Engineering and Education--Creating 21st Century Students—Part II—

WISENGINEERING

Dave BurghardtHofstra University

One Recent Effort

Community Center DesignConstruct a Community Center that contains a minimum of three geometric shapes, has a volume between 150 and 250 cubic cm. and surface area between 170 and 350 square cm.

And What Happened….?

Results Pre—48.9% Post—72.1%

Results Pre—19% Post—69%

Results Pre—39.5% Post—61.9%

Big Ideas in Engineering—alternative designs, trade-offs and optimization.

Use of Software for Self-CheckingUse of Software for Self-Checking

ModelMaker Software—easy to use 3D design software.

Students were able to access and save their designs, working in teams. Software performs calculations of surface area, volume plus other features of shapes.

Students Learning?

Some Design Solutions

Some Design Solutions

Student Content Knowledge Gain

There was an increase from pre to post test in the percent of students who scored correctly on every math content question

This increase ranged from 7% to 50% on the individual questions, with an average increase of 23% across all items

Results—Student Attitude Change

After skyline:

• Over 14% more students rated themselves as an “excellent” math student on the post assessment

• There was an average increase of 27.28% in students ratings of their ability to complete technological tasks and matched-paired t-tests showed significant differences for all four of these questions at post-test:

- Use software to create geometric models, make a three dimensional model

Results—Student Attitude ChangeResults—Student Attitude Change After skyline:• Students ratings increased (average of 33.4%) when asked how

confident they were in calculating the surface area or volume of various shapes– The following were all significantly different: Surface area of a

parallelogram and circle; and the volume of a cube, rectangle, cylinder, triangular prism, cone, square based pyramid, and triangle based pyramid

• All student ratings of their confidence in performing math calculations increased from the pre to post test– There was a significant difference for calculating with metric units,

using computers to draw figures, and for students to recognize "specifications” and “constraints” of a project

Connecting Math & Engineering

Digital fabrication can advance • student learning in engineering • teaching and learning of mathematics

NCTM is therefore pleased to be able to contribute to this effort. (Kichoon Yang, NCTM Executive Director)

Classroom ApplicationsDesign and construct 2D designs, pop-ups, 3D objects, mechanical toys, working motors, and other activities. Fabricate by hand or with 2D and 3D fabricators.

Fabrication Today

Shift Happens• We are currently preparing students for jobs and

technologies that don’t yet exist….in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

• “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” (Albert Einstein)