Hop Crowning Trial

Downy mildew has been identified as the primary pathogen plaguing our northeastern hop yards. This disease causes reduced yield, poor hop quality, and can cause the plant to die in severe cases. Control measures that reduce disease infection and spread while minimizing the impact on the environment, are desperately needed for the region. Mechanical control is one means to reduce downy mildew pressure in hop yards. Scratching, pruning, or crowning is a practice initiated in the early spring when new growth has just emerged from the soil

Organization of Teams for Group Homework and Projects

This paper describes the organization of student teams in engineering courses developed over several years of the author’s experience at multiple institutions. Students are assigned into groups of 3-4 students each for working on the homework. Homework problems are selected from a source other than the assigned textbook, since it has been found that as many as one-third of the students have access to the solution manual. All students in a group receive the same grade on the homework, and only turn in one copy of the assignment for the group. In order to help insure the full participation of all members of the group, on the day the homework is due, a quiz is given in class, in which one of the problems from the homework is randomly selected for the quiz problem, without any change to the problem. Selection of the students on teams follows best practices of grouping students from under-represented groups together. After that, students are grouped based on common interests gleaned from a survey given on the first day of class. In the group projects students are allowed to set their own responsibilities within the team. Typically one person will be in charge of the team budget, one person will conduct experimental testing, one person will be responsible for numerical modeling, etc. For the group projects each team is given an allocation of “Monopoly Money” that they use for purchasing supplies and paying for faculty and staff time to help them on their projects. At the end of the semester group project students give an evaluation of the performance of their teammates. Surveys were also given to students to assess the effectiveness of the team homework in helping them learn the material relative to working alone

Hop Biofungicide Trial

Downy mildew has been identified as the primary pathogen plaguing northeastern hop yards. This disease causes reduced yield, poor hop quality, and, in severe cases, plant death. Control measures that reduce disease incidence and have a low environmental impact are desperately needed for the region. Regular application of protectant fungicide sprays is an effective method for managing downy mildew pressure in hop yards. However, regular chemical applications can lead to residual toxicity in the soil and have a negative effect on beneficial organisms. Extended use of protectant and curative fungicides can also lead to pathogen resistance. The goal of this project was to evaluate the efficacy of organic approved biofungicides with a variety of active ingredients for control of downy mildew in hops

Hop Optimal Irrigation Trial

Hops reportedly use about 610 to 715 mm (24 to 28 inches) of water per year (Evans 2003). Rainfall can contribute to this total, however, due to climatic variability, it is important that hops are irrigated regularly to combat moisture stress. Moisture deficit during the hop growing season has been shown to cause reductions in hop cone yield (Hnilickova et al. 2009). Irrigation systems can help to alleviate some of the potential drought stress, but timing of water application is just as important as the amount of water hops are receiving. Hops require the majority of their water in the critical period between training and flowering for optimal vegetative growth. The hop yard is irrigated through a well-fed drip irrigation system, which delivers 3000 gal ac-1 each week, beginning in late May. Over the 14-week irrigation period, this equates to 1.54 inches of water, or 0.11 inches each week, which is well below the 23.5 inches required, adjusting for potential evapotranspiration. The goal of this project was to evaluate differences in yield, insect pests, and disease presence between plants at the Borderview Research Farm that were watered at the optimal level, and plants that were irrigated at the level sustained by the on-farm well

Standards-Based Grading in a Fluid Mechanics Course

Standards based grading is a formal assessment mechanism that tests for student achievement of specified learning objectives, or standards. Standards-Based-Grading has been gaining in popularity in K-12 education, and also has been seeing increased use in higher education. With increased pressure from ABET to measure achievement of student outcomes, Standards-Based Grading provides a method to do that within the traditional course setting without having to generate a separate set of data outside the normal course grading. This paper describes how Standards-Based Grading was implemented in a junior-level fluid mechanics course that included both lecture and laboratory components. A total of nine learning objectives were specified for the course. These learning objectives are: calculate fluid thrust forces, calculate aerodynamic forces, solve pipe flow problems, select a pump for a system, select a flowmeter for a system, write a computer program to solve transient fluids problems, write a professional quality lab report, acquire and analyze laboratory data, and be a valuable member of team that successfully completes a project. The learning objectives can be mapped to ABET student outcomes. In this implementation of Standards-Based Grading, all assessments are done on a pass-fail basis. That is to say, there is no partial credit given. Once a student passes an assessment, usually given in the form of a quiz, on a given learning objective, it is assumed the student has mastered that concept and is not tested on it again. Students are allowed to re-test on particular objectives if they do not pass them on the first try. The final exam serves as a last chance for students to pass any objectives they did not complete earlier in the semester. Student achievement of the learning objectives is compared to that in previous semesters where a traditional grading scheme was used, and grade distributions are also compared

A Gated Review Process for Administering a Capstone Senior Design Course

This paper discusses the use of a gated review process for administering a capstone senior design course. A gated review process is a tool used in product and process development by companies and institutions. It is a process that systematically controls the progress of a design cycle while also managing the risks inherent with new designs. The process consists of four phased review elements. Each element terminates in a mandated gate review that is staged at key times during the lifecycle of the design projects

Space Shuttle Case Studies: Challenger and Columbia

The two Space Shuttle tragedies, Challenger and Columbia, have led to many papers on case studies on engineering ethics. The Challenger disaster in particular is often discussed due to the infamous teleconference that took place the night before the launch in which some engineers tried to postpone the launch. However, the space shuttle program itself is worthy of study as it relates to the engineering design process, and the details of the Challenger and Columbia disasters are worthy of discussion as they relate to a variety of sub-disciplines, including material science, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. This paper summarizes the major technical findings of the Rogers Commission and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). An overview of the history of the space shuttle program, going back to the end of the Apollo program, is presented, including some of the design compromises that were made in order to get political support for the space shuttle program. A detailed bibliography is given that will aid instructors in finding additional material they can tailor to their particular class needs

Passive Circuits for Active Learning Revisited

The pedagogical literature has consistently and repeatedly shown that active learning is more effective than passive learning in teaching students fundamental engineering concepts, yet the lecture persists as the primary method of classroom organization for the vast majority of professors. Even among those professors who have read the literature and are willing to change their teaching methods, a barrier to adoption of active learning strategies is the time and effort required to develop the classroom activities for a particular course. This paper describes a series of experiments that can be done in class with low-cost equipment in an introductory circuits course. In each class period, a brief lecture at the beginning of the course went over the relative circuit theory, such as Ohm’s Law and Kirchoff’s laws. Then the instructor worked out a numerical example for a given circuit. Finally the students are instructed to build a circuit corresponding the example problem and make the necessary measurements to verify the theory. The class was divided into teams of four students each, and each team was given an equipment pack during the first week of class. The equipment packs included a budget digital multimeter (DMM), a number of resistors, a capacitor, LED, hobby-size DC motor, 9V battery, and lead wires with alligator clips for connecting the components. Students were instructed to bring the equipment packs to class every day, and they were also given homework assignments that required the use of the equipment packs. Though some breakage will occur and batteries may be accidentally discharged, the equipment packs can be re-used from year to year. Once the initial investment has been made, further upgrades with additional components can also be done in subsequent years. This paper contains a complete list of experiments that can easily be implemented by other instructors, and is also suitable for use in “flipped” classrooms

Organic Hop Variety Trial: Results from Year Five

Hops production continues to increase throughout the the Northeast. While hops were historically grown in the Northeast, they have not been commercially produced in this region for over a hundred years. With the lack of regional production knowledge, a great need has been identified for region-specific, science-based research on this reemerging crop. The vast majority of hops production in the United States occurs in the arid Pacific Northwest on a very large scale. In the Northeast, the average hop yard is well under 10 acres and the humid climate provides challenges not addressed by the existing hops research. Knowledge is needed on how best to produce hops on a small-scale in our region. With this in mind, in August of 2010, the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Program initiated an organic hops variety evaluation program at Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, Vermont. Since this time, UVM Extension has been evaluating 22 publicly-available hop varieties. The goals of these efforts are to find hop varieties that demonstrate disease and pest resistance, high yields, and present desirable characteristics to brewers in our region. Hops are a perennial crop – most varieties reach full cone production in year three. The following are the results from the fifth year of production

Force Balance Design for Educational Wind Tunnels

A typical educational wind tunnel need only measure the lift and drag forces and be able to control the angle of attack of the mounted model. This paper presents a simple design for the balance apparatus to measure lift and drag. Two load cells are used in the apparatus, one to measure the vertical force (lift) and one to measure the horizontal force (drag). This can be used for aerodynamics studies of airplane and airfoil models, as well as ground vehicles such as trucks and cars. If desired, a third load cell can be added to enable measurements of the pitching moment. A linear actuator is used to change the angle of attack of plane and airfoil models. The actuator is mounted inside the force balance apparatus, using a parallel four-bar linkage so that the angle of attack is linearly related to the actuator position. The linear actuator can be controlled by a computer, and the lift, drag, and angle of attack data recorded on the same computer. This design is simple and easy to fabricate, can be added to an old wind tunnel in need of an upgrade or replacement or included as part of a new wind tunnel built from scratch. Complete details of the design including engineering drawings are included in the paper. The design is also low cost compared to commercial wind tunnel balances and gives sufficient accuracy for educational and some research purposes. A counterweight is used to mechanically zero the force readout. The new load balance has been tested and found accurate. It has sufficient precision to perform a sting drag measurement as well. A quick-connect mechanism is used for mounting and removing models