Using sports in engineering to teach mechanics of materials

Active strategies that also interest and engage students in the learning process can be used to promote learning in educational settings. In an effort to interest and introduce students to engineering principles through a familiar context of sports, a multidisciplinary team of academic staff and students from two universities and a county college developed a set of hands-on modules. Experimentation in one such module allowed for students to explore mechanics of materials at an introductory level. At a four-year university, this module is one of several covered in a freshman introduction to the engineering course. The students conducted four module experiments. After this guided instruction, the freshmen work in small teams to develop their own experiments. In an engineering materials course at a two-year county college, students perform the mechanics of materials experiment, as this is the topic of the course. Students later brought in other products to test a section or material sample. The purpose of this article is to explain the module and its incorporation into each of the courses, to evaluate students' attitudes and interests in the sports in engineering topics, and to determine the perceived level of usefulness of the materials for the students in their learning and determine student level of outcome achievement.