Session: 09-01-01: Curriculum Innovations, Pedagogy and Learning Methodologies

Paper Number: 147223

147223 - A Visualization Platform for Accelerating Learning of Undergraduate-Level Engineering Mechanics Courses 

The government, industry and academia have been engaged for some time in a discussion how best to improve the STEM education in the US in order to increase the nation’s competitiveness. Available statistics point to a general decline in basic applied mathematics skills of the US students, skills that are essential across the entire engineering profession. In the context of engineering mechanics instruction, perhaps the most important reason lies in the difficulty of connecting applied mathematics representation of mechanics concepts with the concepts themselves. This decline is real and reflected by the actual classroom experience of many faculty. The current attempts to remedy this issue through technology-enabled online instructional sets are largely ineffective as they do not fully utilize the power of symbolic manipulation, computation and visualization. One reason for this is the use of computational and visualization technologies that are inadequate for the task at hand, and are limited to improving the delivery and presentation of material without accelerating the learning process or deepening the conceptual understanding of the covered material. Another reason is the ever-changing computer-based technology that offers new capabilities, but requires substantial time investment to develop a viable instructional set. Hence a clear need exists for the development of an integrated approach that accelerates the learning process and deepens the student’s understanding of the covered material using a stable but evolving computational engine with symbolic manipulation, computational and visualization capabilities. I will introduce a visualization platform to accelerate learning processes for the undergraduate-level course Engineering Mechanics. This innovation platform is comprised of a set of WolframAlphaPro environment-based instructional modules with integrated symbolic manipulation, computation and visualization capabilities. The WolframAlphaPro Computational environment is employed to develop modules in the form of easy-to-use living Notebooks and establish a strong link between mechanics and underpinning applied math techniques. In addition, WolframAlphaPro and the related Mathematica package available in most universities that contain unique features that enable seamless symbolic manipulation, computational and visualization capabilities through an easy-to-use integrated command structure. This platform creates a learning environment that de-emphasizes the need of the computing language knowledge and highlights easy-to-execute computation and visualization through an integrated command structure. It is considered revolutionary as it is capable of accommodating both text and executable commands by directly marrying theoretical equations with computational and visualization algorithms. Examples for both Statics and Mechanics of Materials will be presented. Evaluations and feedbacks from students will also be discussed to demonstration the initial success of this platform.

Presenting Author: Baoxing Xu university of virignia

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Baoxing Xu is currently an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Virginia.

Authors:

Baoxing Xu university of virignia