Pre-engineering Courses Research Articles

Investigating the Effect of Using Educational Videos and Recorded Lectures in Understanding the Contents of Pre-Engineering Courses

Some students may struggle to understand the contents of courses with intensive conceptual content and problem-solving, especially when the courses are offered online. Offering courses online may present challenges such as technological issues, time management, and a lack of interaction with instructors. This paper investigates the effect of using educational videos and recorded lectures on students enrolled learning and performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted among students in the “Engineering Economics” course at an international institution for pre-engineering students before they chose their specialization. The survey was conducted during the Fall 2021 semester (before the coronavirus pandemic) and the “Spring 2022” semester (during the pandemic). The performance of students during the “Spring 2022” semester was compared with their performance during the “Fall 2021” semester, when students relied solely on face-to-face lectures. During the “Spring 2022” semester, educational videos and recorded lectures were made available to students. Analysis results revealed that students had a positive perception towards the use of educational videos and recorded lectures. Students’ feedback regarding watching videos and recorded lectures was quite positive and enhanced their performance in the course. A generic VBA framework was developed to suggest educational videos and recorded lectures relevant to selected course topics. An initial pilot test of this tool received very positive feedback from students.

Bridgework: Diversity and Collaboration in an Undergraduate Preengineering Course

ABSTRACTIn this article, we draw on ethnographic findings to examine the meaning of “diversity” and “collaboration” within the context of an undergraduate preengineering course at a large Hispanic-serving institution located on the U.S.–Mexico border. Using bridgework, a new theoretical concept, we analyze interactions and interactivity that occurred within and among jigsaw groups attempting to solve mathematical problems as part of a precalculus review. Our use of bridgework, contributes to cultural-historical activity theory to demonstrate how contradictions and multivoicedness among interacting activity systems can work to change patterns of activity, thus providing a complex view of diversity and collaboration.

Characterizing Design Cognition of High School Students: Initial Analyses Comparing those With and Without Pre-Engineering Experiences

Reported in this article are initial results from of a longitudinal study to characterize the design cognition and cognitive design styles of high school students with and without pre-engineering course experience over a 2-year period, and to compare them with undergraduate engineering students. The research followed a verbal protocol analysis based on the function– behavior–structure (FBS) ontology, which employs a task-independent approach that is distinct from a task-based or an ad hoc approach. This approach to protocol analysis is applicable across any process-based view of designing and generates results based on a common comparative measure independent of the design task. In this article, Year 1 results are presented comparing only students in their junior year of high school who had formal pre-engineering course experience (experiment group) with those who did not have formal pre-engineering course experience (control group). Specifically, data collected from design sessions were analyzed for comparison of design issues and processes between experiment and control groups, respectively. Results from analysis of Year 1 data did not reveal any significant differences between the experiment and control groups in engineering design cognition. Based on these results, one would conclude that students with pre-engineering course experience do not demonstrate a stronger focus on the process of producing design solutions than do students without such experience. Although analysis of demographic data from high school participants indicates some degree of common prior preengineering experiences, it did not provide a sufficient explanation for why no significant differences in engineering design thinking were found between these groups. The researchers anticipate that Year 2 data will indicate that as the preengineering students continue engaging in formal engineering design experiences during their final year of high school, some degree of difference in design cognition will be demonstrated.

Digital homework for kinematics and dynamics of machinery

A digital homework program applicable to the study of kinematics and dynamics of machinery has been developed and successfully incorporated into an ongoing kinematics and dynamics of machinery course providing students with regulated self-practice, formative feedback, and partial credit scoring. The use of digital homework in upper-level engineering courses is sparsely documented in the literature but can provide homework assignments that give immediate feedback for self-assessment of learning while significantly reducing the time required of the instructor for grading. This paper presents a procedure for creating a digital homework set generally applicable to engineering courses using a commercially available course management tool. The paper then documents a specific implementation into a junior-level kinematics and dynamics of machinery course. This implementation is assessed over four semesters based on its comparison with traditional homework as perceived by students. The responses indicate that students were acquainted with digital homework from pre-engineering courses and did not regard the digital format as a hindrance. However, students perceived no benefit to the immediate feedback and, therefore, preferred the traditional format of upper-level courses. This perception is attributed to students’ tendency to make use of the homework feedback much later after the assignment and primarily at the point of exam preparation. However, this seems to be counter to the role of homework as a formative feedback tool that students use in real time to gauge and regulate learning activities. The authors conclude that the presented digital homework is both efficient and appropriate as a teaching supplement to an upper-level kinematics and dynamics of machinery course in the light of the role of homework as a tool to regulate learning of course material. Examples of the implemented digital homework problems are provided to serve as a resource for other instructors.

Complex Problem Exercises in Developing Engineering Students' Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge of Electromagnetics

Complex multistep problem exercises are one way to enhance engineering students' learning of electromagnetics (EM). This study investigates whether exposure to complex problem exercises during an introductory EM course improves students' conceptual and procedural knowledge. The performance in complex problem exercises is compared to prior success in pre-engineering mathematics and physics courses and with success in the final exam. Students' conceptual knowledge is evaluated with the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM). The data (N = 133) are collected from an undergraduate static field theory course at Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland. The data are analyzed using correlation and linear regression. The study shows that the complex problem exercises do not improve conceptual understanding of EM. However, complex problem exercises significantly enhance the students' procedural knowledge. In addition, students found problem exercises useful and relevant for their learning.

The Admission of Negro Boys to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute "A" Course

Fifteen Negro boys were admitted to the A Course curriculum at Polytechnic Institute by a 5 to 3 decision of the nine-member Board of School Commissioners on September 2, 1952. This meant that, for the first time in the city of Baltimore, there would be Negro and white children attending classes together in a public school. This historic event happened in Baltimore, a border city with many Southern ways, and it came about through intelligent planning and community action, without recourse to legal action and without arousing a tide of public indignation. Polytechnic Institute, a boy's public school at secondary level embracing grades 9 to 12, has been a part of the segregated public school system of Baltimore for about 50 years. It offers three curricula, all with technical emphasis. Curriculum B and G cover grades 10 to 12, with only B graduates eligible for certification for freshmen standing at college. Obviously, the G curriculum is terminal. The distinctive feature of the school is the A curriculum, a four year specialized pre-engineering course whose graduates generally are certified for and accepted into the second year of accredited colleges of engineering. Pupils enter the course upon completion of the eighth grade. Entrance requirements include eighth grade algebra, an average of good or better in each major subject, and an I. Q. of 100 or more. Applicants also must be at grade level or above in reading ability. This curriculum is offered only at the Polytechnic Institute and is not available at any other white or colored school. It differs from all other school offerings by providing, in addition to a standard high school program, courses recognized by certain colleges as being equivalent to one year of college work in their engineering schools, which accounts for the advanced standing given Polytechnic graduates. The A course includes in the ninth and tenth grades courses that are given in other high schools, but gives some of them at an earlier stage than they are offered in other schools. In the eleventh and twelfth grades, the Polytechnic A course includes the following work which is not offered in any other Baltimore high school: calculus, analytic chemistry, electricity, heat engines, mechanics and surveying. In view of the fact that the A course and its advantages were not available to Negro pupils, a small group of organizations decided, in June, 1952, to secure the admission of Negro boys. The seed of the idea had been planted by the writer in a speech delivered to the Baltimore Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. After that talk, ADA determined that integration in the public schools would be one of their major projects and they decided to begin with Polytechnic. Nothing concrete was done, however,

A Study of Achievement in Various Engineering and Pre-Engineering Courses

Do engineering students exhibit distinctly specialized abilities in con nection with their courses in the college of engineering as contrasted with their abilities in pre-engineering subjects? Does success in certain pre engineering courses, such as physics, chemistry, and freshman mathe matics, presage success in the more specialized courses in engineering? Are students consistent in their achievements in college courses, or do they show great variations in achievement in various subjects, engineer ing and pre-engineering? This study was undertaken to answer the above questions. Certain difficulties, however, were experienced in making the investigation. The first of these difficulties was that of obtaining a common means of ex pressing ratings in several courses so that they might be compared. The only records kept at the University of Minnesota, where this study was carried on, are letter ratings, A, B, C, D, E, and F, with others occa sionally used. This six point scale (or really a five point scale, as used here) was, itself, too restricted to make possible accurate comparisons. The matter was further complicated by the fact that these letters did not have the same meaning in the different colleges, nor in the different courses within the same college. They did not even mean exactly the same for consecutive classes in the same course. Bohan1 has discussed these variations at considerable length in his doctor's thesis. One method of expressing letter ratings in different courses in com parable terms is to assign numerical ratings to letter grades in accordance with the frequencies with which these letters are given in the individual courses. Hence McCall's2 T score technique may be used to assign the numerical ratings to the letters. These numerical ratings will hereafter be called M scores, rather than T scores, because the median is not based on a group of twelve-year olds as it is when T scores are found. Where there are no great discrepancies from year to year in the number

The Predictive Value of Certain Measures of Ability in College Freshmen

The Thorndike Intelligence Examination was administered to several groups of college Freshmen enrolled in pre-engineering courses in September, 1923; September, 1924; and September, 1925. The first question usually asked by administrative officers in connection with experiments, such as we have under consideration, is, How well does an intelligence examination predict scholastic ability ? In order to answer such a question, some measure of school achievement must always be obtained. For our purposes, points of were deter mined and used as scholarship scores. Quality points of scholarship are computed by multiplying the number of units earned by a designated weight for grades earned. A class meeting three hours per week earns 9 units ; two hours a week, 6 units ; one hour per week, 3 units, etc. Teachers' marks are rated as follows: A earns 6 points; B, 5 points; C, 4 points; D, 3 points; E, 2 points; F, 1 point; and R, 0. A more accurate equating of teachers' marks might be obtained by careful statistical treatment, but the added labor seemed to more than outweigh the gain in increased com parability of measures which might thus be obtained. The sum of the quality points of scholarship earned in all courses was used throughout the experiments reported as the quantitative criterion of scholastic achievement. The total number of these points was used because it was the most objective measure readily available. It is the established method of indicating scholastic success in the institution in which the experiments were conducted. 357