NDLI: Longitudinal Integration of Problem Based Learning Into Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Courses

Content Provider	The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Digital Collection
Author	Chen, Xiaolin
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	Problem-based learning (PBL) has long been recognized as an effective way to engage students in active learning. Problems are those students will finally encounter in their professional lives. Incorporating PBL into undergraduate education can motivate students to acquire knowledge and skills by tackling problems and not just to pass exams. In engineering, a common form of PBL is through course projects. Students work in teams to explore real-world problems and make presentations to share what they have learned. In practice, however, it often becomes a challenge to fully exploit the benefits of PBL in a single course because of the time constraints enforced in the curriculum. This paper describes an educational experience to longitudinally integrate PBL into several upper-division mechanical engineering courses. The goal of this PBL experimentation is to let students thoroughly research and study different aspects of a real-world problem. This is achieved by modularizing the problem and embedding the PBL modules into a series of courses. A case study will be presented to exemplify the use of modularized PBL to help cumulatively develop students’ capability in mechanical system modeling, simulation, analysis and design through several courses. The students involved are mechanical engineering undergraduates that are taking engineering analysis, dynamic systems, and computer-aided engineering courses. To conclude, student feedback and discussions on assessment strategies will be given. The modularized PBL can be a good way to mirror industrial practice in real-world engineering problem solving and to enrich students learning experience.
Starting Page	407
Ending Page	415
Page Count	9
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9780791848708
DOI	10.1115/IMECE2008-68319
e-ISBN	9780791838402
Volume Number	Volume 9: Engineering Education and Professional Development
Conference Proceedings	ASME 2008 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
Language	English
Publisher Date	2008-10-31
Publisher Place	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Design Computer-aided engineering Undergraduate students Students Dynamic systems Education Feedback Simulation analysis Teams Mirrors Mechanical engineering Modeling
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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