Use of student competitions to reinforce the learning experience in freshman mechanics education

Abstract eng:
The author has been teaching a compulsory introductory Engineering Mechanics course for the past decade. This is taken by all Bachelor of Engineering students at University College Dublin in their first university semester. The syllabus topics that students study in this module include vectors, Newton’s laws, equilibrium in two and three dimensions, friction and motion in rectilinear and curvilinear coordinate systems. This paper describes a variety of different, low-cost, team competitions that have been organised in past years for each cohort of approximately 300 students annually. It is hoped that these examples of student competitions may be of interest to academics teaching similar mechanics modules elsewhere.

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