Catastrophic Failures, Designed For Failure, And Adventures In Mechanics One Credit Freshman Mechanics Seminars

As part of its mission to provide, through service courses, the fundamentals of mechanics and materials, the Penn State Engineering Science and Mechanics Department created the following one-credit freshman seminars: Catastrophic Failures, Designed for Failure, and Adventures in Mechanics. The objectives of these three one-credit mechanics/materials-related seminar courses include: • initiate meaningful dialog between students and faculty, • inform students as to ethical expectations, • orient students as to particular options of study, • demonstrate via case studies what engineers ‘do’, and • provide laboratory awareness and experiences.