Development of Learning Materials for Specialized Education in Collaboration with Teachers and Students

교사와 학생 간 협력을 통한 전문 교육용 학습 자료 개발

Abstract

Colleges of technology in Japan are characterized by specialized education starting from the first grades aged fifteen, making it particularly important to provide motivation for specialized subjects. The most difficult thing for teachers in the technical college is giving the motivation to a professional education to the lower grades who don't know the technology and engineering. Teachers tried to use and make a suitable example or an education material for their lecture. The generation gap with students makes it difficult for teachers to use examples of objects that students are actually familiar with in their daily life. To compensate for the generation gap with students, we asserted that education for lower grades should adopt the perspectives of students in higher grades. The relative closeness in age of lower and higher grades helps reduce the generation gap with students, which is advantageous in that teachers can share the perspectives of students.

I. Introduction

Home video game use began to spread in Japan with the release of the first gaming console Famicom in 1983, and since then a succession of new computer gaming devices has spread in popularity. These computer games have significantly changed the way children play. There has been a sharp reduction in children’s experience playing with physical toys.¹⁾

In addition, the relaxation of mandatory education standards and adoption of integrated learning has led to a reduction in opportunities for the process of making things in arts and craft classes in elementary schools, and in technology education in junior high school.²⁾ The addition of computer technology learning content to technology education in junior high schools has led to a reduction in experience with wood working and metal working. This means that students have less experience using scissors, chisels, saws, and planes. Reduced opportunities to play with toys, experience making crafts, and look at real objects is leading to decreased interest in science and engineering among children.

Of course, even after students enter higher education, the spread of the Internet and smart phones is changing the way they spend their spare time. These student circumstances are also leading to significant changes in classes in colleges of technology. During class, a teacher might give an example of a toy assuming that students know what it is, but in some cases the students have no knowledge of it, and it does not aid their understanding. In addition, information technology is advancing quite rapidly, so that the type of play that is popular in early childhood can differ with just a one- or two-year difference in age, adding to the generation gap between students. Further complicating matters, teachers cannot comprehend how teenagers think, which keeps changing by the year. This causes the generation gap between teachers and students to keep growing by the year; however, in some cases, teachers even to recognize the generation gap with the students.

At colleges of technology, students are accepted after graduating from junior high school, meaning engineering and technology education must be conducted at an earlier point in time than at universities. However, because of the lack of experience and knowledge of students in lower grades, teachers need to use items and phenomenon that students are familiar with from observation in order to draw out students’ desire to learn about engineering and technology. The generation gap with students makes it difficult for teachers to use examples of objects that students are actually familiar with in their daily life.

To compensate for the generation gap with students, we asserted that education for lower grades should adopt the perspectives of students in higher grades. The relative closeness in age of lower and higher grades helps reduce the generation gap with students, which is advantageous in that teachers can share the perspectives of students. Here we elucidate the advantages that were obtained through the actual development of practical learning materials for lower grades that were jointly developed with fifth-year students using time for graduate research.

II. Hands-on Practical Training in Disassembly and Assembly of a Four-Wheeled Vehicle

Disassembly and assembly of a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is implemented to provide mechanical technology training under mechanical engineering studies. Fig. 1 shows the work being conducted.

Fig. 1 Hands-on practical training in disassembly and assembly

Hands-on practical training in mechanical engineering studies encompasses casting, welding, forging, press working, lathing, grinding, manual finishing, and CAD/CAM practical training at the machining center. Table 1 shows the contents of training items at hands-on practical training. Ten years ago, we adopted ATV disassembly and assembly so that students could learn how to use tools correctly. The practical training work clearly motivated students toward the specialized curriculum of mechanical engineering.³⁾ This became evident from a significant change in the way that students taking the course approached the practical training. The contents of the student report increased, with students writing that they had a heightened desire to learn about mechanical engineering when asked about their thoughts after the practical training.

Table 1 Practical training items for three-year hands-on practical training (from syllabus)

An automobile comprises more than 20,000 components, and items that are studied in mechanical engineering are found in the structure of automobiles. Through this practical training, we started to develop a new education program in an effort to provide opportunities to give background information to incoming students who lacked sound knowledge of mechanical engineering, and to students who lacked experience playing with moving toys such as plastic models.

III. Fabrication of Learning Materials for Lower Grades

This section describes the learning materials that were actually developed with students. We give examples of objects and electronic files that were constructed as education materials by students extracting from practical learning the knowledge that there is a relationship with the items learned from the specialized subjects. Firstly, Fig. 2 shows an example of a learning material comprising two gear mechanisms of the car made from LEGO blocks. Student can understand that steering mechanism of the car consists of rack and pinion gear with touching this block toy. Furthermore, the student can understand the need of the differential gear watching the movement of the rear wheel when the block car turns. Only students would have come up with the idea of incorporating interlocking plastic bricks, which are toys that they played with in early childhood, into learning materials. The toy interlocking plastic bricks have become a popular learning material⁴⁾, triggering the strong interest of students in the educational setting of a practical learning shop.

 

Fig. 2 Differential gear using LEGO blocks

Fig. 3 shows a cutaway model using a radio-controlled car. During practical learning, students are asked to verify the difference in the inner and outer wheels when the four-wheel vehicle is turning, but it is difficult for a student operating an ATV to verify the movement of all the tires. However, by reproducing it using a radio-controlled car after operating the ATV, students can verify the difference in the inner and outer wheels when the vehicle is turning. There are many things that can be verified using a model car like this. Radio-controlled cars are expensive and some students have never handled one before, so handling the model car in itself triggers the interest of students. When a teacher develops a learning material, it is necessary to consider a student’s viewpoint.⁵⁾

 

Fig. 3 Cut away model using RC car for understanding differential gear system

Fig. 4 indicate the learning material which measure the force on the break pad when handle lever operated by hand manually. An ATV has bar-handle which is different from usual four wheel-vehicle, and has a handle brake like bicycle. However, ATV has an oil brake system for its heavy weight. A hydraulic mechanism is one of the important machine element on mechanical engineering course. Nevertheless, student cannot see the real part on the machine. Students use bicycle usually, then they well know that the racing bicycle is equipped with the oil brake. Therefor student proposed that he was introduced an oil brake system from the racing bicycle when developing this learning material to indicate hydraulic mechanism. Lower grade students can check the value of force acting on a disc through brake shoe according to the power which grabs a handle.

 

Fig. 4 Oil brake system using bike brake parts

They can be promoted the motivation to study of specialized education because two theorems which are the study items in general education like the physics as an example currently used for the equipment of a materials handling machine. When developing this equipment, student have applied the principle of the lever and the theorem of Pascal. Lower grade student does not know an example concrete about how the learning contents the physics as general education is related to a specialized education. Their motivation can be promoted to study of a specialized education, because they use the developed equipment and understand how two theorems are applied to ATV mechanism.

The last example shows a learning material constructed by a student in mechanical engineering studies. In the development of learning materials for lower grades the importance of integration with lectures in high grades was proposed⁶⁾. The most important item in mechanical dynamics learned by students in their fifth year is the calculation of vibration wave forms for a shock absorber known as a spring mass damper system. This is also learned for control engineering to analyze systems by converting the motion equation to a transfer function. In the ATV disassembly practical learning, the vehicle suspension is not disassembled,but the role of the suspension is explained. Such as the elastic modulus of the spring that forms part of the suspension, together with the viscous modulus of the damper, determines the shock-absorbing performance of the suspension. Body weight is applied downward on the ATV, and the vibration of the ATV is observed after separation. If possible, we wanted to show the change in vibration by exchanging the springs and dampers. We gave this project to students in order to develop learning materials, which they constructed. Suspension kits are sold for radio-controlled cars with springs and dampers that can be exchanged, and these were used for the learning materials. Infrared sensors and an Arduino microcontroller were used to send the vibration data from the wheels to a computer so that the changes in amplitude could be displayed on a time axis. Fig. 5 shows the situation that a student is using the learning material for after a student knocked on the cylindrical weight such as the wheel, the process when the vibration of the weight damps is provided to a monitor. By changing the suspension or changing to wheels with a different weight, the vibration after manually applying the initial change can be displayed. The student confirms the change of the wave pattern on monitor by differences of spring and damper. They can understand an adjustment method of the suspension as well as a function of the suspension with this learning material.

 

Fig. 5 The system which displays damped oscillation using the suspension of RC car model

IV. Conclusion

Firstly, by gaining the cooperation of students to develop learning materials, many ideas were obtained.

The development of learning materials from the perspectives of students served to:

(1) Trigger the interest of students to a greater degree than commercial learning materials, and

(2) Enable teachers to become aware of objects and knowledge that are familiar to students by using unusual materials.

Learning materials from the perspectives of students are appealing to students and easy to understand.

The students developing the learning materials showed that one person could carry out the entire process from planning and design to construction and improvements. It also provided an opportunity to reexamine the specialized field by summarizing the curriculum learning. Students could actually experience the process of making something, serving to summarize the educational contents in the last phase of the technology education.