An inclusive classroom means that all students are engaged in the learning process, and this engagement can lead to better retention and better engineers.听What better way to engage students than with examples that have relevance!听For example, I still remember my fluid mechanics professor coming in spitting mad about being blown over in one of our famous 麻豆影院 windstorms 鈥� and the whole class having to calculate the force generated by that fierce wind.听That real example 鈥� and the image of our esteemed professor tipping over 鈥� led to us actively interacting with him and each other to understand that problem.听
The good news is that you don鈥檛 have to create an entire new set of your own examples.听Check out the Everyday Examples in Engineering (E3s) from the NSF project called .听These examples work to retain students because:
- E鲁s are examples that are relevant and familiar to students.
- E鲁s highlight simple and complex ways that engineers help society.
- E鲁s increase student engagement and retention of engineering and computer science students.
- E鲁s can be used in large classes.
- E鲁s are effective among all groups of students.
You can find a whole host of examples including easy-to-implement lesson plans from the E3s robust site.听Additionally, faculty like you have submitted lesson plans from some of their favorite examples that use the Statue of Liberty, a figure skater鈥檚 spin or a wet dog鈥檚 shaking action.听
And, by the way, effective work in the K-12 community is helping with our goals of achieving gender and ethnic parity in engineering.听Read about four leaders who are contributing their knowledge and actions to inspire that next generation of engineers.听听