the GEM magnet to liquid helium temperature is described. The system is designed to operate effectively under a variety of operating conditions, including cooldownlwarm-up, steady state operations, and quench. Primary cooling during steady-state operation is based on natural circulation thermo siphon flow through cooling tubes in the solenoid support bobbin. Additional cooling loops are included for lead and joint cooling and conductor stabilization. A helium refrigerator/liquefier rated at 2 kW and 20 gls will be specified to meet the refrigeration requirements. Cooldown of the magnet from 300 K to liquid nitrogen temperatures is accomplished using a counterflow helium-to-liquid-nitrogen heat exchanger independent of the helium refrigerator. The system incorporates provisions for maintenance access during accelerator beam operation.

Journal de physique. Colloque, Dec 1, 1981

We describe the source of a beam of liquid helium temperature state-selected hydrogen atoms to be... more We describe the source of a beam of liquid helium temperature state-selected hydrogen atoms to be used in the development of a very low temperature atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard. Recent experimental results which affect the design of such a beam are presented, and future experimental plans are outlined.

Thermal noise limits the precision of H maser standards out to averaging times of order 104 secon... more Thermal noise limits the precision of H maser standards out to averaging times of order 104 seconds, beyond which it is limited by other factors despite attempts to stabilize everything that could cause a frequency shift. This paper examines the dependence of the hydrogen maser frequency on factors other than thermal noise, in order to provide a guide to improving stabilization efforts.

Energy technology, Apr 3, 2023

The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key chall... more The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key challenge to solar applications due to intrinsic processes. Herein, an alternative strategy is developed by modulating the solar light spectrum with a series of photonic hybrids. Transparent thin films are synthesized with the solutions of porphyrin compounds and iron oxides which exhibit strong absorptions in the UV and IR regions. These spectral modulating thin films are photonically tuned via compositional optimization to absorb photons near 400 nm and above 1127 nm from solar spectrum to reduce thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption. These spectral modulators are applied in a particular configuration above a commercial silicon panel to partially filter the simulated solar light. The PCE of the silicon panel suffers a significant decrease due to temperature increase from 22.9 to 92.9 °C after 60 min solar irradiation, resulting in a PCE decrease from 25.1% to 16.3%. With the transparent spectral modulators, upon solar irradiation for 60 min, the maximum PCE has maintained at 20.5%. The mechanisms of PCE enhancement are identified based on reduced thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption.

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Sep 3, 2020

This work describes an effort to identify and utilize insights from non-engineering students in t... more This work describes an effort to identify and utilize insights from non-engineering students in technological literacy courses to identify themes that may enliven introduction to engineering courses. Beginning engineering students may have interests more closely aligned with their non-engineer peers than current engineering professionals. Technological literacy courses on a number of campuses have established that explaining technology from a "how things work," perspective captivates the interest of a broad range of students. This "how things work" approach is characterized by a focus on technology familiar to the students in their everyday life, use of visual and graphical explanations such as concept maps, and inclusion of information that helps to establish a sense of empowerment upon understanding the technology. Incorporating this "how things work" approach into introduction to engineering will help achieve engineers that exhibit "practical ingenuity," and an ability to communicate technical issues to non-engineers, two critical attributes of the Engineer of 2020 as identified by the National Academy of Engineering. This work suggests that the visual and concept map approach is analogous to the engineering design technique of functional analysis or functional decomposition. Functional analysis provides a mechanism to discuss how things work with engineering students that is rooted in established engineering design methodology. Additionally, important devices or components in familiar technology can be treated as sub-functions in the functional analysis context. As these sub-functions consistently reappear throughout products or processes developed by the various engineering disciplines, authentic engineering knowledge can be introduced to introductory engineering students. Initial implementation of this approach in an Introduction to Engineering course at Hope College is outlined.

Physical review, Apr 1, 1982

The temperature dependence of the mean surface dwell time for hydrogen atoms adsorbed on polycrys... more The temperature dependence of the mean surface dwell time for hydrogen atoms adsorbed on polycrystalline molecular hydrogen surfaces has been measured over the temperature range 3.2 to 4.6 K using magnetic resonance of the hydrogen-atom ground-state hyperfine transition. The mean surface dwell time is reproducible from one surface preparation to another and is exponential with inverse temperature with exponent 39.79(32) K. A detailed theory is presented of the magnetic-resonance signal of a dilute gas subject to perturbations awhile adsorbed on the surface of its container. the initial stages of this work. 8. Mirhashem did the numerical signal simulations. We thank T. J. Greytak, D. Kleppner, and N. F. Ramsey for the loan of equipment and the Williams College Computer Center for generous allocations of computer time. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract No. N00014-80-C-0240, by the NSF under Grant No. PHY79 10967, and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under Contract No. 955441.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings, Aug 20, 2021

He has published over 50 articles in different journals and conference proceedings. He has served... more He has published over 50 articles in different journals and conference proceedings. He has served as an investigator for research projects sponsored by National Science Foundation, Ford Motor Company, and the US Army. Before working at Indiana State University, he was a faculty in the University of Louisville for 10 years. He also has over four years of industrial experience. He received his D.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lamar University (USA) in 1999, M.Sc. in Materials Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in 1991, and B.Sc. in Metallurgical Engineering from Tehran University in 1988. He is a member of ASEE, ASME, and ATMAE.

Applied Physics Letters, Feb 15, 1984

Trapezoidal gratings, both with and without thin dielectric overcoatings, have been used to coupl... more Trapezoidal gratings, both with and without thin dielectric overcoatings, have been used to couple up to 70% of a 119-μm laser beam into surface plasmons on a metal surface. The results indicate significant grating induced shifts in the dispersion relations.

Solar Energy, Jul 1, 2023

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Jul 1, 1994

Thisis apreprintofa paperintended forpublicationin ajournalorproceedings. Since changes may be ma... more Thisis apreprintofa paperintended forpublicationin ajournalorproceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprintis made available with the understanding thatit will not be cited orreproduced without the permission of the author. MA OY-_ oi il OI_ttlUTION OFTtlS I]OCUMEIT IS UAILIMI N DISCLAIMER This document was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the University of California nor any of their employees, makes an)' warrant)', express or implied, or assumes ant' legal liability or responsibility for the accurac); completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privatel) owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the University of California. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the University of California, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Jul 1, 1994

This is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes... more This is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprint is made available with the understanding that it will not be cited or reproduced without the permission of the author.

ABSTRACT An experimental investigation is presented for a seasonal earth thermal storage system. ... more ABSTRACT An experimental investigation is presented for a seasonal earth thermal storage system. Results of operation from May 1983 to March 1985 of a full scale seasonal earth storage system are reported. The seasonal storage system under study consists of an underground insulated storage enclosing 1926 cubic meters of earth. The storage is charged by 171 square meters of flat plate solar collectors. Energy transfer to and from the storage is accomplished via a single layer of pipes installed horizontally at the storage mid-plane. The earth storage and collectors are coupled to water source heat pumps which provide space heating for a building of 5000 square meters of floor area. This system is located in Hatfield, Massachusetts, USA. This was a retrofit into an existing building. Construction required no special equipment or techniques. After full charging, the earth storage reaches a temperature of approximately 50°C. The use of seasonal storage resulted in a 136% increase in solar fraction compared to conventional storage during the month of December, and a 97% increase in January. These results indicate that successful seasonal solar energy storage and recovery can be achieved with a system of scale and design used in this experiment.

This panel will report the results of a workshop and symposium on the technological literacy of u... more This panel will report the results of a workshop and symposium on the technological literacy of undergraduates convened at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on March 26-27, 2007. The NAE advocates that all Americans become more knowledgeable about technology. Here technological literacy is defined as the broad understanding of all types of technological devices and process not just computers. The opportunity to utilize undergraduate education to further technological literacy of all students must not be neglected. Educators in Computer Science, Engineering and Technology have a responsibility to educate all students not just those intending technical careers. Despite the need for all Americans to become technologically literate, technical literacy is not likely to gain wide acceptance until the scholarly community develops standard courses that are supported by textbooks and other course materials. This National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored workshop sought to identify and define several models of technological literacy courses. In this FIE panel, short presentations about these models will be made by participants in the NAE/NSF symposium. This will be followed by a discussion with the audience. A goal of the discussion will be to seek the input from FIE participants on the technological literacy course models.

Energy Technology

The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key chall... more The temperature dependency of photovoltaic power conversion efficiency (PCE) has been a key challenge to solar applications due to intrinsic processes. Herein, an alternative strategy is developed by modulating the solar light spectrum with a series of photonic hybrids. Transparent thin films are synthesized with the solutions of porphyrin compounds and iron oxides which exhibit strong absorptions in the UV and IR regions. These spectral modulating thin films are photonically tuned via compositional optimization to absorb photons near 400 nm and above 1127 nm from solar spectrum to reduce thermalization and sub‐bandgap absorption. These spectral modulators are applied in a particular configuration above a commercial silicon panel to partially filter the simulated solar light. The PCE of the silicon panel suffers a significant decrease due to temperature increase from 22.9 to 92.9 °C after 60 min solar irradiation, resulting in a PCE decrease from 25.1% to 16.3%. With the transparent...

2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2019

This innovative practice work-in-progress paper examines the application of design thinking in en... more This innovative practice work-in-progress paper examines the application of design thinking in engineering literacy courses and argues that, for engineering and technological literacy applications, design thinking exercises benefit from situating design activities within technological domains. This approach also facilitates assessment of the student design abilities. Design thinking is a well-known process for problem solving. However, when used in engineering literacy courses for non-engineering majors, the outcomes of the ideation stage are severely constrained by the student's internal technological knowledge base. Student design thinking exercises can result in technologically vague concepts. Liberal arts students from non-technical disciplines become frustrated and see the design process as suspect and fail to embrace a multidimensional perspective on design. Non-engineering students lack critical engineering science knowledge relevant to the problem but the nature of engineering literacy courses for non-engineers precludes in-depth mathematics-based engineering science prerequisites. We have found that the platform of technological domains effective in supporting students between the innovation of design thinking and the empowerment of engineering science. Technological systems form clusters or domains of related systems around a set of shared components based on similar underlying physical principles, for example, vapor-compression refrigeration systems. We have found that students benefit if design exercises are conducted in the context of a technological domain. In the work reported here, students studied the familiar domestic refrigerator as typifying the technology enabled by the engineering science underlying the vapor-compression cycle. Students were then presented with a design challenge involving a cooling application but different from the function of a domestic kitchen refrigerator. Non-engineering students were able to develop potentially feasible system design concepts at the component level that were novel to them. This approach made it possible to assess knowledge transfer and design ability of liberal arts students in a general education engineering literacy course.

Proceedings Frontiers in Education 35th Annual Conference

Since 1995 engineering faculty at Hope College have taught a course for non-engineering students ... more Since 1995 engineering faculty at Hope College have taught a course for non-engineering students called: "Science and Technology of Everyday Life" The course examines the science and engineering underlying modern consumer technological devices. Distinguishing features are study of a broad sample of familiar technological devices, construction by students of working devices, and writing assignments on technological topics. Over nine years, the total enrollment of more than 1000 students has averaged 60% women and 26% pre-service teachers. To evaluate student outcomes, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was applied. Statistically significant increases were found in intrinsic motivation, task value, and self-efficacy. A decrease in test anxiety was also found. The results are consistent across all semesters analyzed. The case study shows that non-engineering students can have increased motivation for learning science and technology, increased perceived value for science and technology, increased self-confidence about learning science and technology.