"Mini" research papers for enhancing heat transfer learning objectives

Abstract

Teaching courses such as heat transfer can prove challenging. It is difficult to cover the large quantity of material in the time frame that a single semester allows. Working many example problems significantly helps with student's understanding of the topic but diminishes the lecture time and hence, limits the amount of material that can be covered. One solution to help with challenging and material laden courses (i.e. Thermodynamics, Fluids, Heat Transfer, etc.) is to assign a significant number of homework problems. However, the effectiveness of homework has been lessened by the student's availability of most solution manuals on line. Additionally, large quantities of homework for the students transfer to a large time commitment on already taxed professors for grading. Therefore, the question is: how do you increase the amount of material absorbed without increasing the students' workload excessively? This paper deals with "mini" research papers assignments. The term "mini" research papers refer to papers less than 5 pages. The papers should contain the important aspects of a full research papers, namely: introduction, theory, procedure, results, conclusions and a reference requirement of at least three peer reviewed papers. The case study papers specifically address a certain concept in the broad field of heat transfer. For heat transfer, there are three sub-categories that stand out; conduction, convection and radiation. A mini research paper was assigned for each topic. The subject of each research paper included data taken in class from a simple heat transfer experiments. This greatly helped the students to visually experience the practical side of the theory they learned in lecture. Students were placed in teams of two to three. Each team was given the same data for the problem. Using teams allowed students to collaborate and learn from each other while working on the paper and it helped to limit the demand on the instructor. The "mini" research paper experiments used were very inexpensive but cemented aspects of difficult concepts. Students were able to observe actual heat transfer topics, a benefit over just doing homework. The actual graphs are plotted on the same graphs as the theoretical curves and the students are to comment on the similarities and differences. Some university engineering programs have an adjacent heat transfer laboratory class to help students visualize the various topics, but some do not. Having the assignment be "mini" research papers instead of actual research papers lessens the work impact but at the same time increasing the students' writing opportunities. This active learning technique motivates the students to become interested in the practical aspects of the three experiments conducted in this class. © 2012 American Society for Engineering Education.