Devising and testing application-oriented tasks for first-year engineering students

This paper presents a concept for devising special application-oriented tasks for first-year engineering students (especially for mechanical engineering) and a study of these tasks.
The main goal of these tasks is to build a connection between mathematics and physics / engineering, as well as student interests, in order to increase motivation, enhance understanding of mathematical content, and improve the relevance-rating of mathematics for engineers.
The paper describes the students' attitudes towards the tasks and provides suggestions for optimising both the concept and the tasks themselves.

10.11.2014 | Paul Wolf & Rolf Biehler (Paderborn)