Comprehensive approach to teaching dynamics of planar mechanisms based on modern learning theories

It is well known that students have different learning styles and for teaching to be effective a non-traditional approaches that can address the different styles should be attempted. Also, according to Kolb, learning is most effective if done in a cycle involving experiencing, reflection, thinking and planning. In this paper, we present an attempt at a comprehensive approach to teaching the course Theory of Machines, a standard course in the majority of mechanical engineering curricula. At the beginning of the semester, students are asked to conceptualize and realize a feasible system for building four bar linkages. The system has to be functional and versatile, allowing mechanisms of different Grashof conditions to be built later on during the semester. As students study and analyze different types of mechanisms using the analytical theory presented in class and its solution using spreadsheets, they actually assemble such mechanisms in parallel in order to verify and validate their solutions and to draw the correspondence between the physical performance and mathematical solution. Finally, general purpose visualization software is used to animate the spreadsheet results. In this multifaceted approach, the different learning styles and the different Kolb stages are attended to. Preliminary formative assessment based on students’ opinion survey indicates that the approach was highly motivating and that self-confidence was positively impacted upon the completion of the exercise, starting from theory and ending in the creation of animations.