Iron Range Engineering Grading Scale

Today we were given a draft grading scale for rating our performance in class. This grading scale will be able to give us number value, which will be representative of our grade in that area. The grading scale is a one through ten scale, with six being work ready. As you move up on the scale, you will be required to show more evidence of competence and experience in an area. This scale will cover both technical and professional skills.

This scale is base up Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Development.

1. Knowledge: memorization of facts, do not know why facts are important.

2. Comprehension: understand importance and meaning of facts

3. Application: use comprehension and knowledge to solve simple problems, can do Fundamental Engineering problems. There are two levels of application.

4. Analysis: able to break down a problem into its constituent parts, can perform analysis. There are two levels of analysis.

5. Synthesis: creatively develop a whole from various parts – results might be patentable, ranges rudimentary ideas at the low end to patentable items at the high end. There are three levels to synthesis.

7. Evaluation: make quality judgments concerning creative works, seen as the go to person.

Proofed by Dan Huju

Final Design Exam

Yesterday we had our final exam for our J(0) project. The sauna team went first, scheduled at 9:00 a.m. The reason for the exam was to prove what we learned during our time working on the project. We were asked to explain certain competencies that we were expected to have gained knowledge in. Some of these competencies included the explanation of the difference between heat and temperature, and we also did an impromptu heat loss problem. The problem asked us to calculate how much it would have cost to heat Ron's house to 71 degrees for the winter, if it had cost $1000 to heat it to 68 for the winter. We ended up making lots of assumptions and calculation heat losses and BTU values. It took us a long time, but we ended up getting the right answer. Then, Ron explained to us a way to do it that took less than 3 minutes. It showed us how much we over analyzed the problem, but taught us how to step back and look at the problem as a whole and see where we want to go with it so we can simplify it from the beginning. After the meeting we were sent out to the commons to work separately on some heat transfer problems. The problem dealt with a cast iron heater with 1100 degree temps on the inside. We were to find the temps on the inside and outside walls, and the amount of heat flux. The next problem asked us to calculate how thick of insulation we needed to wrap the heater with to cut the heat loss in half, and then find the new temps, inside and out. After finishing all this it was about 3 p.m. It was a long final exam, but we learned and reviewed a lot of info that will stick with us.

Core Competency Format

We spent a lot of our time last fall developing a list of the professional competencies we felt we should have by the time we graduate; the faculty worked on developing a list of the technical competencies IRE graduates are going to be required to have. Today, Ron gave us an update on what knowledge we are required to be able to demonstrate throughout the next two years—both professional and technical. Now, everyone has a more definitive answer to what knowledge and skills we are going to be expected to demonstrate and what evidence we can provide to prove our comprehension.


Here is an example of what a student of IRE can expect for a given competency (for an example, I’ll use Fluid Mechanics):


1. A primary learning objective will be stated:

Example:
Evaluate the wide variety of fluid systems using principles of property relationships, fluid forced, energy relationships, and momentum relationships.


2. You will need to be able to describe and explain a set of topics:

Example:
- Fluid Statics
- Fluid Property Relationships
- Energy Principle
- Momentum Principle
- Various Fluid Systems

*Evidence—methods of describing and explaining the given topics
- Essays
- Oral Exams
- Presentations
- Learning Reports


3. You will need to be able to perform a wide variety of fundamental analyses (FE type problems) of the competency.

Example:
What is the Reynolds number for water flowing through an open channel 2 m wide when the flow is 1 m deep? The flow rate is 800 L/s. The kinematic viscosity is 1.23 × 10-6 m2/s.

*Evidence
- worked out FE problems


4. You will need to be able to perform analysis and design on focused competency applications.

Example:
Being able design and analyze a hydraulic system.

*Evidence
- Technical Design Report
- Technical Design Review
- Learning Report and Final Exam


All of the competencies will follow the same format.

Mechanical Engineering Concept Map

One assignment that was given to the students of Iron Range Engineering was to create a concept map of mechanical engineering. This map was to have everything that involves mechanical engineering. My map has four main branches. They are heat systems, mechanical systems, economics, and professional skills. Heat systems and mechanical systems are the technical skills that mechanical engineers know. Heat systems involve thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluids. Mechanical systems involve statics, dynamics, and mechanics of materials. This map is somewhat difficult to create because although there is two separate branches they also correlate to one another. The professional skills branch involves all the skills that engineers need to function in a work place. Communication, project management, organization and many more are all professional skills mechanical engineers need. The economics section involves all the money management skills an engineer needs. This map is nice because it puts our career in prospective. It shows how everything in mechanical engineering is related. It also shows everything that I will need to learn as a mechanical engineering student. Overall this map was a constructive and beneficial assignment.

The Big Day in Review

Yesterday all three groups gave their presentations. They were viewed by the rest of the students, the faculty and two external experts. Every group gave a good presentation and showed their well reasoned arguments as to why their design had the features it did. Although, during a final design review it is expected that if, as someone viewing the presentation, you have a question as to the validity of an assumption or the accuracy of a calculation or any other concern, you are to voice it. That is just what our faculty and external experts did. This questioning kept us on our toes and was a valuable learning experience. I found out that it does not matter how much preparation you do, or how well you know something, you can always know more, or be more prepared. Also, I found that during these design reviews I cannot be afraid to admit to a mistake, and be prepared to make a plan to correct the problem.

At the end of the day we were given a rough description of our next round of projects. We all became very excited. The diversity and challenge that these projects present will make for a very interesting and educational semester.

Proofed by Bill Bacon

The Big Day

Tomorrow is the first big project day for IRE. Our first project is known as J0 and its coming to an end. All three groups will be giving their presentations to the class and the faculty. The technical reports and the learning reports are due tomorrow as well. The presentations will be presented to the rest of the class, the faculty that will be grading the quality of the project, and the stakeholder in our projects, except for the Blandin group's project (no representative from UPM-Blandin will be here).

The technical reports describe all the aspects of our project: including requirements capture, brainstormed ideas, detailed designs, calculations, and analysis.

The learning reports are individual reports that describe what each of us have learned throughout the project; which professional and technical competencies that we have grown stronger in. In the report, we describe the modes of learning that were learned (self-directed, faculty guided, external expert guided, reflections). Along with this report, we are to provide evidence that we have learned what we said we learned. This can include notes that we have taken, TIDEE evaluations (described in Ron's post below), journal entries or any other documentation that we can provide.

After all of this is presented and turned in, we will receive our next group and project.


Proofed by: Bill

Raft Cart Project Update

Going into the week of the final design presentation, our group has spent many hours preparing. Each member has put in many hours inside and outside of the classroom. The design has come from a simple T design with a straight axle to now a complex A-Arm, multi-piece, collapsible down to a 24" x 48" x 24" size, and an aluminum frame with stainless steel fasteners. The cart has been calculated and recalculated, designed and redesigned, and all points of interest assessed and fixed until they meet the criteria.


As part of the final design, a completed assessment of the project entirety will be presented to the faculty and other students. We will do this through a 45 min presentation, accompanied by a PowerPoint that includes; pictures of components, Professional Engineer drawings, parts, and Finite Element Analysis. In addition, an advancement of our learning will be seen through these presentations. Wednesday will be an interesting day, as all three groups are working hard to have their presentations ready for the large exchange of knowledge that will take place.

Edited by Erin

QBQ- The Question Behind The Question

In class as an assignment each student was to read a book called QBQ and reflect on it. QBQ, The Question Behind The Question deals overall with personal accountability for yourself. "QBQ is a tool that has been tested and fixed over the years that is used to practice personal accountability to ask better questions" this is the quote the author opens the book with. In the book it talks about how many people ask what seem to be innocent questions but lack all personal responsibility. A student working at a fast food restaurant may ask questions such as, when will someone come and train me. Or why do they keep changing the menu numbers on us. Or why can't the men clean the bathrooms correctly. As I stated before all of these seem like pretty innocent questions but you are putting the blame on everyone else and holding none of it on your on shoulders.

This can be solved by, "making better choices in the moment by asking better questions" a direct quote from the author. The book lays out three rules to ask better questions. The first is begin with "What" or "How", not "Why" or "When". The second should contain an "I" not "they", "them," or "you". The third should focus on the action. Therefore, the student working at the fast food restaurant could ask, "What can I do to help the men clean the bathroom." Or, "How can I help train myself." So overall the main points of this book are no victim thinking or blaming. Always ask yourself what you can do to help and don't put blame on others. Also I can only change me, don't try and change others or force others to change by making them the victim. Focus on yourself and what you can do better. Last but not least take action. Don't wait for someone else to do it, if you can do it do it. Or try to figure out how it can be done and repetition is the motor of learning. Keep practicing and you will get better at personal accountability. I believe this book is something everyone can gain knowledge from. I highly recommend everyone to look into reading this book.

 

Proofed By: Richie Kennedy

Team Member Citizenship

We have been invited to use an assessment system called TIDEE - Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education that is originated at Washington State University and the University of Idaho.

This system has 14 assessments that are used throughout the design process to both improve the process and improve the individual. Last week we used our first assessment. It is on team member citizenship. Students completed 4 tasks.

• Ranking importance of different aspects of team citizenship to their team.
• Rating each member of their team on a scale of 1-5 on each of 12 different aspects of team contribution.
• Awarding a percentage of work done by each member (to total 100%).
• Picking a strength of each member and writing paragraphs of the importance of that strength and evidence supporting it.
• Picking an area in which each member needs further development and then writing paragraphs on why that area is important to the team and steps the member might take to improve.

After turning this all in the students get reports showing how they and their teammates stand in regards to these important attributes. I find this tool to be useful in helping faculty and students move towards improvements and provide evidence of achievements.

The End of our Project

I am speaking for the Blandin cart group when I say that we now have a defined deadline for our project. Since the beggining of this semester, my focus, individually, was to write and update the technical document for the developement of "the cart." Today, we found out that we had one more week to finish. We also need to put together a document that describes everything that we have learned throughout this project. With this information, we are going to put together a presentation that describes everything that our group has done. It really is a reality check to look at where we started and where we are about to end. There has been a lot of information learned and we are approaching the last days in our group. Right now, the biggest effort from everyone will be putting our requirements together.


Proofed by: Brianna

Learning at IRE

The major reason for the creation of Iron Range Engineering is to change the way students learn engineering technical and professional skills. Up until this semester, all we have done is talk about the different learning style and how it is supposed to work. Well now that we are a few weeks into the semester, this learning is actually taking place. The first project that I am involved in is a sauna heater that uses steam as an input. This project is taking me down several different learning paths. I am looking through textbooks and engineering handbooks trying to find information about heat transfer topics such as convection and conduction. I have never taken a heat transfer class, but I am learning the material as I am applying it to the project. The great part about this learning is that I can relate the learning topics to the project. This makes the learning objectives easier to understand and, because I need to learn the information to complete the project, I am engaged and motivated to learn. I am doing a lot of research on my own, but there are times when I need help. When this happens, I use our faculty for help. Dan and Ron have been awesome at pointing us in the right direction to find information and helping us understand topics. The new style of learning is actually taking place and it already helped me learn several topics.

Proofed by Christine

Fluids Learning Discussion

In order to learn all of the competencies expected of a Mechanical Engineering graduate there are many different learning paths that will be taken by our program. One of them is learning discussions that the students and faculty will have together. Our first discussion was on the topic of fluids. Together with Dan we started to lay out a concept map for the course. To say the least we did not get too far along before getting into a very intense conversation dealing with the fluid property of density. We used the example of air. The air closest to the ground is the most dense. The reason for this it is heavier, having the highest oxygen content. This is why breathing gets harder as you move up in elevation. On hot days, air is less dense than it is on cold days. Airplanes often struggle in warm weather; because of the lower density the wings travel easier through the air and it is harder to create the same amount of drag and lift that there is on a cold day. The same principle says that a baseball will travel faster on a warm day. We also made the relation of this topic to snowmobile carburetors and the use of jetting. Jetting is simply a way to change the amount of air to fuel mixture entering the carburetor. In colder weather, a larger fuel jet is used to increase the amount of fuel going into the carbeurator to compensate the increased amount of Oxygen in the air. The machine would be running lean in this case if you did not jet. In the mountains a smaller jet is needed to limit the fuel to compensate the less dense air. Not jetting would result in a machine running rich, to much fuel for the amount of air. If you want to get a better understanding of density check this site out: http://www.bettinginfo.net/art41.html

proofed by Alex and Cory

Blandin Cart

The Blandin cart group had a project meeting with Blandin the other day. This was our first go around with our project based learning. The Blandin engineers told us what was good and bad about our design. After the meeting, we regrouped and made changes that were needed in our project. Now we are waiting for our next meeting with Blandin, which is early next week.
What is nice about this project is that we are doing a industry based project with a industrial client. This is different than past projects that were done internally. This being our first out of house project, we have had to learn a lot. Communication is the limiting factor, which has slowed us down. Also, we have to deal with the manufacturer to build the cart, which has also challenged us. We have come to realize that you are always making changes all the time throughout the design process. Overall, the project has been a fun learning experience, and it has been a challenge for all of us.

Proofed by Tyler and Dannyl