Developing authentic projects for a senior level design class

Abstract

At Murray State University, Product and Tooling Design class is offered as a core course in the Engineering Graphics and Design program. The objective of the course is to enable students to integrate their design knowledge and skills to solve engineering design problems. Since the class is a senior level course, all of the students are expected to have acquired a set of skills and knowledge in manufacturing processes, industrial materials, engineering drawings, tolerance stack-up, solid modeling, motion analysis, and static analysis prior to this class. The course is built on four design problems with different goals and emphases on each problem. The first design problem is concentrated on engineering design process. Students practice how to start and finish a design project by following a proper methodology. The second project is a three dimensional statics problem for practicing finite element analysis. The third project requires integration of motion analysis and simulation tools to address a specific engineering problem. The focus of the last assignment is tool design and machining principles. For all four assignments, computer generated three dimensional models of parts and assemblies, engineering drawings and a report are common required deliverables. In addition, second and third assignments require the results of analyses and simulations. This paper explains how to set up an authentic problem setting for each assignment to create "Authentic Learning Tasks." An itemized scoring rubric is presented with the rationale behind each item. Students' common mistakes are shared with examples, as well. At the end, students' evaluation of the course is provided. It is believed that authenticity, meaningfulness and completeness of the assignments increase students' involvement and motivation for success. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.