Instructional innovations in engineering featured in new Teaching Academy video series

Strategies for engaging engineering students in ways that represent what is happening in their fields are among the topics discussed by two recent Teaching Academy honorees in a new video series.

College of Engineering professors Kathleen C. Howell and Jason Weiss are among 11 faculty members and graduate teaching assistants recently honored by the Purdue Teaching Academy. Howell and Weiss, both 2013-14 Murphy Award recipients, share their innovative ideas on engaging students and facilitating learning in a series of videos posted on the Teaching Academy website.

In each short video interview, an honoree discusses the teaching philosophies, strategies and tools used to engage students in ways that facilitate learning.

Kathleen Howell

In her video, Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics, discusses how she uses video, visual motion, and interactive tools to help students visualize and understand objects in motion such as spacecraft. She also brings in current examples from the aerospace community, not as just demonstrations, but as part of the learning process.

“I can give a lot of equations and I can give a lot of static images, but if they don’t actually see it move it’s not usually quite as clear,” Howell says. “At the same time, I think it is important for students to feel like what they are learning is connected … to what they are going to be doing in the future as aerospace engineers. They also need to be connected to the fact that these objects that they’re looking at are not just objects and blobs … they may actually be spacecraft.”

Howell's video is available here.

Jason Weiss

Weiss, the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor in Civil Engineering, uses inquiry, peer instruction, and iClickers in addressing real-life, practical questions that engage students in large lectures and laboratories. He also discusses the use of electronic tools such as time-lapse photography and video in helping student experience large-scale construction and deterioration in real speed and real scale.

“The things that we’re trying to do in the classroom to engage more students is really trying to focus on getting them to ask questions,” Weiss says. “This is incredibly important in large lectures.”

Weiss' video is available here.

The entire series of video interviews is available on the Teaching Academy website.