MENU
  • ASEE Logo
  • Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...
    Classified Volunteer
    Login Join
  • Join Login Volunteer Classified Give
    Give
    ASEE Donations...



About
  • Overview
    • Mission, Vision, Goals
    • Public Policy Statements
    • Constitution
    • Bylaws
    • Organizational Structure
    • Investment Policy
    • Financial Policy
  • Our History
  • Staff Contacts
  • Leadership
    • Board Of Directors
    • Academy Of Fellows
    • Past Board Members
    • Advisory Committees
    • Representatives to External Organizations
    • Executive Director's Message
    • Meeting Minutes
  • Volunteer
  • Careers at ASEE
  • Privacy Statement
I Am A...
  • Member
      Login Required
    • Your Member Page
    • Membership Directory
    • Financials
    • No Login Required
    • Awards
    • Divisions, Fellows, and Campus Reps
    • Sections and Zones
    • Resources
  • Prospective Individual/Organizational Member
    • About ASEE
    • Individual Membership
    • Institutional Membership
    • Major Activities
  • Donor
  • Prospective Partner or Sponsor
  • Advertiser
  • Fellowship Seeker
    • About Fellowships
    • High School
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
    • Post-Doctoral
    • Other Programs
Events
  • Conferences and Meetings
    • 2021 Annual Conference & Exposition
    • 2020 Virtual Annual Conference & Exposition
    • Section & Zone Meetings
  • Council Events
    • Conference for Industry and
      Education Collaboration (CIEC)
    • CMC Workforce Summit
    • Engineering Deans Institute (EDI)
    • Research Leadership Institute (RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • EDC Public Policy Colloquium (PPC)
  • Featured Events
    • Frontiers in Education
    • NETI
    • CoNECD
    • First Year Engineering Experience
    • Workforce Summit
  • Future Conference Dates
Publications
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • eGFI
    • Division Publications
  • Journals and Conference Papers
    • Overview
    • Journal of Engineering Education
    • Advances in Engineering Education
    • Conference Proceedings
    • Section Proceedings
    • Zone Proceedings
    • PEER
    • Plagiarism
  • Monographs and Reports
  • Prism Magazine
  • Data
    • Profiles of E&ET Colleges
    • Case Study Series: Engineering-Enhanced Liberal Education
Impact
  • Public Policy Statements
  • Data Analysis
  • Annual Reports
  • Diversity
Education & Careers
  • Academic Job Opportunities
  • Course Catalog
  • Engineering Education Research and Innovation
    • Engineering Education Community Resource
  • PreK-12
    • eGFI Teachers
    • eGFI Students
  • Engineering Teacher PD Endorsement
Calendar
2020 Annual Conference
The ASEE 2020 Virtual Annual Conference content is available.
See More....
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • International Forum
    • Past Forums
  • 2020 Research Leadership Institute(RLI) (Formerly ERC)
    • Overview
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ERC Past Conferences
  • 2018 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI)
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Program Schedule
    • ETLI Sponsorship Options
  • 2017 Global Colloquium
  • Pre K-12 Workshop
    • Call for Proposals
    • Registration
    • Housing
    • Sponsors
    • Program Schedule
    • Past Conferences
  • STEP Grantees Meeting
  • Annual Conference
    • Past Conferences

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Integrating Engineering Design using CAD Software with Force and Motion Concepts in Middle School (Resource Exchange)

Presented at Pre-College: Resource Exchange

This project focuses on integrating engineering design concepts and skills in the Force and Motion unit in Middle School to address the Next Generation Science Standards’ focus on STEM integration. The goal of this project is to increase students’ interest in STEM and expose them to integrated engineering activities. Students are introduced to the concepts and skills of engineering design, CAD software, virtual testing, prototyping, optimization, and additive manufacturing (3D printing). Students are engaged in using technology (CAD Software, Virtual wind tunnel) to design and test a shell for a mini race car, while learning science concepts and practices.

This curriculum presents the students with a real world problem of optimizing a Soap Box Derby Car, which is a race car powered by gravity. Working with a model Soap Box Derby Mini-Car (scaled to 1/13 of the size), students investigate the motion of the car down a track using various car shell shapes (box, semi-circle, trapezoid, etc.), and collect data on the performance of each shape. Next, they are guided to propose explanations of why the different shapes of the car shell result in different speeds. They are then introduced to study the basics of aerodynamics, with investigations using a physical wind tunnel and a virtual wind tunnel simulation that was developed for the project. Using this new knowledge of aerodynamics, and problem constraints and specifications, they will redesign a mini car shell using 123D Design (an intuitive and free CAD software), test it through the virtual wind tunnel, and collect data to evaluate their designs. The students will make conjectures based on what they have learned about force and motion to modify their designs to optimize performance. Students can print their designs using 3-D printers, and use a full scale wind tunnel to test their manufactured designs.

We will share activities from this integrated STEM curriculum, as well as sample student work. students learn about engineering design, as they apply scientific concepts related to forces, motion, and energy, and scientific practices of constructing explanations, analyzing data and using computational thinking. Real world applications of the technology are emphasized (virtual testing, additive manufacturing).

Authors
  1. Dr. Nidaa Makki University of Akron [biography]

    Dr. Nidaa Makki is an Associate Professor in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education at The University of Akron, in the department in Curricular and Instructional Studies. Her work focuses on STEM curriculum integration and science inquiry practices in middle and high school. She is a co-PI on an NSF funded project to investigate the impact of integrating engineering on middle school students’ interest and engagement in STEM. She has also received funding to conduct teacher professional development in the areas of engineering education, problem based learning and inquiry instruction.

  2. Dr. Nicholas G. Garafolo University of Akron [biography]

    Dr. Nicholas G. Garafolo is a researcher in the broad area of thermo-fluids and aerospace, with an emphasis in advanced aerospace seals, near-hermetic fluid flows, and turbomachinery modal analysis. Dr. Garafolo currently holds a position as Assistant Professor at The University of Akron. Supporting the dissemination of his research activities, Dr. Garafolo has six journal manuscripts, over 30 conference papers and presentations, and $868,647 of total project funding. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Garafolo worked as a federal contractor, under the umbrella of a multi-million dollar contract, in space flight hardware research and development to NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Garafolo was instrumental in developing a synergistic approach in the research and component modeling of elastomeric space seals for manned spaceflight; an asset to NASA and the development of advanced aerospace seals for the next generation of manned spacecraft. The unique problem necessitated a grasp of both fluid dynamics and material science, as well as experimental and computational analysis. As a DAGSI/Air Force Research Laboratory Ohio Student-Faculty Fellow, Dr. Garafolo gained experimental knowledge in structural dynamics of turbomachinery. In particular, his research on engine order excitation yielded insight into generating high cycle fatigue of turbomachinery using acoustic excitation.

  3. Dr. Wondimu Ahmed University of Akron [biography]

    Dr. Wondimu Ahmed is an Assistant Professor in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education at the University of Akron. He received his Ph.D. from University of Groningen, The Netherlands. His research focuses on motivation and emotions in education, particularly in STEM subjects.

  4. Dr. Kristin L. K. Koskey University of Akron [biography]

    Dr. Kristin Koskey is an Associate Professor in the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education at The University of Akron. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Research and Measurement and M.E. in Educational Psychology. Dr. Koskey teaches courses in evaluation, assessment, research design, and statistics. She also works as a psychometric consultant and serves on the Editorial Board for the journal of Psychological Assessment. Her work is published in leading journals such as Studies in Educational Evaluation, Journal of Applied Measurement, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Journal of Experimental Education, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Educational and Psychological Measurement. Further, she has authored book chapters on Norming and Scaling for Automated Essay Scoring and Data-driven STEM Assessment. Dr. Koskey has secured grant funding from the Ohio Department of Education and National Science Foundation (NSF), as well as contributed to the evaluations on grants funded by the ODE, U.S. Department of State, and NSF.

  5. Dr. Donald P. Visco Jr. University of Akron [biography]

    Donald P. Visco, Jr. is the former Dean of the College of Engineering at The University of Akron and currently a Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.

  6. Dr. Katrina B. Halasa Akron Public Schools [biography]

    Science and Health Learning Specialist k-12 since July 2006 for Akron Public Schools. She is in charge of professional development, curriculum and assessment development. She taught biology, chemistry, human anatomy, forensic and environment during 1995-2006.

Download paper (550 KB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session

For those interested in:

  • Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology
  • K-12

  • Follow Us
  • twitter
  • facebook
  • youtube
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • 1818 N Street N.W. Suite 600, Washington DC 20036

  • Telephone: 202.331.3500 | Fax: 202.265.8504

  • © 2021 Copyright: ASEE.org All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.