Integration And Reinforcement Of Mechanical Engineering Skills Beginning In The First Year Design Experience

As the first step in implementing a Student-driven Pedagogy of Integrated, Reinforced, Active Learning (SPIRAL) throughout our Mechanical Engineering curriculum, we are modifying two freshman courses to introduce, integrate and sequentially reinforce multiple engineering topics that lay a foundation for subsequent, more focused ME coursework. Our approach builds on Bruner’s 1 concept of a “‘spiral curriculum’ that turns back on itself at higher levels” through repetition at ever-increasing depths of knowledge. By integrating topics throughout the curriculum that are typically only taught in separate, disconnected engineering classes, and doing so in a design-oriented context, students are forced to repeatedly “parallel process” various engineering skills much as they will be expected to do in engineering practice. Integration also facilitates a redistribution of engineering topics throughout the entire curriculum that (1) reinforces student understanding and retention through reinforcement at short intervals, and (2) minimizes fading of conceptual knowledge due to extended disuse – as is often problematic in the traditional ME curriculum.