While the importance of "expressive writing," or informal, self-directed writing, has been well established, teachers underutilize it, particularly in technical writing courses. We introduce the term expressive/exploratory technical writing (XTW), which is the use of informal, self-directed writing to problem-solve in technical fields. We describe…

Describes a course that emphasizes methods of problem-solving rather than learning a particular programing language. (MLH)

Many developed nations have a serious problem with a shortage in the supply of numerate graduates, fuelled by their school students' negative attitudes towards their future study of mathematics. At the same time, the smart phone and other personal sensing technological devices are becoming commonplace amongst students in schools and universities.…

As engineers contribute to solving the increasingly complex problems facing our society, there is a growing need for the engineers graduating from undergraduate programs to deeply understand the context within which they are solving problems. There is a particular need for engineers who recognize the complexities of global and societal issues and…

Describes an engineering course consisting of a sequence of specific, actual cases, that emphasizes the development of skills in synthesizing information, and in identifying and solving practical engineering problems. (MLH)

A British polytechnic's civil engineering course emphasizing creative problem solving, begun in the late 1960s, has shown that it is possible to increase students' creative ability in the course of a degree program. Research into the identification of students who will benefit from the approach is continuing. (MSE)

This article describes two approaches to learning (in addition to the classic deep and surface approaches) identified in studies of student learning in engineering contexts. The first study identified the 'procedural deep' approach in a group of engineering foundation programme students in the UK, while the second study identified the 'procedural…

The author states that the U.S. is at risk of falling behind in the global economic competition because too few of the young people are choosing to study fields like engineering and science. A 2005-06 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey found that while American teenagers are comfortable with rapid technological change and optimistic about the…

This paper describes the use of undergraduate materials multidisciplinary research projects as a means of addressing the growing industrial demand for graduates experienced in working in multidisciplinary teams. It includes a detailed description of a project in which a multidisciplinary team of chemical engineering and civil engineering students…

The principles, difficulties and challenges in control education are discussed and compared to the similar problems in the teaching of mathematics and systems science in general. The difficulties of today's students to appreciate the classical teaching of engineering disciplines, which are based on rigorous and scientifically sound grounds, are…

Discusses general ways to approach and solve engineering problems. Uses the phase plane and perturbation methods to illustrate the qualitative study of equations. (MLH)

Presents six problems from an alternative approach to homework traditionally given to follow-up lectures. Stresses the advantage of longer term exercises which allow for creativity and independence on the part of the student. Problems include: "System Model,""Open-Loop Simulation,""PID Control,""Dahlin…

Shows that upon incorporating an irreversible step into an otherwise reversible Carnot Cyclic process there results a diminution of thermodynamic efficiency and a simultaneous augmentation of the entropy of the universe. (Author/HM)

These proceedings contain the papers of the 16th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2019), held during November 7-9, 2019, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and co-organised by University Degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy.…

This paper concerns the analysis of a didactic engineering, the aim of which is to introduce Calculus, at secondary-school level, through the relationship between global and local points of view. It was designed for a graphic-symbolic calculator environment and structured in accordance with a learning trajectory from identifying the graphical…