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Session Description

Free ticketed event
Project VECTOR (Visualizing Engineering Concepts Through Open Resources), a collaboration between three Colorado institutions, is developing an online library of free and open visualizations for Statics, Dynamics, and Mechanics of Materials. These models have been designed to help students connect mathematical formulations with real-world behavior. The visualizations may be opened and accessed in a browser, and enable instructors to adopt them in a traditionally-designed or flipped classroom. This workshop will introduce participants to the library of visualizations (Seeing.Engineering) and explore strategies for integrating these models into engineering mechanics courses. The visualizations are easy to adopt yet high-impact for student learning and engagement. Participants will develop strategies for using the visualizations as pre-lecture inquiry-based assignments, in-class demonstrations, and homework companions for a deeper understanding of how different parameters affect the results of computational problems. The workshop will also provide opportunities for collaboration and feedback that will inform the development and finalization of the visualization library.

 15 minutes - Welcome, introductions, overview
 30 minutes - Live demonstration of selected visualizations
 30 minutes - In small groups, participants develop a prompt for students to engage in an inquiry-based introduction to an engineering concept; report-back to the group
 15 minutes - Break
 30 minutes - In small groups, participants either develop a lesson plan that incorporates a visualization into an active learning activity or a close-ended computational problem that complements one or more of the visualizations; report-back to the group
 30 minutes - Facilitated discussion and wrap-up

Speakers

1. Dr. Daniel W Baker PhD P.E.

   Colorado State University

   Dan Baker, Co-Director for Project VECTOR, is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering at Colorado State University. Over the past 10 years, he’s taught over 6,000 future engineering students, primarily in Statics and Dynamics, and now teaches in the Common First Year program. He was honored to win one of CSU’s Best Teacher Awards in 2023. He and his family are avid travelers, and he spent Fall 2025 teaching aboard Semester at Sea as they voyaged from Northern Europe, around Africa, to Southeast Asia. Dan also co-authored the open educational resource (OER) textbook, Engineering Statics: Open and Interactive, which is viewed by over 350,000 users each year.

2. Macarena Lange

   Colorado State University

   Macarena Lange, Project Manager for Digital Visualization in CSU Libraries, is managing the federal Open Textbooks Pilot grant. Macarena brings her experience in Higher Education and Engineering to Project VECTOR. She coordinates communications, ensures project objectives and deliverables are met, and facilitates support for project partners. Macarena is a first-generation college graduate with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University.