Session S3C
Work in Progress - Developing and Maintaining Problem Solving Skills and Concepts in Statics and Thermodynamics Russell L. Warley and Oladipo Onipede Jr. Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Mechanical Engineering Erie, Pa 16563
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[email protected] problems correctly and completely even if it took them several attempts to accomplish this [3]. Carrying the idea of setting the bar high for being able to solve problems correctly further, we are also starting to use initial pre-requisite quizzes in follow up courses (e.g. heat transfer and strength of materials) to ensure that students have retained (or are motivated to review) the basic skills and knowledge from these fundamental courses. The pre-requisite quizzes have proved valuable as they serve to let students know exactly what level of knowledge from the fundamental courses is expected of them and serve to provide the motivation to review the material from the previous courses. The last aspect of the methodology, a final review quiz, is yet to be implemented, but will be implemented in the Fall 2007 semester. Often a traditional final exam is not given in a course when the mastery exams are used due to time constraints. This leaves the instructor a little uneasy about the tendency to forget material from early in the course. The idea of the final review test is to help students retain and reinforce concepts and skills developed during the course. The main aspects of the mastery exams are: • All major topics in the course are covered in the exam by a dedicated question. Typically this means that there are a Index Terms – Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Mastery grading, total of 12 – 16 exam questions given over 4 - 6 exams quizzes during the semester. • Points are awarded only for those exam problems that are We are in the process of implementing ways to improve, done correctly. A problem is considered correct or maintain and motivate student learning in introductory satisfactory if the score is 90% or higher on the problem. engineering courses (Engineering mechanics-statics and This allows for only minor errors. thermodynamics). These courses serve as foundations for • Each exam question is graded out of 10 points. several other courses in Mechanical Engineering as well as • Students who do not solve a problem satisfactorily (i.e., several other engineering fields. These courses also occur above 90%) are allowed up to two more attempts on early in the curriculum which affords an opportunity to make a different problems covering the same concept which are positive change in student study habits. We are using three administered on scheduled retake exams. related but separate techniques to accomplish our goals; exams • These subsequent attempts are graded on the same graded on a mastery basis, pre-requisite quizzes in follow-up mastery basis, but the maximum number of points a courses, and a final quiz at the end of a course. We have student can obtain is reduced to 8.5 out of 10 for the specifically implemented grading exams on a mastery basis, as second attempt and 7.5 out of 10 points for the last a way to motivate students to learn the material in these basic attempt. No points are awarded for a problem that is not courses [1,2]. The goal was to ensure that students did not “get done correctly on the last attempt. through” courses solely based on partial credit, which we • The level of difficulty in the initial exam question and the assert also means partial ability to solve problems correctly. subsequent attempts is either equivalent or decreases We felt that it was important that students learn to solve slightly with each successive retake. The emphasis is on 1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S3C-12 Abstract - An implementation of an overall methodology to ensure that students develop and maintain satisfactory problem solving abilities is reported. Most aspects of this methodology have been implemented in two sophomore Engineering courses: Statics and Thermodynamics. The objective of this methodology is to ensure that students who pass (a grade of “C” or better) these introductory engineering courses have not only clearly demonstrated the ability satisfactory problem solving abilities, but have also maintained these problem solving skills through subsequent courses. These methods have three main components: Exam questions and final quizzes during the course and initial pre-quizzes in subsequent courses. All major topics covered in the course are tested multiple times, first during problem solving based exams and in subsequent quizzes. All grading is done on a mastery type basis. We believe that by this approach we can shift student thinking from getting partial credit to learning and solving problems correctly. This methodology should also help with direct measurement of clearly defined learning outcomes and an overall more consistent grading of exams since partial credit is mostly eliminated.
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the ability to solve a particular type of problem correctly in each case, however. While numerical answers to the exam questions are provided after the exam, solutions are not. Students are encouraged to work through the problem on their own and figure out what they did wrong. The exam portion of the course typically accounts for 70% to 90% of the course grade.
The main aspects of the final quiz/test are: • All major topics in the course are covered in the quiz. This would be typically 12-16 questions during the final. A traditional engineering final exam might be only 6 larger problems. • Each question is short enough that it can be solved in about 5 minutes. • Questions should be designed to make students have to make crucial decisions or a simple calculation to solve. • Questions should be graded on a correct/not correct basis as on the exams • The final quiz/test accounts for about 15% to 20% of the course grade. • Multiple choice questions may be used as long as there is no reward for guessing. The main aspects of the subsequent initial quiz are: • This should be done early in the semester in subsequent courses that have these courses as prerequisites such as Strength of Materials, Dynamics and Heat Transfer. • The material on the pre-requisite quiz is not covered in class but a set of study problems is assigned and numerical answers are given but no solutions are posted. • Only those topics that are relevant to the current course should be tested. • Grading should be on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. • A retake of unsatisfactorily done problems may be permitted for reduced credit. • Typically this initial quiz may be between 2.5 -5% of the course grade. As stated earlier, we have fully implemented the mastery exam phase of the methodology and are in the process of implementing the pre-requisite quiz phase. So far some of the observations from the mastery exam phase are: • Grading is more consistent and requires less time. • Learning objectives are well defined and measuring them is straightforward • More instructor time is spent on making exam questions, but much less time is required for grading the exams • Weaker students may spend more time studying, because they have to prepare for their retake exams • Students “move” away from trying to obtain partial credit to trying to solve problems correctly, thereby facilitating better learning • As long as students perceive this to be in their interest, they are very encouraged and motivated by the process.
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To get a “passing” grade (C or better), students need to have answered correctly at least 80% of the exam questions by the third attempt. In some cases it may seem that grades were overall higher than usual in mastery sections of courses, but this was because students eventually (by the 3rd attempt) answered questions correctly, and was not not due to easy grading or using a “curve”.
In surveys conducted recently in both the statics and thermodynamic classes a summary of the results showed: • Over 80% of the students said they prefer this method of exam grading over traditional methods • 100% of the students said they felt they were more confident about the knowledge of the subject matter in the course. • Students liked having several exams and knowing exactly what topics will be on the exam As for the initial quiz state, some observations are: • The quiz encourages students to review material required for the current course. • The results of the quiz helps the instructor evaluate the level of preparedness of the students in the current course • The results of the quiz can be used as an assessment tool to evaluate how students in multiple sections of the previous course are performing While we do not have results from the final quiz yet, we do expect the final quiz questions to be similar to those in the initial quiz phase. The idea of the final quiz came from evaluating the value and importance of a comprehensive final exam in a course based on mastery grading where every topic is tested on exams during the semester. We did not feel that a comprehensive final will be able to adequately evaluate all 1216 topics/concepts in the course. We feel that a final quiz is a better tool to encourage students to review and reinforce concepts and topics covered in the course. The methodology presented here is attempting to make sure students develop and maintain satisfactory problem solving skills that they can carry over to subsequent courses. The goal is to have students focus on learning and make sure they learn and retain the knowledge. We will present more results and data from exams and surveys showing how these methods have improved student performance and perceptions in both the current classes and subsequent classes. [1] Bloom, B.S. "Evaluation to Improve Learning", McGraw Hill, 1981 [2] – Lowman, J. "Mastering the Techniques of Teaching" 2nd Jossey-Bass, 1995 [3] Onipede, O. and Warley, R. “Rethinking engineering exams to motivate students,” Proceedings of the 26th Annual Lilly Conference on College, 2006.
1-4244-1084-3/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE October 10 – 13, 2007, Milwaukee, WI 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference S3C-13
