A product dissection project designed for student motivation and retention in an introduction to engineering course

Final Paper pdf 917KB

Many engineering curriculum include introduction courses at the freshman level to motivate and retain students. Providing meaningful introductions to engineering at the freshman level, however, is very challenging because the students lack an engineering background. This paper presents a product dissection based project within an introduction to mechanical engineering course. The project allows students to explore engineering design concepts with little engineering background. In a group project that consisted of 5 total hours of in-class work over the course of several weeks the students studied a purchased product in terms of performance, reliability/safety, manufacturing, and cost. Additionally, students were guided through a study on how the mechanical engineering curriculum would prepare them to create similar design solutions. Feedback from students was collected and analyzed to determine the qualitative impact on student motivation and understanding of the mechanical engineering curriculum.

Author(s):

Aaron Smith    
Mechanical Engineering
Mississippi State University
United States

Alta Knizely    
Mechanical Engineering
Mississippi State University
United States

Rogelio Luck    
Mechanical Engineering
Mississippi State University
United States