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

该工程教育研究项目旨在将写作练习引入工程静力学课程，以提高工程入门课程的基础知识。 该项目团队已经展示了初步结果，表明使用解释性写作作为帮助学生学习静力学概念和程序方面的方法的前景。 该项目既包括基于现有文献的这种方法的基础研究，也包括传播结果的计划，以便其他工程项目可以轻松采用所开发的实践。该项目更广泛的意义和重要性将是帮助学生学习静力学中的工程概念。 静力学是工程学的“入门”课程；即大多数工科学生都会选择的课程，并且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知识的保留率，并减少学生获得工程学位所需的时间。 项目团队采取的方法几乎不需要对现有课程进行任何改变，因此可以在不同的机构中广泛采用。

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.