2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Rigid Body Dynamics Concept Inventory - Development and Initial Results

Presented at Mechanics Div (MECHS) Tech Session 2: Dynamics

The Rigid Body Dynamics Concept Inventory (RBDCI) was developed to measure students’ conceptual understanding of fundamental topics on rigid body dynamics. Building on the initial development work, this paper describes the refinement and reduction of the instrument using multiple sources of validity evidence using the Evidentiary Validity Framework. Evidence was collected through several sources including expert ratings to identify content validity and student explanations to understand how students are understanding and responding to the questions. The team is also in the process of gathering question correlations for the final inventory to determine question alignment and results with the proposed concepts. These processes have allowed the team to refine the RBDCI and sharpen the conclusions that can be drawn from its results.
Experts reviewed each question for conceptual alignment, clarity, and difficulty which was classified as easy, medium, or hard. They also used rank ordering to sort each question for inclusion. Additionally, multi-semester and multi-university student testing resulted in both quantitative results and written explanations. These have been analyzed to determine common misconceptions and question effectiveness. These results identified questions that students found too easy, too hard, or confusing based on the written response. Combining expert feedback and student results, the instrument was reduced to 11 concepts with three questions per concept, creating a 33-question beta version of the RBDCI.

Authors

Dr. Geoffrey Recktenwald http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2003-4158 Michigan State University [biography]

Geoff Recktenwald is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University. Geoff holds a PhD in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University and Bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from Cedarville University. His research interests are focused on best practices for student learning and student success. He is currently developing and researching SMART assessment, a modified mastery learning pedagogy for problem based courses. He created a multi-year integrated system design (ISD) project for mechanical engineering students. He is a mentor to mechanical engineering graduate teaching fellows and actively champions the adoption and use of teaching technologies.
Dr. Brian P. Self California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo [biography]

Brian Self obtained his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech, and his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Utah. He worked in the Air Force Research Laboratories before teaching at the U.S. Air Force Academy for sev
Dr. Amie Baisley University of Florida [biography]

Amie Baisley is currently an Instructional Associate Professor at the University of Florida teaching primarily 2nd year mechanics courses. Her teaching and research interests are alternative pedagogies, mastery-based learning and assessment, student persistence in their first two years, and faculty development.
Dr. Phillip Cornwell United States Air Force Academy [biography]

Phillip Cornwell currently teaches at the United States Air Force Academy and is an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989 and his present interests inc
Dr. Julian Ly Davis http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4109-3904 University of Southern Indiana [biography]

Jul Davis is an Associate Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Indiana. He received his PhD in 2007 from Virginia Tech in Engineering Mechanics where he studied the vestibular organs in the inner ear using finite element models and vibration analyses. After graduating, he spent a semester teaching at a local community college and then two years at University of Massachusetts (Amherst) studying the biomechanics of biting in bats and monkeys, also using finite element modeling techniques. In 2010, he started his career teaching in all areas of mechanical engineering at the University of Southern Indiana. He loves teaching all of the basic mechanics courses, and of course his Vibrations and Finite Element Analysis courses.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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