Using Writing-to-Learn Methods to Improve Conceptual Understanding in Statics

本工程教育研究计画旨在将写作练习引入工程静力学课程，以增进工程入门课程的基础知识。 项目组已经展示了初步的结果，显示使用解释性写作作为一种方法，以帮助学生学习静态的概念和程序方面的承诺。 该项目包括对这种方法的基础研究，这是在现有的文献中有很好的基础，并计划传播的结果，使其他工程项目可以很容易地采用开发的做法。更广泛的意义和重要性，这个项目将帮助学生学习静力学的工程概念。 静力学是工程学中的一门“入门”课程;即大多数工程专业学生所学习的课程，通常是决定学生完成工程学位进度的关键因素。 因此，开发更有效的静力学教学方法可以提高工程保留率，并减少学生获得工程学位所需的时间。 项目小组采取的办法不需要对现有课程作什么改动，因此可以在各种机构广泛采用。

This engineering education research project seeks to introduce writing exercises into engineering statics courses to improve foundational knowledge in this engineering gateway course. The project team has demonstrated preliminary results that show promise for using explanatory writing as a method to help students learn conceptual and procedural aspects of statics. The project includes both fundamental research on this approach that is well-grounded in existing literature, and a plan to disseminate the results so that other engineering programs can easily adopt the practices developed.The broader significance and importance of this project will be to help students learn the engineering concepts in statics. Statics is a "gateway" course in engineering; i.e. one that is taken by most engineering students and is often a key factor in determining students' progress in completing an engineering degree. Thus developing more effective methods of teaching statics can result in improved retention in engineering and a reduction in the time it takes students to earn an engineering degree. The approach taken by the project team will require few changes in existing courses, and thus can be broadly adopted at a diverse range of institutions.