An Integrated, Project-based, Introductory Course in Calculus, Physics, English, and Engineering

Transcription

1 An Integrated, Project-based, Introductory Course in Cacuus, Physics, Engish, and Engineering R.Roede, Department of Eectrica Engineering; M.Kawski, Department of Mathematics; B.Doak and M.Poitano, Department of Physics and Astronomy; S.Duerden and M.Green, Department of Engish; J.Key, Department of Aeronautica Technoogy; D.Linder, Department of Psychoogy; D.Evans, Department of Mechanica and Aerospace Engineering &The Center for Innovation in Engineering Education Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Abstract: Arizona State University is a member of the NSF-sponsored Engineering Education Coaition known as the Foundation Coaition. This paper describes the deveopment of an integrated introductory course deivered to freshman engineering students at ASU in the Fa 94 semester as a part of the Foundation Coaition program. The course combined and integrated materia from introductory courses in cacuus, physics, Engish composition, and engineering, normay taught in a stand-aone format. The cacuus used in this course was based on the Harvard reform mode and incude d a review of functions, the derivative, the definite integra, and appication of these topics to physics and engineering probems. The physics was mechanics-based, with emphasis on kinematics, dynamics, conservation principes, rotationa motion, and re ativity. What differentiated this integrated package from versions found at other institutions in the Coaition was (a) the incusion of Engish composition, and (b) the project-based introduction to engineering. In this integrated course, the students earned to organize and deveop ideas for both technica and genera audiences. In addition, they earned the use of rhetorica principes with readings from the phiosophy of science, engineering case studies, and so on. The over-arching framework for the cass was the use of engineering projects to teach design and modeing principes. The three projects incorporated the cacuus and physics that had been earned to date in the cass. The first utiized kinematics and curve-fitting to functions to design and buid a simpe projectie auncher; the second empoyed dynamics and numerica integration to design and buid a bungee drop system; and the third project, which aso served as the fina exam, used rotationa motion concepts and a data acquisition system to identify the shape and materia of a hidden object. The integrated course aso empoyed considerabe use of computers in an active earning environment that stressed teaming and other quaity toos.

2 I. Prototype First Year Curricuum at Arizona State University Arizona State University is a member of the NSF-sponsored Engineering Education Coaition known as the Foundation Coaition. Foundation Coaition member institutions are Texas A &M University (ead), Arizona State University, Maricopa Community Coege District, Rose-Human Institute of Technoogy, Texas A &M University at Kingsvie, Texas Woman s University, and the University of Aabama at Tuscaoosa. The fundamenta thrust of the Foundation Coaition is to provide a new engineering education cuture which incorporates an integrated curricuum, taught with active earning strategies using technoogica enhancements wherever possibe. To initiate this cutura change, a curricuum experiment on the ASU campus has begun with the impementation of a Freshman Integrated Program in Engineering (FIPE). In the Fa 94 semester the eements of ENG101 (First Year Engish Composition), PHY121 (University Physics I), PHY122 (Physics Laboratory I), MAT270 (Cacuus I), and ECE100 (Introduction to Engineering Design) were integrated together under the schedue shown in Figure (1). Within the contact hours shown in this figure, materia coud be and indeed was moved around to provide the best coordination of subject matter. The student body for the FIPE program consisted of 31 vounteers, recruited from incoming freshmen admitted to the Coege of Engineering. Their decared majors are shown in Fig. 2. Twenty-nine students came directy from high schoo, whie two oder students had either worked or served in the armed forces before pursuing their BS degree in engineering. The composition of the group was 6 women (a Caucasian), 6 mae minority students (5 Hispanic and 1 African-American), and 19 Caucasian maes (Fig.3). The vehice for estabishing the integrated curricuum was the University Campus Match program in which a cohort of students registers for a common set of courses and attends specia sections ony avaiabe to the Campus Match. Thus, the students in the FIPE program registered for 15 hours and attended a of the casses as a unit.. The ony exception to this for the engineering Campus Match was in ENG101 where seven students had prior credit or advanced pacement credit for the course.

3 Figure 2: Cass Composition by Ethnicity and Gender Training in team skis and cooperative earning began in the second hour of the first cass on the first day of the Fa semester. Approximatey eight hours of the tota of 19 contact hours during the first week of cass were devoted to structured activity designed to train students in team dynamics. Additiona training modues were given each time new teams were formed, which coincided with the start of each major project. Figure 3: Cass Composition by Major Integration took the form of identifying as many cross-inks as possibe among the constituent subjects then arranging the order of presentation within the various discipines to present the crossinked topics in a mutuay reinforcing fashion. The curricuum emphasized computer instrumentation and technoogy. Many of the course activities were carried out as team efforts. Active and cooperative earning teaching methods were used extensivey. The cacuus used in the FIPE was based on the Harvard reform mode and incuded a review of functions, the derivative, the definite integra, and appication of these topics to physics and engineering probems. The physics was mechanics-based, with emphasis on kinematics, dynamics, conservation principes, rotationa motion, and reativity. The engineering incuded concepts of design, introduction to modeing, and concepts of visuaization through sketching and CAD. One of the things that differentiated this integrated course from versions found at other Coaition institutions was the incusion of Engish composition. In this part of the FIPE, the students earned to organize and deveop ideas for both technica and genera audiences. Throughout the semester, the students kept detaied journas describing (through directed journaing assignments) their refections on the science and engineering concepts from the other portions of the cass. Written reports were submitted for a of the engineering projects, incuding the fina examination project. The reports were graded for exposition, stye, carity, and grammar by the Engish instructors. In addition, they earned the use of rhetorica principes with readings from the phiosophy of science, engineering case studies, and so on. II. Cass Projects The over-arching framework for the cass was the use of engineering projects to teach design and modeing principes. This framework was one indisputabe success in the cass. The three projects incorporated the cacuus and physics that had been earned to date in the cass. The first project invoved the design and caibration of a squash ba singshot. Working in teams of four, students digitized video images of the squash bas fired from their singshots and parameterized the trajectories for given initia extensions of the singshot bands. This project made extensive use of mathematica functions, curve fitting and eectronic spreadsheets. As this project neared competion it

4 bended nicey into physics discussions of kinematics and 2D trajectories. The project cuminated in a competitive shoot-off to test the students design and anaysis skis. Project number two was a bungee-cord egg drop. More detais on this project, as we as the ASU Foundation Coaition program, are avaiabe on the Word Wide Web at asufc/ (Note to reviewers: this project is currenty being added to the ASU s Foundation Coaition homepage and wi be avaiabe before the FIE conference). Students, again in teams of four, made stress/strain measurements on one meter engths of a rubber cord sampe (the bungee materia to be used), then used eectronic spreadsheets to mode the physics of the drop using their materia property measurements in the mode. They had to pick the number of strands and the ength of cord to meet two goas: (1) to have their raw egg (dropped from an initia height of 18 meters) approach the ground as cosey as possibe without breaking the egg, and (2) to have the maximum deceeration of the egg never exceed a specified vaue. The teams aso had to design a reease mechanism for aunching their egg. Again, the designs were tested in a contest format at the end of the project. On fina jump day, the students had to present the specifications of their cord to the instructors who manufactured the cord on the spot. The bungee drops were then done immediatey. In ony one of eight designs did the egg break on impact with the ground. In one design the egg kissed the ground, but did not break. The other six missed the ground from a centimeter to about 60 centimeters. Each bungee jump was video taped in Super8 format and then digitized using video capture boards in their computer workstations. The digitized images were payed back, frame by frame, and the spatia coordinates of the egg in each frame were measured using the CUPLE software obtained from Rensseaer Poytechnic Institute (RPI). The resuting dispacement versus time data were transferred to spreadsheets and curve fit and differentiated to give veocity versus time and acceeration versus time. This aowed each team to verify that their egg did not deceerate more than the specified vaue. The bungee spreadsheet modes were ater anayzed in a physics ab for conservation of energy, offering a rich dispay of energy fowing back and forth among gravitationa potentia energy, spring potentia energy, kinetic energy, and dissipation into therma energy. The third project, using the apparatus described by Amato [1], actuay comprised haf of the fina examination. Students were given opaque spherica pastic shes, each containing one of three possibe shapes (cube, cyinder, or hoow cyinder) constructed of either auminum or brass. The spheres coud be spun about any of three orthogona axes and the anguar acceeration measured using a Pasco Scientific Smart Puey read into a Macintosh computer via a Vernier Software Universa Laboratory Interface. The probem was underspecified and successfu identification of the unknown shape thus demanded not just the obvious physics and math but aso critica engineering contempation of the vaues which were obtained from the measurements. The student teams were given five hours to carry out this project. They were first expected to determine the process that woud ead them to a successfu resut. They needed to contempate the reevant physics for the probem (anguar acceeration, moments of inertia, connection of inear and anguar motions, etc.); they needed to train themseves quicky with unfamiiar software and hardware; they needed to make initia measurements, use engineering estimates to toss out shapes or materias that were infeasibe; they needed to refine the measurements and anaysis; they needed to arrive at a concusion; and finay, they needed to record the entire process and their concusions in a word processed document. Of the eight teams that participated, three successfuy identified the shape and materia of the hidden object, and two were abe to make reasonabe estimates of the object s dimensions. Even the teams that were unsuccessfu in the identification made pausibe concusions based on their data and anaysis.

5 III. Technoogy Enhanced Education The engineering and science portions of the FIPE program were taught in a high tech cassroom that had eight square team tabes, each seating four students. Each team had access to two computers ocated on separate tabes around the periphery of the room. As a team needed to access the computer, two of the students coud rotate their chairs and the other two coud ro their chairs around the work tabe so that a students coud surround the computers. One of the computers avaiabe to each team was a Windows-based PC and one was a Macintosh Quadra. A the computers had CD ROM payers and sound capabiity. Haf of the PC computers had an Inte Indeo video capture card instaed for digitizing video. In addition, a computers were connected to the campus ethernet, giving fu, high-speed connection to the INTERNET. The computers, through the ethernet network, were connected to a network server and a PostScript compatibe aser printer. A of the students were expected to earn and use both Macintosh and PC patforms. This was aso an unquaified success: within weeks, the students were abe move back and forth between patforms effortessy. Software avaiabe to the students incuded word processors, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, symboic math and computer agebra packages, CAD, data acquisition and reated transducers, physics demonstrations, graphing programs, software for digitizing and paying video, eectronic mai, and INTERNET utiities. The support equipment for instructors incuded both a PC and a Mac (both comparabe to the student machines), a video cassette recorder/payer, a aser disc payer, a pad camera, and a Proxima 2800 projector that handed both data and video (with sound). Thus, any variety of materia coud be dispayed on a arge screen in the room, from the instructor s computer screen image to video tapes and aser discs to hard copy of materia to be dispayed. There was aso the conventiona overhead projector and white boards. In addition to a of the equipment described above, the instructors PC had video conferencing capabiity. Students or an instructor coud dia up the Foundation Coaition main office in the engineering office and video conference with the administrative assistant or the project coordinator and vice versa. This capabiity is aso being extended to the offices of the teaching facuty, as soon as some technica difficuties can be worked out. IV. Assessment and Evauation To assess the impact and effectiveness of the FIPE program, a comparison group of students who were registered in neary the same set of courses and had simiar eves of prior academic achievement, was defined using a database software system that aows queries and data extractions to be made from ASU s student data base. This data base contains a pertinent data on students, courses, and performances. Performances of the students in the FIPE program have been compared with those of simiar students who took the same content in a traditiona curricuum. These comparisons incude earned grades in each of the eements and attrition rates. In addition, the FIPE students were assessed in the areas of critica thinking, knowedge of fundamenta concepts, attitudes toward courses in math, science, engineering and Engish, and attitudes toward engineering as a profession. In addition, it wi be

6 possibe to compare attrition rates, and in subsequent years to compare performances in downstream courses. The foowing assessment toos were aso used during the course of the FIPE: Hestenes Force Concepts Inventory[2] - Given as both a pre and post test Hestenes Mechanics Baseine Test[3] - Given as both a pre and post test Caifornia Critica Thinking Skis Test - Form A[4] - Given as a pre test Caifornia Critica Thinking Skis Test - Form B[5] - Given as a post test Learning Styes Survey[6] Process Checks - Given weeky or bi-weeky Three specia questionnaires during the semester Preiminary data show severa things: A 31 students who started the FIPE program on the first day of cass attended throughout the semester and took the fina examination - there was no attrition during the semester. Faiure rates in the first semester in the FIPE were far ower than those shown by comparabe students in the traditiona program, as shown in Tabe I. First semester student attrition is shown in Fig. 4. Three students, a mae Caucasian, faied parts of the course (1 faied cacuus, 2 faied physics, and 1 faied Engish) and coud not register for the second semester of the FIPE program because of ack of prerequisites. Four students, three mae Caucasians and one minority, chose to eave the program and try the traditiona route of courses as stand-aone modues, athough they had passed a parts of the FIPE. Two of these were very good students academicay, but were not enthusiastic about the team emphasis in the FIPE program and/or the Harvard cacuus (see anecdote 3 beow). One femae student returned for the second semester soey because of the FIPE, but decided that she was homesick and returned to her home state. A students who did not continue on in the spring FIPE are sti enroed in engineering at this writing. Students in the FIPE program had about a 30%better improvement on the Hestenes Force Concepts Inventory Test than shown by Hestenes data on traditionay taught students. Figure 4: Student Retention and Attrition

7 Anecdota data demonstrate the foowing: 1. Exceptionay strong bonding occurred among the students. 2. Some students who started sowy/poory gained confidence and became good students ater in the cass as instructors and feow students gave support. There is a high probabiity that such students woud have encountered troube in traditiona casses. 3. Students who tried to ive off their high schoo cacuus (of traditiona format) did not do as we as the students who adopted the Harvard-reform cacuus viewpoint eary. V. Future Pans A second semester continuation to the FIPE program described above was offered in the Spring 95 semester. The courses integrated in the second semester combined the eements of ENG102 (First Year Composition II), PHY131 (University Physics II: Eectricity and Magnetism), PHY132 (University Physics Laboratory II), MAT271 (Cacuus II) and CHM114 (Genera Chemistry for Engineers). A simiar schedue of casses to that in Figure (1) was used, with the chemistry course repacing the engineering hours. The resuts of this continuation to the FIPE program wi be described esewhere. A prototype sophomore integrated program wi be offered in the Fa 95 and Spring 96 semesters. The foowing courses wi form the Fa 1995 Foundation Coaition curricuum at Arizona State University: MAT274 Eementary Differentia Equations (3 hrs), MAT342 Linear Agebra (3 hrs), ECE301 Eectrica Networks I (4 hrs), ECE394 Mechanics (4 hrs), ECN394 Appied Microeconomics (3 hrs). Materia in these courses wi be integrated together under the genera theme of systems behavior or systems modeing, using common ideas, terminoogy, and concepts. The forma scheduing of the courses wi resembe that for the FIPE program, but facuty wi be free to move materia around within these contact hours. To support the scae up of the FIPE program and the sophomore program, in the Fa semester of 1996, two adjacent cassrooms in the Engineering Center wi be combined into a arge cooperative earning cassroom which wi seat a maximum of 80 students. The furniture wi incude rectanguar tabes and swive chairs on roers. The room is schedued to be compete with instructor s podium giving access to mutimedia presentations. Engineering wi proceed to equipment this room with computers for students, with 1 computer for every two students.

8 Acknowedgments This work was supported by the Nationa Science Foundation through the Foundation Coaition under Cooperative Agreement EEC References 1. Amato, J. American Journa of Physics (in press). 2. Hestenes, D., M. Wes, and G. Swackhamer, Force Concepts Inventory, The Physics Teacher, 30, (1992). 3. Hestenes, D., and M.Wes, A Mechanics Baseine Test, The Physics Teacher, 30, (1992). 4. The Caifornia Critica Thinking Skis Test, Form A, The Caifornia Academic Press, Mibrae, CA (1992). 5. The Caifornia Critica Thinking Skis Test, Form B, The Caifornia Academic Press, Mibrae, CA (1992). 6. Feder, R., &L. Siverman, Learning and Teaching Styes in Engineering Education, Engineering Education, , Apri mort@etp.com Tue Oct 10 15:47:09 PDT 1995