The Effect of Grade Point Average on Undergraduates' Understanding of Heat Transfer

Engineering students continue to develop and show misconceptions due to prior knowledge and experiences (Miller, Streveler, Olds, Chi, Nelson, & Geist, 2007). Misconceptions have been documented in students’ understanding of heat transfer(Krause, Decker, Niska, Alford, & Griffin, 2003) by concept inventories (e.g., Jacobi,Martin, Mitchell, & Newell, 2003; Nottis, Prince, Vigeant, Nelson, & Hartsock, 2009). Students’ conceptual understanding has also been shown to vary by grade point average (Nottis et al., 2009). Inquiry-based activities (Nottis, Prince, & Vigeant, 2010) haveshown some success over traditional instructional methods (Tasoglu & Bakac, 2010) in altering misconceptions. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether undergraduate engineering students’ understanding of heat transfer concepts significantly changed after instruction with eight inquiry-based activities (Prince & Felder, 2007) supplementing instruction and whether students’ self reported GPA and prior knowledge, as measured by completion of specific engineering courses, affected these changes. The Heat and Energy Concept Inventory (Prince, Vigeant, & Nottis, 2010) was used to assess conceptual understanding. It was found that conceptual understanding significantly increased from pre- to post-test. It was also found that GPA had an effect on conceptual understanding of heat transfer; significant differences were found in post-test scores onthe concept inventory between GPA groups. However, there were mixed results when courses previously taken were analyzed. Future research should strive to analyze how prior knowledge effects conceptual understanding and aim to reduce the limitations of the current study such as, sampling method and methods of measuring GPA and priorknowledge.

Automated Portal Placement for Arthroscopic Hip Surgery

Placing portal incisions during arthroscopic hip surgery presents challenges for surgeons in terms of anatomic accessibility and patient safety. Based on key anatomic landmarks and portal placement information from recent literature, suggested portal incisions were determined. Guidance in the placement of the three most common portal incision locations (anterior, anterolateral, and posterolateral) for arthroscopic surgery; in addition to visual feedback on tool trajectory to the hip joint is provided in real time by a computer aided system for hip arthroscopy. By simplifying the portal placement process, one of the most challenging aspects of arthroscopic hip surgery, an increased use of this minimally invasive technique could be possible. In addition to portal information, improvements to an existing computer aided system for arthroscopic hip surgery, including a new hip model and redesigned mechanical tracking linkage, were completed.