How Students Create Verbal Descriptions of Physical Parts

Abstract

has been involved in engineering design and teamwork for over 35 years as a professional engineer, university professor, and researcher. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., and teaches engineering design and teamwork courses. His two research foci are how students learn design and teamwork and how understanding of learning can be used to create more effective pedagogy. Prior to teaching, Dr. Zemke was a professional product designer for over 20 years with an emphasis on mechanical packaging of microwave circuitry. Dr. Diane L. ZemkeDiane Zemke is an independent researcher and consultant. She holds a Ph.D. in leadership studies from Gonzaga University. Her research interests include teamwork, small group dynamics, dissent, organizational change, and reflective practice. Dr. Zemke has published in the International Journal of Engineering Education, the Journal of Religious Leadership, and various ASEE conference proceedings. She is the author of "Being Smart about Congregational Change."c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016 How Students Create Verbal Descriptions of Physical PartsClear and precise communication is a fundamental skill that professional engineers need. They employ it while doing engineering, such as interacting on design teams, and while communicating engineered results, such as in technical reports. Furthermore, communication comes in many forms, such as written reports, verbal interactions, documented calculations, and engineering drawings. Consequently, "an ability to communicate effectively," is a required student outcome for accreditation in ABET criterion 3g. In a previous study we identified that students had difficulty communicating design ideas with their peers on design teams. 4 This difficulty occurred during sketching and verbal descriptions of parts and assemblies. Students' difficulties with verbal communication directly interfered with their ability to work productively together.In this study we examine the verbal aspect of students communicating about parts and assemblies. The students were asked to describe parts and assemblies of common hardware store items that were physically in their hands. We assumed that describing a physical part in hand is fundamental to being able to describe any part, whether it is in a drawing, a CAD system, or simply being conceived of.The intent of this study was to learn how students create descriptions of physical parts and assemblies. Hence the driving question in this study was:What characterizes students' descriptions of parts and assemblies that they are physically examining?This qualitative multiple case study was conducted in an engineering school where seven students were video-recorded while describing three separate hardware store items. The video data was analyzed using standard content analysis methods and rich descriptions were written of each student's approach to the task. A further rich description was written describing the common trends in descriptions across multiple stude...