Exhibiting productive beginnings of engineering judgment during open-ended modeling problems in an introductory mechanics of materials course

This paper presents a study of students solving open-ended modeling problems (OEMPs) in a sophomore level aerospace mechanics of materials course. OEMPs are homework problems that have no correct answer and ask students to create a model to solve a problem in a real world context. Students were asked to solve two of these problems as part of their regular homework assignment. Through interviews, five students in the course described their problem solving process and evaluated their models. Our analysis found students exhibited the productive beginnings of engineering judgement when creating their models. We also found students enjoyed and wanted more OEMPs given in their classes. Implications include creating more OEMPs for different types of engineering science courses and implementing a discussion or reflection for students after they turn in the problems.