Introduction to a course requirement

The ATD course is a basic course for mechanical engineers and is closely associated with the thermal engineering field. Knowledge gained in this course is useful to understanding other subjects like heat transfer, energy conversion systems and courses relating to energy in the later years of the programme. The course is also useful for understanding thermal considerations in the design of any engineering product in which principles of work and heat or energy transfer are used.

The course contains important concepts like temperature, heat and work in the first unit, along with an in-depth study of various statements of thermodynamic laws. The second unit focuses on defining ideal gas and related equations. Basic gas laws such as Boyle‘s law, Charle‘s law, Avagadro‘s Law and their applications are also covered in this unit. The second unit also contains concepts like thermodynamic processes, which is a very important concept for designing thermal equipment. The concept of availability also needs to be studied in the second unit. The third unit is comprised of vapour power cycles and an introduction to properties of steam. Students are expected to become competent in using steam tables to calculate various properties of steam, such as dryness fraction and enthalpy. These three units covered 50% of the syllabus and 50 marks in the main written examination.

The final three units covered the remaining 50% of the syllabus and 50 marks of the examination. In the fourth unit, students are expected to learn different types of fuels, their calorific values and its determination. The combustion of various types of fuels is also to be studied in the third unit. The fifth and sixth units cover compressors and boilers respectively.The compressors and boiler are important thermodynamic systems through which the basics from the above four units are considered for design purposes.

From observation of the course syllabus, I understood that the first four units cover basic information required to understand final two units. Also, the syllabus is fragmented which

122 covers many concepts that may or may not be used in a single application. For instance, the concept of fuel and its combustion is important in the case of boilers, whereas an understanding of thermodynamic work and processes is critical in compressors. The concepts of steam are useful in the case of boilers, whereas concepts of ideal gas (air) are important for air compressors. This fragmentation of the syllabus put me in a confused state of mind. I was unsure for which section of the syllabus I should design a project. After reflecting for quite some time, an idea came into my mind to focus on the application side. The reason was simple. The equipment we use in day today life is applications of thermodynamic concepts, like heaters, refrigerators, air coolers and conditioners, electric irons, heating rods etc. These are also easily available in the market. So, the idea was generated to ask students to study these products and to justify how thermodynamic laws and concepts were applied in these products.

In my opinion, this type of project was suitable because it would help students to get the relevance of the theory and the actual application of theory in real life. The students would also, then, understand the related concepts and workings of each application. Since these products are available in large variety, there was a wide scope for each group to choose their product. There would be less financial burden on the students and they may not need to travel to find their application. In spite of the many advantages of this project design, it had dis-advantages as well. Unlike the first project, this project may not cover the first three units of the course or have the same overarching concepts from the first three units, although it would cover 50% of the syllabus from all the different units. This meant that students needed to wait until the corresponding unit was taught in the class before proceeding with the project. For example, if the group chose to work on the boiler, the applicable concepts are only covered in the final unit of the course. The same applies for the compressor. However, I was confident that the students could do this type of project and I continued the process of designing the project.

6.4.1 Course objectives

It may be noted that the course objectives are not mentioned in the syllabus. Accordingly, the course objectives and unit objectives are defined here. At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

1. Understand and apply various statements of thermodynamic and gas laws 2. Understand basic forms of energy like heat and work, their conversions and

application

3. Apply gas and vapour cycles to evaluate thermodynamic properties such as work, enthalpy, entropy for compressors and boilers

4. Evaluate calorific value of different types of fuels 5. Use steam table to analyse performance of the boiler 6. Conduct experiments on various experimental set-ups

To achieve the above course objectives, students are supported with classroom instruction and laboratory work. Assessment and evaluation of course objectives is based on the written tests conducted by the institute and university. Students‘ learning requirement is to study for the examination point of view.

123 6.4.2 Opportunity for improvement

Traditionally, this course is taught by using conventional teaching-learning practices. I critically evaluated the course content and gathered opinions from subject experts on the achievement of ABET learning outcomes referred in table 1.1. From this analysis, it was concluded that the current academic practice promotes students to apply knowledge to solve textbook engineering problems, and to conduct, interpret and analyse data collected from laboratory experiments, listed in the syllabus. However:

1. The course does not promote the application of knowledge to real engineering products or the analysis and interpretation of data gathered from field experiments.

2. The course does not allow students to work in a team, which is essential for professional practice. In the ABET learning outcomes, it is expected that the students should be able to work in multidisciplinary teams. In the project I designed, students would work in disciplinary teams. The intention was to give them the experience of teamwork. This experience may help them to work in multidisciplinary teams later in their professions.

3. The course does not promote the development of process competences such as communication, project management and lifelong learning skills that are desired by the ABET criteria.

The objective of the CLPBL model 2 would be to achieve the above-mentioned criteria.

Since I was designing a project for the second time, the project design process of this model took less time than the first model. After careful study of the syllabus and content requirements, I designed a project. The project design was accomplished by following the same procedure as in the first model. This project is intended to achieve 7 out of 11 ABET learning outcomes, as outlined in table 6.3 (next page). The problem statement is shown below and project activities are shown in table 6.3. In the last column of table 6.3, the intended ABET learning outcome is shown.

Problem statement – Perform thermodynamic analysis of real life engineering product 6.4.3 Assessment and evaluation criteria for project work

The project work undertaken by the students needed to be assessed and evaluated. I designed an assessment and evaluation scheme for the 12.5 marks, as shown in table 6.4. In the first model, each item was assigned five marks. In the second model, each item receives two point five (2.5) marks.

Table 6.4 Assessment and Evaluation Scheme for a Project Activity Teamwork Field work

Quality of technical

report

Presentation and question answer session

Total Marks

2.5 2.5 2.5 5 12.5

It may be noted that an evaluation procedure similar to that of the first model is followed for this project also. Students are assessed in a group and graded individually.

124 Table 6.3 Mapping of project activities with intended ABET learning outcomes

Sr. No Major project activities Intended ABET

learning outcome

1. Teamwork d

2. Identify and justify the product a

3. Conduct experiments in the lab with your team b, d

4. Text book problem solving in a team d, e

5. Carry out field work a, d, e

6. Explain working of a product a, g

7. Classify type of system and processes used a

8. Justify, how the first and the second law of

thermodynamics are satisfied in this product a

9. Calculate energy transfer if any a, b

10. Identify important components and their functions a, e, i 11. Identify and justify the material used for these

components a, e, i

12. Identify the manufacturing process used for these

components a, e, i

13. Prepare project report. g, i, k

14. Prepare PowerPoint presentation g, i, k

15. Defend your analysis in front of the class g

6.5 Design enactment

The designed project was implemented in the first semester of the academic year 2012-2013, starting from June 2012 and ending in September 2012. The implementation strategy

125 remained similar to that of the first model. This time, I started implementation in the first week of the semester. During the first week, I explained all the listed project activities to the students. This was done to communicate my expectations from them. I told them the importance of the project and what they could gain from it. I informed them of my research and asked them to cooperate. I also shared some experiences from the previous model. The students unanimously agreed to participate in the project work and assured me that they would give honest feedback.

As expected, the second cohort completed the project work. Some groups were slow; I had to push them to complete the project in the stipulated time. At the end of the semester, I was burdened with lot of work and had to deal with evaluating 32 groups. To collect and analyse data, the same strategy and instruments were used as in the first model. I collected a lot of data: data on 32 groups and 126 students.