203996693
Hydraulic Analogy Method for Phenomenological Description of the Learning Processes of Technical University Students
A physical process analogy of the learning process was studied using a hydraulic method. Detailed educational guidance describing applied pedagogical concepts for technical instructors of the civil, mechanical, chemical and materials engineering disciplines was formulated. A unified engineering-friendly formulation of learning processes using a direct analogy of civil, mechanical, chemical and materials engineering physical processes was developed. Generalized expressions were proposed for an approximate description of learning processes in the educational curriculum in the form of hydraulic processes in civil, mechanical, chemical and materials engineering practice. It was shown that it is possible to intensify students’ attention to the studied technical material through a step-by-step building of a proposed analogy between hydraulic and learning processes, which is based on the similarity between corresponding mathematical models for both processes. Hard-working students have the prime educational problem of managing the growing overload and holding in their memory a cumbersome quantity of studied material in technical, social and human sciences. The author-proposed educational approach provides a better simultaneous understanding of both hydraulics and didactics by acquiring new inter-disciplinary practical knowledge, which helps learners plan an optimal scientific-based mode for effective study and selfstudy of educational material. This educational research helps students to remember that it is impossible to learn the studied material at the required level of understanding with a single onetime acquaintance without multiple reviews and repetitions.
151334760
Thought and language
Since it was introduced to the English-speaking world in 1962, Lev Vygotsky's highly original exploration of human mental development has become recognized as a classic foundational work of cognitive science. Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought.Now Alex Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Press translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and adds materials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions. Kozulin has also contributed an introductory essay that offers new insight into the author's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods.Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) studied at Moscow University and acquired in his brief lifespan a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the social sciences, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, literature, and the arts. He began his systematic work in psychology at the age of 28, and within a few years formulated his theory of the development of specifically human higher mental functions. He died of tuberculosis ten years later, and Thought and Language was published posthumously in 1934.Alex Kozulin studied at the Moscow Institute of Medicine and the Moscow Institute of Psychology, where he began his investigation of Vygotsky and the history of Soviet psychology. He emigrated in 1979 and is now Associate Professor of Psychiatry (Psychology) at Boston University. He is the author of Psychology in Utopia: Toward a Social History of Soviet Psychology (MIT Press 1984).
58900546
Didactic Transposition in Mathematics Textbooks.
Didactic transposition: an epistemological model Almost no one today believes that knowing is passively receiving everything ready-made from one's environment. The rejection of this belief is a fundamental assumption of the constructivism that is a major influence on the thinking of educators and cognitive scientists. Constructivists are not in accord, however, on the old quarrel between the ontological view that accepts the objectivity of knowledge and the phenomenological view that denies it. That is, radical constructivists take the drastic step of replacing objectivity with the intersubjectivity of knowledge, and thus set themselves free from the traditional epistemological paradox posed by the skeptics, whereas trivial constructivists consider only the process of cognitive construction and do not take the paradox seriously [von Glasersfeld, 1985]. In fact, the paradox itself is already a trap to both ontology and phenomenology. There is no way out of the dilemma without some cost. The solution given by radical constructivism is one way out at the cost of confining knowledge to a specific kind. That is, the negation of the objectivity of knowledge by the radical constructivists can be persuasive only when one says about knowledge that, apart from faith and dogma, it fits observations [von Glasersfeld, 1987, p. 5]. That negation is a consequence of considering the binary relation between knowledge and the knower. The ordinary usage of the word teach, however, assumes the ternary relation of the teacher, the student, and the knowledge taught. Furthermore, knowledge to be taught in school has many aspects other than that it fits one's observations. We may need an alternative epistemology if we admit that most of the knowledge in school mathematics is a compound of knowledge that fits observations together with our values, instructional purposes, mathematical skills, and so on. "Constructivists need to clarify and develop their ontological commitments.... We need an epistemology that takes ontology into account" [Kilpatrick, 1987, p. 19]. Can we construct an epistemology that allows us to treat knowledge at least "as if it existed independently outside of the knower without violating much of the constructivist position? One epistemological model that gives a positive answer can be found in the didactic transposition theory of Chevallard [1985, 1988; see also Balacheff, 1990]. Didactic transposition theory is based on an assertion that bodies of knowledge are, with a few exceptions, designed not to be taught but to be used. The didactic transposition of knowledge is the transposition from knowledge regarded as a tool to be put to use to knowledge as something to be taught and learned [Chevallard, 1988, p. 5]. Thus any modification of knowledge under instructional purposes can be called a didactic transposition. The difference between knowledge used and knowledge taught is that as long as you only use knowledge in doing something, you need not justify nor even take note of that knowledge to endow your activity with social meaning. In contrast, teaching requires the social acknowledgement and legitimation of the knowledge taught [Chevallard, op, cit., p. 9]. The first step in establishing some body of knowledge as teachable knowledge consists in making it into an organized and more or less integrated whole [Chevallard, op, cit., p. 8]. As a way of achieving this goal, taught bodies of knowledge have been derived from corresponding scholarly bodies of knowledge. A scholarly body of knowledge is nothing other than knowledge used both to produce new knowledge and to organize the knowledge newly produced into a coherent theoretical assemblage [Chevallard, op. cit., p. 10]. In teaching, however, the mechanism of knowledge production and assembly is hidden. It is the task of didactic transposition theory to illuminate that mechanism so that we can produce didactic transpositions that will be to our society's best advantage [Chevallard, op. cit., p. 12].
214230418
Didactic Transposition in Mathematics Education
The process of didactic transposition refers to the transformations an object or a body of knowledge undergoes from the moment it is produced, put into use, selected and designed to be taught, until it is actually taught in a given educational institution. The notion was introduced in the field of didactics of mathematics by Yves Chevallard (1985). It highlights the fact that what is taught at school is originated in other institutions, constructed in concrete practices and organized in particular sets of objects. In the case of mathematics or any other subject, the taught knowledge, the concrete practices and bodies of knowledge proposed to be learned at school, originates from what is called the scholarly knowledge, generally produced at universities and other scholarly institutions, also integrating elements taken from a variety of related social practices. When one wishes to “transpose” a body of knowledge from its original habitat to school, specific work should be carried out to rebuild an appropriate environment with activities aimed at making this knowledge “teachable”, meaningful and useful.
114223453
Simulation-assisted teaching of graduate students in transport: A case study of the application of acausal freeware JModelica.org to solution of Sakawa’s open-loop optimal control problem for payload motion during crane boom rotation
The present article is focused on the improvement of the quality of engineering education of graduate students with a major in transport and mechanical engineering through the derivation of a numerical solution of the optimal control problem for payload swaying during crane boom slewing, formulated by Sakawa et al. For the first time, a numerical solution of Sakawa’s problem has been derived with an application of JModelica.org freeware. The fundamental difference between this solution and Sakawa’s is the imposition of a restrictive constraint on the allowable value of payload swaying during boom-driven payload motion. The solution derived by the authors for Sakawa’s problem takes exact account of the restrictive constraints on the phase variables in contrast to Sakawa’s model, where the restriction constraints on the phase variables have been approximated. The complex of authors-proposed computational algorithms was implemented with JModelica.org. The proposed open-code algorithms derive numerical data and computational plots, which enhance and expand students’ knowledge about the dynamics of guided boom-driven payload swaying during rotary crane boom slewing.
120272661
Production breaks and the learning curve: The forgetting phenomenon
Abstract In this paper, the forgetting slope is shown to be mathematically dependent on the following factors: 1. (1) the learning slope, 2. (2) the quantity produced to date, and 3. (3) the minimum break at which total forgetting occurs. It is also shown that it is possible to determine the value of the forgetting rate once the curve's mathematical form is assumed. This answers some potential considerations inherent in the arbitrary assumption of forgetting rate. This paper also investigates the effects of learning and forgetting on both the optimum production quantity and the minimum total inventory system cost.
14002018
Incorporating human fatigue and recovery into the learning–forgetting process
Abstract The available learning and forgetting models do not consider the physical loading that performing a task requires. In some situations, physical loading results in workers’ fatigue on the job that is followed by rest breaks to alleviate it. The aim of this paper is to present the “learning–forgetting–fatigue–recovery model” (LFFRM) that addresses possible issues relating to workers’ capabilities and restrictions in manufacturing environments. Numerical examples are solved to address some research questions regarding the model optimization and its constraints. The main results show that incorporating learning into a production process decreases fatigue and improves the performance of the system. Worker fatigue, on the other hand, increases production time and decreases production output. A recovery break must be of enough length to alleviate some of the accumulated fatigue. However, longer recovery times extend the lead time and deteriorate the production performance due to forgetting.
114778172
How to facilitate freshmen learning and support their transition to a university study environment
ABSTRACT Most freshmen enter universities with high expectations and with good motivation, but too many are driven into performing instead of true learning. The issues are not only related to the challenge of comprehending the substance, social and other factors have an impact as well. All these multifaceted needs should be accounted for to facilitate student learning. Learning is an individual process and remarkable improvement in the learning practices is possible, if proper actions are addressed early enough. We motivate and describe a study of the experience obtained from a set of tailor-made courses that were given alongside standard curriculum. The courses aimed to provide a ‘safe community’ to address the multifaceted needs. Such support was integrated into regular coursework where active learning techniques, e.g. interactive small groups were incorporated. To assess impact of the courses we employ the feedback obtained during the courses and longitudinal statistical data about students' success.
61742244
Computer-Assisted Simulation Methods of Learning Process
In this article we analyse: 1) one–component models of training; 2) the multi–component models considering transition of weak knowledge in strong and vice versa; 3) the models considering change of working efficiency of the pupil during the day. The results of imitating modeling are presented, graphs of dependences of the pupil’s knowledge on time are provided.
54606081
Assimilation and Forgetting of the Educational Information: Results of Imitating Modelling.
Various approaches to the problem of computer modelling of assimilation and forgetting of the educational information are considered. With the help of the multi-component model the Ebbinghaus’ curve of forgetting of poorly assimilating information to be remembered through recurrences is confirmed. It is taken into account, that while training there is a transition of weak (poor) knowledge into strong (firm) knowledge, and while forgetting – the return transition of strong knowledge into weak knowledge. Also the model of assimilation and forgetting of the educational material with a high links degree, consisting of information blocks which contain the connected concepts is created. It allows to explain that: 1) while training there is the sharp increase of the understanding level of the studied problem; 2) after termination (ending) of training during some time the level of the pupil's knowledge remains high, and then slowly lowers because of gradual forgetting of the separate learning material elements. The paper shows that the processes of assimilation and forgetting occur according to the logistic law. Along with that the imitating model of training at school which takes into account the knowledge division into three categories and distribution of the educational information on classes is offered. For all cases there are graphs of the knowledge level dependence on time.
7548736
Power laws from individual differences in learning and forgetting: mathematical analyses
It has frequently been claimed that learning performance improves with practice according to the so-called “Power Law of Learning.” Similarly, forgetting may follow a power law. It has been shown on the basis of extensive simulations that such power laws may emerge through averaging functions with other, nonpower function shapes. In the present article, we supplement these simulations with a mathematical proof that power functions will indeed emerge as a result of averaging over exponential functions, if the distribution of learning rates follows a gamma distribution, a uniform distribution, or a half-normal function. Through a number of simulations, we further investigate to what extent these findings may affect empirical results in practice.
60385710
Harnessing Biological Complexity: An Introduction to Computational Physiology
I. Introduction II. Modeling Cellular Dynamics III. Dynamics of Cellular Networks IV. Application of ISIDE to Create Models V. Key Consepts of insilicoML
145369643
Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks
This article explores IVIark Frost and David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks from the perspective of the two dominant world-views it dramatized. The world-view based in bourgeois myth can be described as employing significations that are always present in naturally and mythically transcendent terms. The other world-view is generated by media poetry, which is a virtual mode of signification that re-mediates linguistic/audio/visual phenomena with contingent capacities for meaning. That generative potential for signification is an aspect of all media use, but media poetry specifically highlights and exploits the capacity of new multi-media to enhance “poetic” possibilities for meaning-making. This may occur through either the actual use of virtual media, through a critical ambiguity with regard to official ideologies and formal/generic con-straints, or through thematic content that destabilizes fixed meanings/representations and entertains possibilities for alternative significations. The article makes the case that the adolescent characters in the show specifically embody the productive world-view inherent in media poetry, and the “poetic” challenges they present to adult, mythic society allow for the continual re-mediation of any and all bourgeois myths. Those adolescents, especially Laura Palmer, embody cultural meanings that refuse ideological codification; that is, that can still become. Twin Peaks, as the article demonstrates, is a striking example of media poetry since it was aired on prime-time network television; it still deserves attention for the stunning ways it remediated the mythic nature of American, middle-class society.
59131963
Design and Implementation of a Capstone Course to Satisfy the Industry Needs of Virtual Product Development and ABET Engineering Criteria
Over the past two decades, computer aided engineering (CAE) processes and procedures became an integral part of the product development cycle. Virtual product development (VPD) refers to procedures that integrate the CAE tools in a unified approach that spans all the product development phases. Current industrial trends utilize VPD tools and procedures to reduce the product development time without jeopardizing the product quality. These trends led to an increasing demand for engineers with computer skills, multidisciplinary engineering knowledge, and acquaintance with VPD tools. ABET program outcomes emphasize providing courses with an accumulated background of curricular components to solve realistic open-ended engineering problems. Capstone design project (CDP) course has been regarded as important learning activity that could be designed to provide senior engineering student an opportunity to solve such problems. A major objective of the CDP course is to simulate industrial setting and allow students to experience real-life engineering practice. This paper presents an implementation of the VPD procedures in a mechanical engineering CDP course. This integration simulates the industrial environment through multidisciplinary teams working together in subsystems to produce one product using standard commercial VPD tools. This course implementation is demonstrated using a case study of teams working to design and build a solar car.
38456495
Learning, retention, and forgetting of Newton’s third law throughout university physics
We present data from a between-student study on student response to questions on Newton’s third law given in two introductory calculus-based physics classes (Mechanics and Electromagnetism) at a large northeastern university. Construction of a response curve reveals subtle dynamics in student learning not capturable by pretesting and post-testing. We find a significant positive effect of instruction that diminishes by the end of the quarter. Two quarters later, a significant dip in correct response occurs when instruction changes from the vector quantities of electric forces and fields to the scalar quantity of electric potential. When instruction returns to vector topics, performance rebounds to initial values.
109845795
CFD 2D simulation of viscous flow during ECAE through a rectangular die with parallel slants
The objective of this article is the description of advantages of a slanted die geometry, used for equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) of materials. The prime novelty statement of the present research is an experimental flow pattern, obtained with circular gridlines and a numerical solution of a viscous flow 2D problem for the slanted die, derived with Navier–Stokes equations in curl transfer form. The geometry of the slanted die was chosen for the case of a rectangular die with channel intersection angle 2θ = 90° and with parallel slants in the channel intersection zone, where the slant width is equal to the inlet and outlet channel widths. Computational material flow kinematics, macroscopic rotation patterns, material flow velocity fields, tangential stresses, and punching pressure fields during viscous materials ECAE have been derived with a numerical finite-difference solution of the curl transfer equation for 2D viscous flow of incompressible continuum during ECAE. Theoretical results have been verified with physical simulation experiments by the introduction of initial circular gridlines. Both theoretical and computational results confirm the suitability and technological advantages of dies with parallel slants over the known Segal and Iwahashi dies for ECAE, as slanted convergent dies enable the reduction of the dead zone size and provide the minimization of dangerous macroscopic rotation during ECAE processing of both metal and polymer materials.
54697828
ECAP process improvement based on the design of rational inclined punch shapes for the acute-angled Segal 2θ-dies: CFD 2-D description of dead zone reduction
Abstract. This article is focused on a 2-D fluid dynamics description of punch shape geometry improvement for Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) or Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) of viscous incompressible continuum through acute-angled Segal 2θ-dies with 2θ
138641335
CFD 2D Description of Local Flow of Polymer Workpiece through a modified U-Shaped Die During Equal Channel Multiple Angular Extrusion
The present article is focused on a 2D computational fluid mechanics study of local viscous flow dynamics and the formation character of rotary modes of deformation during Equal Channel Multiple Angular Extrusion (ECMAE) of a polymer workpiece fluid model through a U-shaped die with parallel slants in channel intersection zones. The present local flow problem was experimentally analyzed using physical simulation methods and theoretically studied with numerical fluid mechanics techniques. The computational approach has been grounded on the numerical finite difference solution of the boundary value problem for the Navier-Stokes equations in the curl transfer form for the local viscous flow of incompressible Newtonian fluid through a U-shaped rectangular die with parallel slants. The derived research results allow us to draw a conclusion that the implementation of a geometric design of parallel slants within a 2-turn U-shaped die results in localization of the maximum tangential stresses within the workpiece volume to the vicinity of these parallel slants during ECMAE.
187388893
2D CFD description of the kinematic effects of movable inlet and outlet die wall transport motion and punch shape geometry on the dynamics of viscous flow during ECAE through Segal 2θ-dies for a range of channel angles
Minimization of the dead zone (DZA) in the process of material forming is a materials science problem. Geometric and kinematic approaches to the minimization of the DZA during Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) have been proposed, developed, analyzed, and documented. The present article is focused on a 2D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) description of the kinematic effects of punch shape geometry and inlet (IDW) and outlet (ODW) die wall motion on the DZA during ECAE of Viscous Incompressible Continuum (VIC) through a Segal 2θ-die for a range of channel angles 60° ≤ 2θ ≤ 135°. Due attention has been given to the independent alternating transport motions of the IDW and ODW. Punch shape geometry and the kinematic modes of IDW and ODW motions for DZA minimization have been determined with a numerical solution of the boundary value problem for the Navier-Stokes equations in curl transfer form for VIC. Experimental verification was accomplished with an introduction of initial circular gridlines-based physical simulation techniques. For the first time, experimental verification of CFD-derived results was made through an additional superposition of empirically-derived digital photos with deformed elliptical gridlines in the channel intersection deformation zones and correspondent 2D numerical plots with CFD-derived flow lines and full flow velocities. An empirical DZA localization was experimentally determined as the location of minimally-deformed near circular markers. The computational DZA localization was numerically determined as a flow-lines-free zone (the first hypothesis) or as a zone with near-zero values of full flow velocities (the second hypothesis). The relative DZA was estimated as a ratio of the measured DZA with respect to the area of the deformation zone in the channel intersection region. A good agreement was obtained between DZA values obtained with the first hypothesis and experimental results.
30214951
Simulation-based learning: The learning-forgetting-relearning process and impact of learning history
The results of empirical experiments evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning-forgetting-relearning process in a dynamic project management simulation environment are reported. Sixty-six graduate engineering students performed repetitive simulation-runs with a break period of several weeks between the runs. The students used a teaching tool called the project management trainer (PMT) that simulates a generic dynamic, stochastic project management environment. In this research, we focused on the effect of history recording mechanism on the learning forgetting process. Manual or automatic history recording mechanisms were used by the experimental group, while the control group did not use any history recording mechanism. The findings indicate that for the initial learning phase, the manual mechanism is better than the automatic mechanism. However, for the relearning phase, the break period length influenced the performance after the break. When the break period is short, the manual history keeping mechanism is better, but for a long period break, there is no significant difference. A comparison between the experimental group and the control group revealed that using any history recording mechanism reduced forgetting. Based on the findings, some practical implications of using simulators to improve the learning-forgetting process are discussed.
114118346
Linking First-Year and Senior Engineering Design Teams: Engaging Early Academic Career Students in Engineering Design.
In Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University, senior design is a two semester course in which students work on real-world projects provided by clients. First-year (freshmen and transfer) students enroll in an introductory engineering course. Historically, these students worked on a team-based analysis project, and the engineering design process was discussed but not explicitly applied. This study investigated the hypothesis that first-year and senior design teams can be linked through capstone projects to more effectively introduce design. First-year students design a small portion of the client-based capstone project as identified by and supervised by the seniors. Several assessment tools were used: student knowledge of the design process, presentations and student surveys. More than 90% of introductory students agreed that the project was worthwhile and helped them learn about engineering as a future career. After having institutionalized the linkage, seniors were more likely to identify appropriate projects and viewed the mentoring as beneficial.
118266889
Computational electrophysiology : dynamical systems and bifurcations
1 A Very Short Trip on Dynamical Systems 1.1 Difference Equations,Maps, and Linear Algebra 1.2 Differential Equations, Vector Fields, and Phase Planes 1.3 Linearization, Stabilities, Coordinate Transformation 1.4 Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and Bifurcations 1.5 Computational Bifurcation Analysis 2 The Hodgkin-Huxley Theory of Neuronal Excitation 2.1 What is a Neuron? Neuron is a Signal Converter 2.2 The Hodgkin-Huxley Formulation of Excitable Cell Membranes 2.3 Nonlinear Dynamical Analysis of the Original HH Equations 3 Computational and Mathematical Models of Neurons 3.1 Phase Plane Dynamics in the Context of Spiking Neuron 3.2 Simple Models of Neurons and Neuronal Oscillators 3.3 A Variant of the BVP Neuron Model 3.4 Stochastic NeuronModels 3.5 Stochastic Phase-Lockings and Bifurcations 4 Whole System Analysis of Hodgkin-Huxley Systems 4.1 Changing the Parameters: Sensitivity and Robustness 4.2 Bifurcations of the Hodgkin-Huxley Neurons 4.3 Two-Parameter Bifurcation Analysis of the HH Equations 4.4 Numerical Bifurcation Analysis by XPPAUT 5 Hodgkin-Huxley-Type Models of Cardiac Muscle Cells 5.1 Action Potentials in a Heart 5.2 Pacemaker Cell Model 5.3 Ventricular Cell Model 5.4 Other HH-TypeModels of Cardiac Cells