• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.20-30
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• 2005

Recently, a new education paradigm 'Self-directed Learning' has attracted considerable attention. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been recognized as methodology to help students expand scientific thinking and knowledge. improve applicability, develope critical knowledge, and creatively solve problems. There have been significant efforts to develope PBL-based courses in mechanical engineering. A new PBL-based, multi-disciplinary course 'Product Dissection and Design Reasoning' has been developed in this paper. The course examines the way in which products and machines work and is intended to show freshman or sophomore level students how fundamental physical principles relate to engineering practice through hands-on dissection experience : thus, the course emphasizes the importance of knowledge of the fundamental physics for design reasoning. The primary role of this course is to develop creative design manpower. This paper describes the philosophy and content of this course and presents results from one year of development.