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Use of Interactive Games in Mechanics Education

Dr. Shivakumar Ranganathan (American University of Sharjah)

Mechanics Education

Mon 9:00 - 10:30

RI Hall 108

Mechanics of Materials is a core course in several undergraduate engineering programs. A student with strong understanding in this course navigates the engineering program very well. In general, this course is perceived to be ‘moderately difficult’ to ‘difficult’ due to the following reasons– a) a lot of material needs to be covered (~12 chapters) within the span of a semester; b) the class requires a lot of imaginative skills. An instructor can do little about item a) since this requirement is directly mandated by ABET. It is possible to address item b) by using interactive games to hone the imaginative skills of the students. In this paper, the effect of using interactive games in the overall student learning experience is examined. Results indicate that students overwhelmingly approve the use of interactive games in this course.