Developing Real-life Problem-based Learning (PBL) Activities through Partnership with Industry

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of project-based learning (PBL) activities in the context of a sophomore dynamics class. The activities were developed in partnership with an industry representative and have thus far been implemented in two iterations. Surveys conducted in Spring and Fall 2016 reveal how students experienced the activities. The survey findings indicate that using PBL activities to complement a lecture-based approach in dynamics provides an opportunity for students to connect abstract engineering principles to reallife situations, thereby increasing student motivation to learn and deepening conceptual understandings.