Workshop simulation-based learning

Funding provided by the US Department of Education's Foundation for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) program has spurred intense restructuring of the undergraduate Mechanical Engineering program at San Diego State University (SDSU). Specifically affected are two undergraduate courses offered during students' first and second years of study-and it is the story of their design, rollout, and evaluation that this workshop will cover. It also speaks directly to changes that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has long advocated (see, for example: http://www.ices.utexas.edu/events/SBES_Final_Report.pdf and http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind06/). The session will be highly interactive: demonstration (and student presentations) mixed with ample time for questions, discussion, and brainstorming.