DISCUSSION TOPIC: How Can Active Learning Become More Widespread in Engineering Education? The following slides relate to (1) a set of active-learning exercises used in a course in fluid mechanics and (2) how active-learning techniques developed by one faculty member were able to be used by another. Slides from a presentation associated with ASEE Paper AC-2008-207.

1. DISCUSSION TOPIC: How Can Active Learning Become
More Widespread in Engineering Education?
• What are the obstacles for faculty?
• How can these obstacles be overcome?
• Other Issues?
The following slides relate to (1) a set of active-learning exercises used in a
course in fluid mechanics and (2) how active-learning techniques developed
by one faculty member were able to be used by another. Slides from a
presentation associated with ASEE Paper AC-2008-207.
Stephen R. Turns
Penn State University

2. ACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
EXERCIES FOR A FIRST COURSE IN FLUID
MECHANICS
AC 2008-207
Stephen R. Turns, Laura L. Pauley, and Sarah E. Zappe
PENNSTATE
2008 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
June 22-25, 2008

3. WELCOME TO ME 320!
FLUID DYNAMICS

4. ABOUT ACTIVE AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING
Richard Felder says:
“In the traditional
approach to college
teaching, most class time
is spent with the professor
lecturing and the students
watching and listening.
The students work
individually on
assignments, and
cooperation is
discouraged.

5. ACTIVE AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING - Continued
Such teacher-centered instructional
methods have repeatedly been found
inferior to instruction that involves active
learning, in which students solve
problems, answer questions, formulate
questions of their own, discuss, explain,
debate, or brainstorm during class, and
cooperative learning, in which students
work in teams on problems and projects
under conditions that assure both
positive interdependence and individual
accountability.”

6. Research by Prince & others
shows that active learning is
superior to the traditional
approach in the following
measures:
• Short-term retention of subject matter
• Long-term retention of subject matter
• Conceptual understanding
• Positive student attitudes
• Motivation for further study

7. Improved educational
outcomes associated with
collaborative learning over
individual or competitive
learning include the
following:
• Academic achievement
• Quality of interpersonal interactions
• Self esteem
• Student activities
• Retention in academic programs

8. Example of a 30-Second In-Class Exercise:
Educational Objectives:
1. To facilitate long-term retention of the fact that the
appropriate differential area dA for integrating over the
cross-sectional are for pipe flow is 2πrdr.
2. To help students become confident in working in
cylindrical coordinate systems.
Differential Area dA for
Cylindrical Systems

9. Given by instructor:
The mass flow rate through a pipe having a circular cross
section is
Students are requested to:
• Sketch what might be an appropriate dA for this situation
• Write an algebraic expression for this differential area
involving the radial coordinate r
What follows:
• Students think, sketch, and write
• Instructor asks for volunteers to give their answers and
explain their reasoning

10. Wrap-Up:
Comments:
• This concept is used (and revisited) many times throughout
the course.
• Nearly all students in a class of 80 were able to recall and use
the expression dA = 2πrdr in subsequent quizzes and exams.

11. Example of a 20-30 Minute In-Class Exercise:
Educational Objectives:
1. To help students understand & internalize the principle
of mass conservation.
2. To have students develop confidence in their analytic
capabilities.
3. To have students discover how ordinary differential
equations arise in the context of unsteady mass-
conservation problems.
Unsteady Flow from
One Tank to Another

12. From the instructor:
Students are given a handout with this information:
v1 = [0.95gh1(t)]1/2
v2 = [0.95gh2(t)]1/2

13. Students are requested to:
• Work in groups of 3 persons
• Develop an expression for h1(t)
• Develop an expression for h2(t)
• Develop an expression for the time to empty both
tanks

14. What follows:
• Students think, sketch, write,
discuss, ask questions, are
engaged, are animated.
• Students achieve various degrees
of completion.
• The class is brought together with
the instructor asking students
about their approach as the
instructor quickly develops the
solution.

15. Table 1. Class Time Required for the Exercises

16. Table 2. Specific Nature of the Exercises

17. Table 3. Specific Topics Treated by the Exercises

18. Table 3. Continued

19. Table 4. Student Collaboration

20. These exercises can readily used and/or adapted
by other instructors – LLP experience:
Concerns
How do I add active learning? What are the
mechanics?
Will I lose control of the class?
Will students stay on task?
Outcomes
Ability to gage students understanding
Greatly enhanced student participation
Additional preparation time minimal (maybe zero)

21. Assessment
Rate the effectiveness of the in-class, active-learning
exercises to the overall learning experience in this
class.
1 = Lowest rating 7 = Highest rating
Rating ≤2 3 4 5 6 7
Fall 2007 0% 3% 12% 19% 44% 22%
(N = 73)
Fall 2006 0% 13% 7% 7% 27% 47%
(N = 15)

22. Assessment - Continued
Comparison of Final Examination Scores
with and without Active Learning
Treatment Average Score Std. Dev. t-Test (p-value)
Without 78.94 11.92
-2.228 (0.024, df = 109)
With 83.87 10.75

23. We found that the active-learning exercises
• Can be readily used as is or easily adapted by
other instructors.
• Were rated by a majority of students to be highly
effective in their learning of fluid mechanics.
• Appear to improve students performance on
final examinations.
• Provide stimulating learning and teaching
environments for both the students and the
instructor.

24. Photo Credits
Slide 2: (a) NASA, (b) NOAA, (c) General Electric
Slides 4 & 5: PSU-LV Learning Center (c) 2005
Theo Anderson