2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Deformable Solids is a course that students generally take the semester immediately following the prerequisite course on Statics and builds directly on it. The tacit expectation in Deformable Solids is that students have a solid grasp of statics concepts and should be able to solve a variety of statics problems. Over fourteen semesters, we have measured student ability to solve statics problems using a diagnostic test, which is administered in Deformable Solids as a pre-test at the start of the semester and a post-test near the end of the semester. The same test is used for both pre- and post-tests.

The diagnostic test consists of eight multiple choice statics questions. The problems are not concept questions, but more like problems they would be asked to solve in Statics. The students are given as much time as needed to complete the test and they are encouraged to work through the problems with all necessary steps to get the correct answer, including drawing a free body diagram and performing necessary calculations. In a multiple-choice format, the test is graded only for the final answer and, of course, multiple-choice test-taking strategies can be employed.

The results from the pre-test have been consistent over the years with students on average answering roughly three questions correctly. The post-test results show an improvement of roughly one additional question correct, influenced mostly by the types of problems on the test most similar to the problems encountered in Deformable Solids. The degree of success is similar to the results of other multiple-choice tests like concept inventories, suggesting that the raw score is not simply an indicator of Statics knowledge, but also measures student attitudes about taking multiple-choice tests (e.g., rushing through the test, sloppy calculations, and guessing). Over the past few semesters, we have collected information about each student’s approach to the test to help understand the effect of the latter factor on the outcome of the test. The increase in performance at the end of Deformable Solids suggests that the development of solid conceptual understanding of the abstract concepts of Statics takes students more than a semester or year to achieve.

This paper reports the results of the pre- and post-test from 14 semesters, along with the student’s different approaches to the tests. This study gives a detailed account of the testing instrument and testing conditions, it sheds light on pre- and post-testing as a means of understanding student knowledge of statics, and it suggests reasonable expectations on performance given student attitudes toward testing.