Awareness of faculty research interests is an important aspect of a subject librarian's responsibilities. This paper illustrates the potential of Voyant Tools, an application in wide use among digital humanities researchers, to reveal word patterns in the research output of applied science faculty. A corpus of recent article citations from Web of…

"How does an aircraft fly?" is one of the most frequently asked science questions by young pupils. The lift on airplane wings also makes a great example of the application of the Bernoulli principle while teaching fluid mechanics in introductory physics and engineering courses. The topic is of great interest and is therefore covered in…

The impact of spatial visualization ability on student outcomes in a freshman-level, 3D modeling class is explored by analyzing connections between students' spatial ability pre- and post-test scores, course grades, and self-reported difficulty of an assignment. Analysis of the results indicate that spatial visualization ability, as measured by…

Industrial Designers need to understand and command a number of modelling techniques to communicate their ideas to themselves and others. Verbal explanations, sketches, engineering drawings, computer aided design (CAD) models and physical prototypes are the most commonly used communication techniques. Within design, unlike some disciplines,…

Spatial abilities have been used as a predictor of success in several engineering and technology disciplines (Strong & Smith, 2001). In engineering graphics courses, scores on spatial tests have also been used to predict success (Adanez & Velasco, 2002; Leopold, Gorska, & Sorby, 2001). Other studies have shown that some type of…

Engineering graphics has historically been viewed as a challenging course to teach as students struggle to grasp and understand the fundamental concepts and then to master their proper application. The emergence of stable, fast, affordable 3D parametric modeling platforms such as CATIA, Pro-E, and AutoCAD while providing several pedagogical…

Spatial visualization is a fundamental skill in technical graphics and engineering designs. From conventional multiview drawing to modern solid modeling using computer-aided design, visualization skills have always been essential for representing three-dimensional objects and assemblies. Researchers have developed various types of tests to measure…

In this paper, results from a subset of the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test and a self-efficacy test developed by the authors are presented to determine whether certain object shapes, orientations, and types of rotations in standard spatial ability tests cause more difficulty than others and whether a solid object, which includes shading to…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…