A New Curriculum in Fluid Mechanics for the Millennial Generation

Abstract

The learning habits of a new generation of students, i.e., those growing up with cell phones, access to social media, and video games, are significantly different from the habits of the educators who are preparing them for the future workplace. The effectiveness of traditional lecture-based classrooms has been questioned by educators, parents, industry, and government. In the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the importance of hands-on learning and traditional classroom teaching underscores the need for curriculum reform. This paper presents a methodology to improve graduates' knowledge and skills in the area of fluid mechanics in an ongoing curriculum reform process. The course syllabus is reformed to support a multi-modal student learning process. Beyond current lecture-based classroom teaching, tools are developed to foster flexible, inductive learning through hands-on applications, and online learning tools. A multipurpose laboratory equipped with fluid power processes, sensors, data acquisition systems, and application programs has been established and it is being developed every semester. The laboratory experiments utilize fluid mechanics principles in industrial applications to provide students a robust understanding of the subject. Because of the practice of industrial processes, use of sensors, data acquisition hardware, and application programs in the laboratory, the technical skills of program graduates improve significantly. Finally, the project evaluation, assessment, and dissemination process for monitoring and evaluating project activities, outcomes assessment of student learning, and feedback for continuous curriculum improvement are presented.