Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Title

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition Conference Proceedings

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Abstract

Roger Williams University engineering faculty believe that properly preparing students to use modern engineering tools is best accomplished through integration into coursework throughout the four-year curriculum. But this is challenging in practice, as engineering courses are already packed with essential technical content and any encumbrance to delivering this material is unwelcome. The author’s engineering mechanics course (Dynamics) is an effort to satisfy the conflicting goals of building technical skills while delivering complex content. This paper describes a multi-year effort to integrate solid modeling into the course by requiring numerical validation of symbolic solutions to homework problems. Working in homework groups, a student will hand-solve problems using traditional methods, but then must demonstrate that their solution is correct by comparison to a partner’s numeric results from a Motion Analysis of a SolidWorks© model duplicating the geometric and inertial properties of the problem. As a direct result, student groups independently validate their symbolic and numerical solutions, providing immediate feedback and significant gratification as reported by the students. This paper will provide a detailed description of the use of SolidWorks© in the course over a twelve-year period, 2013-2024 inclusive. Anonymous surveys conducted each year (>550 responses over the study period), provide a statistically significant basis for evaluating the pedagogical effectiveness of this approach. This paper will present summative statistical results plus an analysis of changes over time concurrent with evolving course policies and material. Although student response is shown to be overwhelmingly positive, this paper will also discuss areas where student feedback is decidedly mixed, indicating potential for improvement.

E-ISSN

21535965

Download

Share

 
COinS