Project-Based Curriculum for Teaching Analytical Design to Freshman Engineering Students via Reconfigurable Trebuchets
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Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 104 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1310 S 6th St, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: James Albright
Educ. Sci. 2016, 6(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci6010007
Received: 22 December 2015 / Revised: 8 February 2016 / Accepted: 14 February 2016 / Published: 25 February 2016
This paper presents an effort to revitalize a large introductory engineering course for incoming freshman students that teaches them analytical design through a project-based curriculum. This course was completely transformed from a seminar-based to a project-based course that integrates hands-on experimentation with analytical work. The project is centered on a reconfigurable trebuchet kit that student groups assemble and work to identify design decisions that will maximize projectile launch distance. Challenges include streamlining the project experience for the large enrollment (up to 148 students) with limited contact hours, and helping students fuse hands-on experiences with quantitative engineering analysis. A mixed-methods approach supported the claim that the curriculum improved the students’ engineering judgment and demonstrated to students the value of engineering analysis and mathematical models in practical engineering design. A rigorous statistical analysis of student trebuchet launch performance at different course stages is included. A qualitative assessment of student learning is derived through students’ reflection of their course experience. Comprehensive results comparing students’ design iterations versus algorithmic design optimization iterations provide important insights into student design intuition, paving the way for hybrid design education models that teach students how to combine human design intuition with quantitative design tools to design superior systems.
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Keywords:
project-based learning; engineering judgment; design education; engineering education; trebuchets; reconfigurable kits; interactive computer models; model-based design
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MDPI and ACS Style
Herber, D.R.; Deshmukh, A.P.; Mitchell, M.E.; Allison, J.T. Project-Based Curriculum for Teaching Analytical Design to Freshman Engineering Students via Reconfigurable Trebuchets. Educ. Sci. 2016, 6, 7.
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