The Mathematical Modelling Competencies Required for Solving Engineering Statics Assignments

Alpers, Burkhard

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62968-1_16

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Participants often referred to only two steps, the "mathematizing" step and the "interpreting" step. This finding is previously found in the literature [50], where engineering homework problems use only some of the mathematical modeling cycle, which could be called merely "application" rather than the more encompassing "modeling. "…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 70%

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Mathematical Maturity for Engineering Students

Faulkner

Earl

Herman

2019

Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed.

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This dissertation presents four studies on the mathematical education of engineering students. The first study is a qualitative analysis of the beliefs of engineering faculty at a single institution regarding what constitutes "mathematical maturity" for engineering students. Faculty emphasized the need for mathematical modeling skills, fluent symbolic representation skills, and a combination of effortless algebraic fluency and ability to use computational tools. The second study is an analysis of the beliefs of engineering faculty at a variety of institutions. These faculty also emphasized modeling, representation, and computation, corroborating the results of the first study. The third study is an analysis of the mathematical content of engineering circuits and statics homework problems. Just 8% of statics problems and 20% of circuits problems use calculus, and in a much more limited way than what is taught in calculus. The fourth study presents a quantitative survey of engineering sophomores' perceptions of the relevance of mathematics to their engineering studies. The students have somewhat favorable views of the relevance of mathematics, but some high-performing students view mathematics as irrelevant.ii To David Pierce, for starting me on the path to becoming an educator.And to Caitlin McGuire, for helping me complete that journey.iii

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 70%

“…In our Statics course, energy functions and unstable equilibrium were not covered, leading to the lack of derivatives and optimization as observed in statics by others [50].…”

Section: Staticsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Mathematical Maturity for Engineering Students

Faulkner

Earl

Herman

2019

Int. J. Res. Undergrad. Math. Ed.

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“…In our Statics course, energy functions and unstable equilibrium were not covered, leading to the lack of derivatives and optimization as observed in statics by others (Alpers, 2017).…”

Section: Staticsmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…required calculus concepts or skills to solve -5 of those 7 are from a single lesson (internal forces). In our statics course, energy functions and unstable equilibrium were not taught, leading to the lack of derivatives and optimization as observed in statics by others (Alpers, 2017).…”

Section: Staticsmentioning

confidence: 97%

When am I ever going to use this? An investigation of the calculus content of core engineering courses

Faulkner

Johnson-Glauch

Choi

et al. 2020

J of Engineering Edu

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“…No obstante, a pesar de la importancia que presenta el modelado y la simulación en la práctica profesional de la ingeniería, es evidente la escasez de científicos e ingenieros que estén adecuadamente preparados para aprovechar o contribuir a estos desafíos científicos altamente interdisciplinarios y altamente computacionales (Shiflet y Shiflet, 2014;Yilmaz, 2012). Para Alpers (2017) dado que los ingenieros configuran y trabajan con modelos matemáticos que describen ciertas situaciones de interés, parece ser bastante obvio que las habilidades de modelado matemático deberían desempeñar un papel importante en la educación en ingeniería, sin embargo, no es claro en qué parte de los cursos de ingeniería se adquieren estas competencias, en temas de aplicación como estática o teoría de control, se introducen importantes cantidades de modelado (como fuerza, torque, tensión) y se presentan formas de configurar modelos y calcular cantidades interesantes para tales modelos, de modo que los estudiantes al menos "experimenten" el modelado matemático, pero solo trabajando constantemente en actividades de modelado los estudiantes pueden adquirir tales habilidades.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified