2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Fluid Mechanics is often considered a favorite class to teach by many engineering instructors due to the opportunity to demonstrate to the students how advanced math skills and fundamental principles of physics are naturally used to explain familiar observations, predict the impact of daily flow problems, and design basic systems such as home pipe systems. While engineering instructors may love to teach the course, students, on the other hand, often report difficulty in following the instructor’s teaching approach; they find it challenging to connect the advanced math and physics to real-world problems.

Considering Fluid Mechanics is a mandatory fundamental course taken by most sophomore and junior engineering students, the Civil and Environmental Engineering course instructor at a research-intensive technological university partnered with a Disciplinary-Based Educational Specialist to develop and implement changes to improve learning outcomes. The changes were implemented in the Fall 2023 term and included updates to integrate experiential learning via videos with embedded questions, in-class hands-on exercises, and problem-solving demonstrations in lectures and tutorials.

At the completion of the course, students participated in an assessment which included 20 questions covering the various aspects of the changes made in the course, upon its completion. It examined the students’ active engagement in the course, their perceptions of contribution to their learning and their satisfaction with the course and their learning processes. The survey also included several open-ended questions asking students to describe their learning experience in the course.

The guiding research questions were as follows: RQ1) What is students’ experience of the transformations made to the course? RQ2) What is the impact of the changes on students’ perceived workload? The quantitative analysis of survey items showed positive gains with respect to the impact of experiential learning, perceived learning gains, and workload in comparison to other classes. The qualitative analysis of open-ended questions provided positive support for the experiential learning components.

During the development and implementation of the new course changes, some challenges and considerations came up. First, what is the best way to assess the flipped classroom element and ensure its execution? Should it be based solely on viewing? Should students be required to answer the embedded questions [correctly]? Should additional follow-up be allowed? Second, there was discourse on how to best balance the student workload associated with watching additional videos while keeping up with the workload associated with essential homework assignments (which is a critical component of the course). Third, sometimes there was student confusion related to tasks and expectations. Throughout the course, additional time and energy was invested into clearly defining tasks and ensuring students completed them promptly.

Moving forward, several changes will be implemented. First, although the initial survey results show positive feedback regarding the implemented changes, there is still opportunity for improvement. More open ended questions will be added to gain a richer and deeper understanding of student perspectives. Second, outcomes will be shared with other faculty to encourage integrating more active learning in the engineering classroom.