Footballs, rockets, and legos: A hands-on approach to enhancing the quality of engineering design education

Abstract

ME450, a course developed to provide a capstone design experience to non-engineering majors at the United States Military Academy at West Point, has for three years successfully presented the mechanical engineering design process to students enrolled in humanities, social sciences, life science and other non-engineering degree programs. The effectiveness of the course at inspiring this somewhat reluctant student population to get excited about applying engineering principles and problem-solving techniques is primarily due to a syllabus that is structured around three engineering design projects, or EDPs. These projects, which become progressively more complex throughout the semester, require students to take taught theory out of the classroom and apply it to the design of mechanical systems. Observations and data collected over the course of the previous three years, to include direct student feedback and an analysis of embedded learning indicators, indicates that these design projects promote effective learning in direct proportion to the level of effort that students are willing to dedicate toward their completion. Clearly, students who embrace the challenges presented to them and strive to fully understand and design innovative EDP solutions come away with a much richer learning experience than students who limit their involvement to the minimum requirements. This conclusion, while not unexpected, poses an interesting challenge: how do you structure the course in such a way that it encourages the kind of dedicated involvement that is critical for effective learning to take place? The nature of the projects presented is, of course, an extremely important contributor. The second and third EDPs are carefully designed to be uniquely relevant to student experience and interest and, for the first time, the initial EDP has been assigned as a "self-selected" design project in which the students themselves are required to focus on solving a problem of their own choosing. This novel approach has produced remarkably positive results in terms of student enthusiasm and motivation to innovate, greatly enhancing the overall quality of the introductory design experience, which is targeted at reinforcing the conceptual fundamentals of the engineering design process presented in the classroom. The second EDP, a water bottle rocket design, introduces the concept of the application of a theoretical model to predict "real-world" results, while the third and final EDP, a LEGO™ Mindstorms™ vehicle design, presents a complex technical problem design to challenge students' analytical and creative abilities. The most significant obstacle to learning in both of these technical projects is an observed tendency of students to over-simplify or fail to fully grasp the full extent of the problems presented. When this happens, students invariably develop perceptions that the engineering design process is, at best, unnecessary and, at worst, a hindrance to effective problem solving. To counteract this dynamic, the most recent evolution of ME450 has incorporated four new laboratory exercises intended to challenge students to delve into specific aspects of the assigned EDPs and, by doing so, derive a better appreciation of the complexity of the technical problems involved. This heightened understanding has the effect of promoting a more universal enthusiasm for the application of the engineering design process, as students are forced to realize that successful innovation is not possible without a coherent, methodical approach to problem solving. This paper will provide a qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of ME450's refined approach to teaching mechanical engineering design. The impact of the introduction of a self-selected design project and the new lab exercises on student learning will be quantified by analysis of embedded indicators and course-end student feedback. The results of this assessment should be useful to any program which intends to enhance the quality of its engineering design curriculum, particularly in courses offered to non-engineering majors. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.