Abstract
Mathematics is one of the major subjects that every engineering student needs to learn. However, every student may have different views and interests on Mathematics subjects because of their different levels of thinking. To foster the appreciation of engineering students on the applications of Mathematics in engineering courses and help them apply and enhance their mathematical knowledge, the Fundamental Engineering Unit at the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environments, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), organised the first ‘Mathematics Day' on Thursday, May 4, 2017. For their final year project, 12 students participated in a competition where they used mathematical or statistical applications to create a poster. The competition was judged by the academic assessors, industry and UKM alumni. This study examines the mathematical elements and applications in students' posters. The relevance of the elements and topics in the Engineering Mathematics course in the posters is reviewed. Reports from students who were present during the competition are also analysed to determine the effectiveness of the activity. The expected outcome of the student reports is interpreted using a statistical descriptive method, and results indicate that the students had a positive reaction to the activity.
Highlights
Mathematics is an important element in engineering education, but students generally have problems in understanding mathematical concepts
Most of the students who participated in the Mathematics Day poster competition were from JKEES while the least number of students came from JKAS
The main focus of this paper is to study the relevance of mathematical elements and applications of topics in the Engineering Mathematics course in students’ posters
Summary
Mathematics is an important element in engineering education, but students generally have problems in understanding mathematical concepts. Effective teaching methods need to be practiced during the teaching and learning process. Instructional methods are the approaches used to deliver information in the teaching and learning process. Teachers use various teaching methods to deliver information or teaching objectives. The appropriate teaching method used by lecturers for subjects involving experiments is demonstration or explanation [1]. Efstathios, Maria and Chrystalla found several reasons of why many students are weak in their Mathematics and Science studies [2]. Amongst these reasons are poor education system and low interest, but the main reason is that the teaching method cannot attract students to explore the knowledge
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