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

Paper Number: 150589

150589 - Examples of Active Learning Activities in Sustaining Student Engagement in Thermal Science Courses 

In traditional classroom settings, student engagement often tends to decline during lectures, which is most noticeable near the end of class, when the focus of students turns on the clock rather than the lecture content. This disengagement often manifests as premature packing up of materials and early departures from the class. The final 10 minutes are often ineffective. This paper describes the impact of concluding lectures with an active learning activity to increase student attention, participation and learning. The activities can range from asking students to summarizing key lecture points, identify confusing topics, or applying concepts to solve a problem. All of these have been used, with the most effective near the end-of-class activity being problem solving. A lecture is often closed a few minutes early by presenting a pop quiz problem. The pop quizzes, mostly require students to show solution steps in detail rather than responding to true/false or multiple-choice questions.

For several year, adaptive questions and electronic pooling devices (eg., I-clicker) were used to engage students and to measure students’ mastery of the fundamental concepts. Electronic pooling devices, was a useful tool for instructors w to gain real-time feedback on student comprehension of the fundamental concepts. The following is an example used in an introductory thermodynamics course: Air in a closed system undergoes a process from 300 K, 1 bar to 900 K, 5 bar. Select the best option describing this process:  (A) dm/dt = 0;   (B) dE/dt = 0,   (C)  dS/dt = 0,   (D)  all (A), (B) and (C);    (E ) none of the above.  However, it was observed that some students were guessing answers to true/false or multiple-choice questions. It was determined that the most effective approach involves aligning the learning activity similar to homework or exam problems, as they are often used as the primary tools to access student learning and to assign class grades. At times, problems with multiple parts are employed so students step through the solution process and can be checked after solving each part.  Correct answers for parts are confirmed when instructor reviews student work, when walking about the class and responding to questions. When answers are incorrect, hints are given to guide students. This fosters a supportive learning environment where students are more likely to ask additional questions. It has been found that some student linger after the class time has ended, which is a stark contrast to the typical ending of a lecture where students depart the room quickly. 

 

Different strategies have been tried on how and when to share correct answers. It has been found that sharing the correct answer(s) when the problem is initially presented is least effective since it often promotes a shallow approach to problem solving. It is recommended that the following lecture commences with a review of the correct answers. It is observed that ending lectures with active learning activity has improved learning, and increased opportunities to emphasize the important points from the lecture. The presentation provides several example problems used in thermodynamics and heat transfer courses as active learning tools. The presentation concludes that ending lectures with active learning tool requiring students to show solution steps, instead of answering to true/false or multiple-choice questions, has improved student attentiveness by 13 to 20%, and increased opportunities to emphasize the important points in the course. Exam scores were found to be 10 to 20% higher compared to previous semesters when active learning activities were not used to conclude lectures.

Presenting Author: Amir Karimi The University of Texas at San Antoniop

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Amir Karimi P.E., The University of Texas at San Antonio
Amir Karimi, University of Texas, San Antonio Amir Karimi is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1982. His teaching and research interests are in thermal sciences. He has served as the Chair of Mechanical Engineering (1987 to 1992 and September 1998 to January of 2003), College of Engineering Associate Dean of Academic Affairs (Jan. 2003-April 2006), and the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies (April 2006-September 2013). Dr. Karimi is a Fellow of ASEE, a Fellow of ASME, senior member of AIAA, and holds membership in ASHRAE, and Sigma Xi. He has served as the ASEE Campus Representative at UTSA, ASEE-GSW Section Campus Representative, and served as the Chair of ASEE Zone III (2005-07). He chaired the ASEE-GSW section during the 1996-97 academic year.

Authors:

Amir Karimi The University of Texas at San Antoniop