Lawnmowers and Prospective Engineers: A Recruitment Exercise

Every College of Engineering faces the challenge of recruiting and retaining students in their majors. Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy face a strict requirement to complete their coursework in four years in addition to myriad other demands on their time and attention, making their selection of major even more consequential. Naval Academy Summer Seminar (NASS) is a week-long, on-campus immersion program designed to provide rising high-school seniors insight into the unique environment and requirements of the Academy to help them make more educated choices with regard to both school and potential major. Candidates get a “week-in-the-life” exposure to the culture of the institution plus structured time with various academic departments-—periods when the departments are actively recruiting future majors as well as educating the potential students about what it means to major in their field. These academic periods also present the future students with the hallmarks of our academic program: small class sizes, teaching-focused faculty, and a significant STEM component to all fields of study. The Mechanical Engineering Department developed a new disassemble/assemble/analyze (DAA) exercise involving a push lawnmower as its presentation for Naval Academy Summer Seminar. The purpose of the exercise was to get students on their feet, applying what they learned in physics and chemistry to understand how something works, and to give them confidence that they can use these tools on their own to help them understand the physical world around them. The push lawnmower was chosen because it is likely familiar to all students of this age range. They would not have to spend extra time to understand how the device functions. Moreover, it was complex enough that they might have some idea how it worked in general, but had never considered its operation in a detailed way. It also readily demonstrates the three areas of mechanical engineering: structures and materials, thermo-fluid sciences, and engineering design. The students (who had no particular technical preparation) were divided into small teams and guided through a discussion of what it means to be an engineer and a qualitative overview of design, solid mechanics, material properties, and thermodynamic principles as applied to the construct of a small machine. This paper will describe that project-based learning exercise in detail and propose options for extending and adapting it for use as a module within or as a framework for an introductory course for mechanical engineering majors. P ge 26055.2