Teaching Laboratories in Fluid Mechanics for Earth Sciences and Engineering

海洋学(43)我们认为，流体力学课程很少被认为在很大程度上定义了教育经验，因为实验室实验和演示很少发挥核心作用。近年来，我们一直在麻省理工学院开发以实验室为基础的课程，在这些课程中，我们巧妙地选择了基于“研究经典”的实验，展示了旋转流体力学的原理，培养了物理直觉，并培养和发展了实验技能。学生和教职员工都发现这是一次非常有益的经历。该项目正在开发a)用于旋转流体力学教学的本科生实验室原型课程，b)从实验中获得定量测量的非侵入性方法，以及c)帮助其他学校的教职员工和学生在实验室环境中学习流体力学的实验室指南。现在被麻省理工学院承认为“学院实验室”的本科课程，为我们提供了开发和评估实验和教学方法的环境。我们的目标受众是地球科学或环境工程专业的大二、大三和大四学生。但来自其他科学或工程学科的众多学生也从中受益。

Oceanography (43) It is rare for courses in fluid dynamics to be remembered as defining educational experiences in large part, we believe, because laboratory experimentation and demonstration seldom play a central role. In recent years we have been developing laboratory-based courses at MIT in which artfully chosen experiments based on "research classics" demonstrate principles of rotating fluid mechanics, cultivate physical intuition and nurture and develop experimental skills. Students and faculty have found it a very rewarding experience. This project is developing a) a prototype undergraduate laboratory course for use in teaching of rotating fluid dynamics, b) non-invasive methods to obtain quantitative measurements from experiments, and c) a laboratory guide to help faculty and students at other schools learn fluid mechanics in a laboratory-based setting. The undergraduate course, which is now recognized by MIT as an "Institute Laboratory", provides the context in which, we are developing and evaluating the experiments and teaching methods. Our target audience is sophomores, juniors and seniors majoring in earth science or environmental engineering. But a wide range of students from other science or engineering disciplines are also benefiting.