Work in progress: Hands on wednesday (how) - An introduction to statics experience

Abstract

The impacts of active learning have been well-documented in STEM education literature; however, few studies attempt to decouple hands-on learning from the catch-all term. In this study, a series of hands-on activities is developed and deployed throughout an Introduction to Statics (Statics) course in an attempt to improve student understanding and confidence in core concepts. In the hands-on class sessions, students interact and experiment with physical representations of previously completed homework problems or brand-new Statics-related scenarios. These experimental setups provide an environment where students can get immediate, physical, feedback based on quantities such as loads applied, distances selected, and or balance points. Data from this 90-student enrolled course were collected using the SALG assessment tool. Hierarchical multiple regression models were constructed to isolate the effects of Hands-On Wednesday after controlling for student background and the effects of attending lecture. While this single study of a single course showed several positive effects of adding hands-on activities to a core engineering course, future studies should be done to observe longitudinal effects as well as outcomes for underrepresented minority groups.