CCLI: Effects of Timing, Content and Instruction on Engineering Students' Abilities to Solve Open-ended Problems using Computers

工程-机械（56）评估/研究（91）这是一个第一阶段的项目，探索将计算机引入早期本科机械工程课程的最佳方式，特别关注数值分析。考虑到计算在专业工程实践中的重要性，这个项目试图提高学生的计算机能力，同时远离强调软件特定技能的“食谱”方法，以牺牲更基本的数学和概念理解为代价。该项目的四个研究问题被共同设计来调查学生何时知道如何对计算机分析做出有效的选择：当学生进入大学水平的工程课程时，他们有哪些计算机经验（STEM和其他）？改变计算机技术的引入时间会在哪些方面影响学生对这些方法的期望和创造性使用？在哪些问题上，计算机能特别提高人们的理解？在哪些问题中，计算机会成为理解问题的障碍？我们怎么能强调用计算机辅助解决问题的重要性，而不是强调过程的结果呢？这些问题是通过二年级的数值分析课程来研究的。这四个主题中的每一个都是使用不同教学策略和方法的几个实验的来源。这些实验是通过学生的成绩、调查和访谈以及两名研究生参与观察员来评估的。这个项目的智力价值源于研究本身。计算机是机械工程实践的核心。然而，它们在本科工程课程中的引入和使用在很大程度上是临时的。更广泛的影响来自对学生以前使用计算机经验的改进评估。这将有助于工程教育工作者为资源不足的学区的学生提供服务。在南卡罗来纳，城市和农村学区资源的极端差异及其对早期工程课程的影响往往与种族有关。教育学生在为基于计算机的分析设置问题时获得更大的概念敏捷性，将有助于雇主控制他们的软件选择，并最终为社会生产更好的产品。

Engineering - Mechanical (56)Assessment/Research (91)This is a phase-one project exploring the best ways to introduce computing into the early undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum, focusing particularly on numerical analysis. Given the importance of computing in professional engineering practice, this project is trying to improve students' facility with computers while moving away from "cookbook" approaches that emphasize software-specific skills at the expense of more fundamental mathematical and conceptual understanding. The project's four research questions are designed collectively to investigate when students know how to make effective choices about computer analyses:1. What computer experiences (STEM and otherwise) do students have when they enter college-level engineering classes?2. In what ways does varying the timing of the introduction of computer techniques affect students' expectations and creative use of these methods?3. In what kinds of problems do computers specifically enhance understanding? In what kinds of problems does the computer act as an obstacle to understanding?4. How can we emphasize the importance of setting up problems for computer-aided solutions instead of emphasizing the results of the process?These questions are being investigated through a sophomore course in numerical analysis. Each of the four topics is the source of several experiments using different teaching strategies and methods. These experiments are being assessed using students' grades, surveys and interviews, and two graduate student participant-observers. The Intellectual Merit of this project stems from the research itself. Computers are central to the practice of mechanical engineering. However, their introduction and use in the undergraduate engineering curriculum has been largely ad hoc. The Broader Impacts flow from the improved assessment of students' previous experience with computers. This will help engineering educators serve students from under-resourced school districts. The extreme contrast between resources in urban and rural school districts in South Carolina and its effect on early engineering coursework often follows along racial lines. Educating students to gain greater conceptual agility in setting up problems for computer-based analysis will help employers gain control over their software choices and ultimately produce better products for society.