Session T1J
Work in Progress - Project-Based Learning in Manufacturing Process Ziliang Zhou, Anthony Donaldson California Baptist University,
[email protected],
[email protected] Abstract - A project-based learning (PBL) is implemented in the teaching of a manufacturing process course at the undergraduate level to focus on reducing the gap between what’s been taught in the classroom and what’s been practiced on the manufacturing floor. Instead of the traditional lecture/homework/exam approach, each student is asked to complete a semester long project in the areas of manufacturing processes and manufacturing materials. Surveys are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. It is expected that the implementation of PBL approach will more fully utilize the instructor’s years of manufacturing experience and bring real manufacturing practices to the classroom. It is also expected that the students, upon completion of the course, will be more ready to take on a career in manufacturing and start to perform on day one. The overall effectiveness of this approach will also be evaluated by company supervisors on student interns who have taken the course versus those who have not. Index Terms – Manufacturing Processes, Materials, PBL. MANUFACTURING PROCESS COURSE Manufacturing Process is an undergraduate course designed to provide the basic skills and knowledge in the areas of manufacturing processes & materials and is part of the core mechanical engineering curriculum [1]. Unlike other mathbased engineering courses, depending on instructor’s background and experiences, teaching manufacturing process in the classroom has the risk of not connecting to the real world of manufacturing practices. Consequently, the students may not be able to see the connection and may lose interest in learning the subject. A PROJECT-BASED LEARNING APPROACH Numerous efforts were made for many years to minimize this risk with project-based learning (PBL) [2, 3]. PBL offers the flexibility the traditional lecture/homework/exam approach does not. It offers the opportunity to shift major portion of the learning from teacher-directed, teacherassigned “schoolwork” with its emphasis on comprehension to student-initiated, independent, “intentional learning” models with an emphasis on knowledge building [4].
to their crucial summer internship. We decided to implement the PBL approach in this course similar to [5] with some unique techniques where the instructor acts as a facilitator and supplement the learning with wealth of manufacturing experiences. In doing so, we are able to bridge the gap between what’s been taught in the classroom and what’s been practiced on the manufacturing floor. We also put emphasis on student’s self-learning and problem solving ability, a critical skill for a successful engineering career in general and a successful manufacturing career in particular. With our approach, each student is asked to complete a semester long project. During the first phase of the project, each student is asked to choose a specific manufacturing process and/or material of interest to him or her. Upon approval from the instructor, the student is asked to demonstrate his or her self-learning, research, and presentation capabilities by teaching the class on the chosen manufacturing process and material. The required topics in the student teaching include (1) mechanical properties of the material, (2) applications of the material, (3) manufacturing processes and tooling associated with the material, (4) safety, quality, delivery, cost, morale considerations in a manufacturing plant using such material and/or process, (5) regional, national, and global impact of the manufacturing process of the material, and (6) the student’s career consideration in this particular industry. During the last phase of the project, the student is asked to identify a manufacturing issue associated with the chosen process and/or material, conduct research on the issue, provide a solution to the resolution of the issue, write a report on the work, and present the work to the class. Surveys are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. It is expected that by letting student choose their own manufacturing topic, the students will be more motivated to learn and learn more effectively. During the course of project, the critical problem solving skills widely used in manufacturing, such as 5-Why, PDCA (Plan Do Check Act), were introduced to support the 3rd phase of the project. PRELIMINARY RESULTS At the present time, two of the three phases of the project have been completed. All students picked their topics based on their interest and stated not only why they are interested in the particular manufacturing process and materials but also linked to their career aspiration. One student picked composite material and aspired to work for aerospace
California Baptist University (CBU)’s School of Engineering is a young engineering program in its 3rd year. The manufacturing process is being taught for the first time in the spring semester to a group of junior students leading 978-1-4244-6262-9/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE October 27 - 30, 2010, Washington, DC 40th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference T1J-1
Session T1J industry targeting new 787 Dreamliner manufacturing at Boeing. One student picked polymer and plastic materials with specific emphasis on VICTREX PEEK polymer for replacing metals. One student focused on joining process in general and rivets joining strength analysis in particular. Another student selected water jet process and their wide applications in various industries with focus on pumping power requirement analysis. Another student chose surface treatment in many different industries and did a cost comparison analysis. At the end of phase two, a survey was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. The survey results showed the following responses from 5 students who took the class: •
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In responding to the statement “The project based approach allowed me to choose the topic of my interest and therefore motivate me to learn and learn more effectively”, 60% of the students choose “strongly agree” and the rest choose “agree”. In responding to the statement “The project based approach enhanced my research capability and presentation skills”, 80% of the students choose “strongly agree” and the rest choose “agree”. In responding to the statement “The project based approach also helped me to better understand the applications of the materials/process and their economic impact to the industry”, 40% of the students choose “strongly agree” and the rest choose “agree”. In responding to the statement “This course enhanced my confidence of success working in the manufacturing environment, if given the opportunity”, 80% of the students choose “strongly agree” and the rest choose “agree”.
The instructor also teaches at the same time another traditional math-driven engineering course with the traditional lecture/homework/exam approach to the same group of students and noticed the sharp contrast of responses between the two courses. While passively following the progress in the traditional math-driven engineering course, all 5 students in the manufacturing course took charge in bringing new materials and findings in their project presentations. All of them stated that the fact they are given the chance to pick the topic of their interest really helped them to learn. The students also utilized innovative way, such as video and actual product display, to present the subject content and demonstrated their research capability and presentation skills. Many of them were initially hesitating choosing a career in manufacturing is now considering it as a viable option. All of them are planning to pursue a career in the field of their chosen topic. In addition to the project, many important manufacturing operation topics are also covered in the classroom based on instructor’s manufacturing experiences. The topics include the economic impact of manufacturing sector to the overall
economy, the recent trend of outsourcing manufacturing to Asia, and the key performance measures used in controlling manufacturing activity, such as safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale. In each of those categories, practical examples and methods were introduced to hit the point home so the students have a confidence on what to pursue in a manufacturing environment and start to perform on the job at day one. In conjunction of the course, two field trips were organized to visit the local manufacturing operations to confirm some of the topics discussed in the classroom. During the first trip, the students got to see the actual lean manufacturing policy deployment on the manufacturing floor. During the second trip to a semiconductor device manufacturing company, the students, all mechanical engineering, were surprised to learn that the firm hires more mechanical engineers than electrical engineers due to the fact that the key to their success is the semiconductor device packaging process, which relies heavily on the skills typically associated with mechanical engineering curriculum. FUTURE PLAN With our PBL implementation, the students are highly motivated in learning the manufacturing processes. Our classroom discussion is much more in line with the actual manufacturing practices, which was partially confirmed with industry during our field trips. While the PBL shows promising results, its overall effectiveness needs to be further evaluated with more sample size and with feedback from company supervisors for students’ performance in internship or employment. REFERENCES [1]
Schey, J. A., "Introduction to Manufacturing Processes", 3rd edition, McGraw Hill, 2000
[2]
Thomas, J. W., “A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning”, http://www.autodesk.com/foundation, 2000.
[3]
Lai-Yuen, S. & Reeves, K., “Active-Learning Experiences on Medical Devices for Manufacturing and New Product Development”, ASEE 2009: AC-2009-1549.
[4]
Bereiter, C. & Scardamalia, M., “Intentional Learning as a Goal of Instruction”. In L. Resnick (Ed.). Motivation, learning and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser. (pp. 361-392), 1987, Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[5]
Fang, N., “A Project-Based Active and Cooperative Learning Approach to Improving Manufacturing Engineering Education’, ASEE 2009: AC 2009-284.
AUTHOR INFORMATION Ziliang Zhou, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, California Baptist University,
[email protected]. Anthony Donaldson, Dean and Professor, School of Engineering, California Baptist University,
[email protected].
978-1-4244-6262-9/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE October 27 - 30, 2010, Washington, DC 40th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference T1J-2
