Heat Transfer Activity for a First-Year Mechanical Engineering Course

A heat transfer educational activity is designed for freshman students who declare a mechanical engineering major. This activity is part of an introductory course given during the first year to introduce students to mechanical engineering and give them tools to use in while pursuing their Bachelors of Science degree in mechanical engineering. The activity is designed to challenge students in learning heat transfer concepts. However, its rigor is planned for students (at the freshman level) who have not yet taken the prerequisites required for heat transfer. The activity is scalable and can be easily deployed in other educational institutes. It is presented with its goals, goal attainment measures, and feedback representing the student perception.Cockrell School of Engineerin

The First Year Frat Experience

It was September 14th and my three weeks were up. I had told myself I had three weeks to make friends. Three weeks before Greek life would dominate the social scene. Publicly, I decried the three week rule, writing it off as dumb or lame. Privately, a part of me wished it could last forever. That night, while my floor pregamed in their rooms, I stayed in mine. I spent a long night alone, listening to the music blasting from dorm rooms and down the streets. I decided to shut the lights off because I didn’t want the world to see what a loser I was. Looking back, I don’t think the world cared, they were too busy having a good time. I went to bed that night promising myself that I would not spend another Friday night alone in my room. I knew I was going to regret not going for a long time. Or so I thought. [excerpt

Working together : the first year

"This report will be of interest to the full range of individuals and organisations that are interested in, or involved with, voluntary and community sector engagement with adult learning" -- front cover

Bolivia's Economy: The First Year

This issue brief describes Bolivia's economy in the first year of Evo Morales' presidency. There were improvements in most of the major economic indicators, as well as some new initiatives by the government to fulfill its promises to the country's impoverished majority

NAS: The first year

Discussed are the capabilities of NASA's Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program and its application as an advanced supercomputing system for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research. First, the paper describes the NAS computational system, called the NAS Processing System Network, and the advanced computational capabilities it offers as a consequence of carrying out the NAS pathfinder objective. Second, it presents examples of pioneering CFD research accomplished during NAS's first operational year. Examples are included which illustrate CFD applications for predicting fluid phenomena, complementing and supplementing experimentation, and aiding in design. Finally, pacing elements and future directions for CFD and NAS are discussed

First year students' perceptions of excellent teachers

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristic of a excellent lecturer as perceived by the first year students of Malay Woman Training Institute the similarities and differences in the responses based on education level. Knowing what characteristics are correlated with excellence in teaching is important because it provides both pre-service and in-service teachers with an opportunity to evaluate their own teaching, receive feedback from students, and improve teaching. Also, this knowledge aids teacher preparation programs in designing their courses and in recruiting the best candidates for teaching. This will help the Teacher Education Division in modifying the curriculum to enhancing specific skills that a teacher must possess. Two distinct samples were involved in this study: For the (5-point) Likert scale, data will be collected from a group of 56 post graduate students from local university and 205 O' level school leavers from Malay Women Teachers' Institute in Malacca. Data analysis using SPSS version 14 through comparing means frequency, percentage, t-test and One-Way ANOVA. The findings of this study indicate that good leader is an important characteristic that contributes to excellent teachers. More than 90% of the students agree that the teaching skills such as motivation, learning environment, facilitating learning, instructional approach and enhancement of student learning with technology should be present in an excellent teacher. .The comparison of the two means shows that students agreed that personal traits are more important than teaching skills in making an excellent teacher. There is no significant difference in the perceptions of excellent teachers between postgraduates and undergraduates students. The findings indicate that what matters most is employing a variety of teaching styles, positive attitude, establish a closer rapport with student can provide a better and conducive environment for learning. Lecturers must be more open to criticism, suggestions and constructive comments in other to change and adjust their personal traits to be a better person