Spring 2006 (Baseline Course) Homework
Homework assignments for the spring 2006 semester were comprised entirely of textbook problems. These problems usually involved a very idealized structure presented to the students in an extremely simplified form. Most problems consisted of a structural beam or frame composed of straight line segments. These are commonly called “stick structures” and are a valid, simple method of treating a structural analysis problem. It was my thought that these problems, while well-intended, primarily drove students to find a worked solution somewhere in the text that very closely resembled the assignment. In fact, students were generally successful in achieving this.
Two problems became apparent: 1. Students were able to find a worked solution or closely follow an example problem worked in class, to produce a correct solution that required no synthetic or critical thinking, and 2. Students were never faced with the task of examining an actual structure and reducing it into a “stick structure” for analysis. While the latter is not necessarily a trivial task, it is a step that is not usually addressed in structural analysis courses. However, it becomes a very real, practical problem when students enter the work force. It seemed that problems with a practical twist would benefit students by sparking synthetic, critical, and deliberate solutions.
Spring 2006 (Baseline Course) Exams
Exams for the baseline course were structured to reflect mostly problem solving questions.
Assignment #13
Final Exam
Fall 2006 (Transformed Course) Homework
My experience with the assignments students completed in spring 2006 caused me to re-examine the assignments for the fall semester. I decided to include an ill-defined problem with most of the existing homework assignments. To account for the increase in assignment density, I reduced the number of well-defined “stick structure” problems in each assignment set. The ill-defined problems were considerably more practically-oriented than the textbook problems. For each major course topic, I requested the students visit a specific structure on KU’s campus. Students were asked to analyze a particular aspect of the structural behavior, such as solving for structural loads, member forces, or member deflections. To accomplish this, students needed to make a number of physical measurements, approximations, and engineering judgments that they did not have to consider when they were presented with the tidy, well-defined text problems. I believe that this did stimulate synthetic thinking, although some consternation also resulted on the students’ part.
Fall 2006 (Transformed Course) Exams
For the transformed course, the exams also included problem-solving questions. I feel that the students are prepared for this type of exam question. The restructured assignments provided a platform to better understanding of concepts.
Assignment #1
Assignment #6
Homework #1
Ill-defined problem #3
Exam 1
Exam 2
Exam 3
Final exam
RESULTS
Having taught the baseline and transformed courses in consecutive semesters, I have evaluated learning by looking at grade distribution from the two semesters. The transformed course showed a dramatic increase in students earning an A as opposed to the baseline course where more students earned a C.
While teaching this course, I obtained feedback from the students through a mid-term evaluation. This was helpful in evaluating progress of students throughout both semesters.| << Implementation | ^TOP^ | Reflections >> |
