The Tinkerer's Pendulum for Machine System's Education: Creating a Basic Hands-On Environment with Mechanical "Breadboards (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Mechanical …
This paper presents an innovative approach to teaching machine elements through the use of hands-on projects. In addition to homeworks, tests, and lectures, students in work in team to analyze and recreate existing mechanical artifacts. The inclusion of these projects is motivated by current demands of the curriculum and the student population. Many students do not gain a hands-on experience with machine elements and an ability to solve open-ended problems from earlier more mathematically intensive courses. This approach to teaching machine elements thus bridges the gap between lower-level analysis courses with senior level design courses. The resulting projects have proven to be useful in teaching students how to improve their mechanical intuition, how to work effectively
Innovations in Engineering Education: Mechanical Engineering Education, Mechanical Engineering/Mechanical Engineering Technology Department Heads, 2005
Over the past four years, we have redesigned Harvard's introductory mechanical engineering course to introduce the principles, practices, and pleasures of mechanical engineering in an accessible format. The main goals of the course are to provide experience in the design process, demonstrate the connection between engineering science and design early in the curriculum, and build student enthusiasm for engineering, serving to attract and retain students. Unlike most introductory mechanical engineering courses, we cover strength of materials and machine elements, material usually presented much later in the curriculum, in order to provide tools for the students to quantitatively evaluate their designs. By providing just enough of this background knowledge to allow for analysis of designs, we demonstrate the connection between engineering science and design early in curriculum and motivate in-depth coverage of these topics in later courses.
Pedagogical strategies for enhancing machine design teaching in a mechanical technology programme
Revista UIS Ingenierías, 2019
The aim of this paper is to present a reformed approach to the teaching practice of the Machine Design course offered in the Mechanical Technology Programme at the Technological University of Pereira. The course combines the concepts of rational selection of materials and strength of materials with the procedures to be followed to shape and dimension the classical elements presented in machinery and mechanical systems. Active learning, hands-on activities, laboratory sessions, practical examples, projects, teamwork and technological and virtual resources are used as a means to achieve effectively the learning outcomes. An important goal is to integrate strength and stiffness calculations with the engineering design process, including conceptual design, creativity, optimization, detail design and documentation. The use of technological tools, minor and main course projects, along with practical activities in the laboratory, are supposed to enhance the teaching process and help students acquire the desired competencies.
Hands-On Method for Teaching Design of Mechanical Components Course
2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
Described in this paper are the salient features of teaching a junior level Design of Mechanical Components course using a hands-on method, taught three times in the past three years with high reviews from students and engineers. Rubrics and grading criteria are presented. The course covers the analysis and design of mechanical components such as fasteners, springs, bearings, gears, shafts, clutches, brakes, etc. Prerequisites include a course on solid mechanics or mechanics of materials. Students coming into the course are expected to be fluent in performing free-body-diagrams, static equilibrium analysis, stress-strain analysis, Mohr's circle analysis, deflection analysis, etc. on structures with various loads (e.g., point forces, moments, distributive loading) in axial, torsional, and bending configurations. On the first day of class, the students form teams of 5 to 6 students per team. Each team picks its choice of a vehicle, machine or system from which they will pick all mechanical components for analysis and design in the course. Each team is required to carry out four mechanical component projects and write project reports and make presentations. Each project covers a time period of three to four weeks. For example, fasteners and springs projects are projects that require three weeks; bearings and gears projects require four weeks. Each team makes a presentation on each of the four projects during the semester. The presentations are judged by engineers from industry. The reports and presentations are required to cover analysis and design of team's selected mechanical component from team's same selected vehicle. The reports and presentations are required to cover component manufacturability and cost, environmental conditions, dimensions, loading conditions, design and statics treatment, stress-strain analysis, fatigue analysis, and simulation. On each project, a team is required to select a team leader and to divide up the workload among all team members. The hands-on method is designed so that (a) the instructor can mentor and coach students' "thinking and doing" in a multidimensional process of learning, (b) peer-to-peer learning is greatly enhanced, (c) students are encouraged to defend their way of thinking resulting in a meeting of the minds between instructor and student, and (d) self-regulated learning is promoted and encouraged.
Integration of Engineering Theory and Practice in a Junior-Level Machine Design Course
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
There is currently a trend in engineering education that emphasizes a blending of theory with the application of that theory to engineering practice. Current ABET criteria for accreditation of engineering programs focus on the ability of students to recognize engineering problems in a real system and to correctly apply engineering principles to those problems. In this paper, the authors describe a junior-level course in machine design that integrates a classic, theoretical treatment of the design of machine elements with a semester-long laboratory in which students design and analyze a ski lift to be used on their campus. This is a required course for all Engineering majors in the Mechanical Engineering Concentration at our university. The sequence of presentation of theoretical content in the course is coordinated with the requirements of the ski lift project, so that students are presented with theory on an "as-needed" basis. Preliminary evaluation of student perception of learning based on Student Assessment of Instruction (SAI) data demonstrates that students feel that learning of theoretical content is improved when it is motivated by the need to solve a problem for their ski lift design.
Designing and Assessing a Learning Environment to Support Mechanical Reasoning
This paper describes and assesses a learning environment designed to support mechanical reasoning and understanding of simple machines. Based on recommendations from the literature on instructional frameworks and cognitive aspects of mechanical reasoning, SIMALE (the Simple Machines Learning Environment) was designed to support reflection, collaboration, and presentation of concepts from multiple perspectives and contexts. SIMALE was implemented with middle and high school students with three treatment variations: (1) environment with focus on Lego exercises to engage in hands-on physical activities, (2) environment with focus on a web-based computer module, and (3) environment with both the computer module and Lego exercises. Learning was measured in three categories: analytic problem solving, conceptual understanding, and drawing and modeling ability. The assessment found that students significantly increased their understanding in all three categories for all treatment variations within SIMALE. The results revealed unexpected dramatic results in equalizing post-test scores, in spite of large population differences in pre-test scores. A complete description of the study, the assessments and the statistical analyses are presented. Based on these findings we present recommendations for creating educational experiences and environments that support development and application of simple machines concepts.
A Hands-on Approach in Teaching Machine Design
2015 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Proceedings, 2015
as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2013. He earned B.Eng from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a M.A.Sc. form the University of Victoria, Canada and his Ph.D. in from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. All degrees are in Mechanical Engineering and both M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. studies are related with vibrations. After his Ph.D. he worked at the University of California, San Diego as postdoctoral fellow in the area of bioacoustics. He teaches dynamics, machine design, numerical methods and finite element method. His research interests are in vibration, numerical methods, finite element methods, continuum mechanics and acoustics. He has work for the automotive industry in drafting, manufacturing, testing (internal combustion engines-power, torque and exhaust emissions, vibration fatigue, thermo-shock, tensile tests, etc.), simulations (finite element method) and as a project manager (planning and installation of new testing facilities).
Hands-On Experiences: An Integral Part of Engineering Curriculum Reform
Journal of Engineering Education, 1996
The concept of "hands-on" experiences, through Mechanical Dissection classes, as a part of engineering curriculum reform is presented. Mechanical Dissection in this context refers to a process of studying the function of a mechanical system and dismantling it in order to see how its specific function is realized. The functions of various components within the artifact and interaction between the components are also studied. Awareness of the design process, multiple solutions to a design problem, and the evolution of the technology of various artifacts and their components are focused upon. This is followed by systematic re-assembly of the artifact. The courseware and supporting laboratory modules were developed to address specific objectives. They provide the foundation for better understanding of sophomore, junior and senior courses, particularly the design oriented ones. Seven in-depth dissection modules form the basis of this course. These are a weighing scale, a money sorting machine, an electric lawn mower, an electric hand drill, a gasoline engine, a centrifugal pump and an eighteen speed bike. This course is targeted at freshman or sophomore level engineering students. Some of these modules can be simplified and transported to K-14 students. Assessment of this course has shown an overwhelming positive response from students in all aspects. This makes the course an integral part of engineering curriculum reform.
A practical application for machine design education
Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, 2018
Machine design is perhaps the most important course for Mechanical Engineering students. There are many diverse approaches to the design education in universities worldwide. This paper outlines some collaborative experiences for methodical design education in mechanical/industrial design engineering context at Turkish Universities. For this purpose, a case study based on a student project titled "the conceptual design of a new meatball forming machine" is utilized and the experiences of the conceptual design works made with project groups are presented. The design process outlined in this paper is based on the systematic design approach of Pahl and Beitz. The method applied includes problem definition, formulating (function diagram), creating and selecting of best design variants. The positive feedbacks received from student practices show that this work can be useful for industry followers, design lecturers and young engineers.
Designing with Lessons from the Machine Design Course: A Capstone Experience
2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, 2000
Extensive procedures and complex calculations involved in the Machine Design courses make the students feel dull. To enthuse the students there is a need to have inspiring capstone projects that integrate machine elements, the impact of engineering designs and designers on society, and the systematic design process. Belonging to something noble fascinates people most of the times and it makes people to work hard to achieve that belonging. Relating to elite groups from a career would encourage young students to choose and belong to that career. A display item boasting the glory of mechanical engineering was chosen, to highlight the elite groups from mechanical engineering that made significant impacts on society and, to demonstrate the building blocks of mechanical engineering. A project displaying five historically prodigious achievers and achievements on a slowly rotating dodecahedron, driven by a power train made up of components learnt in machine design courses, was accomplished. The paper describes in detail how the project was implemented and what lessons have been learned.