Attitudes and interests of students in introductory engineering courses with experiments related to sports

In an effort to introduce engineering students to mechanical aerospace and chemical engineering principles through a familiar context of sports and sports performance, a multidisciplinary team of faculty and students from two universities and a county college have developed a set of hands-on modules. Experimentation in the modules allow for students to explore topics such as aerodynamics, mechanics of materials, dynamics and transport at an introductory level. At the university, all of these topics are covered in a freshman introduction to engineering course. The students conduct four module experiments; then after this guided instruction, the freshmen work in small teams to develop experiments. In some cases the student chosen experiments may be extensions of those they have completed or changed to incorporate these principles in other sports related testing. These team projects are a major component and design part of the course, after which the students submit a final laboratory report and present their finding in an oral presentation. Additionally, ethics related to engineering and sports are discussed in the freshman course. In the engineering materials course at the county college, students perform experiments in mechanics of materials, as this is the topic of the course. Students later bring in other products to test a section or material sample. The purpose of this paper is to briefly explain the modules and their incorporation into each of the courses and evaluate their attitudes and interests in the sports in engineering topics.