Journal of Technology and Science Education

METHODOLOGY FOR DEVELOPING TEACHING ACTIVITIES AND MATERIALS FOR USE IN

FLUID MECHANICS COURSES IN UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAMS

P. Javier Gamez-Montero, Gustavo Raush, Lluis Domènech, Robert Castlla, Mercedes García-Vílchez, Hipòlit
Moreno, Albert Carbó
Department of Fluid Mechanics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Spain
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Received July 2014

Accepted January 2015

Abstract
“Mechanics” and “Fluids” are familiar concepts for any newly-registered engineering student. However, when
combined into the term “Fluid Mechanics”, students are thrust into the great unknown. The present artcle
demonstrates the process of adaptaton employed by the Fluid Mechanics course in the undergraduate
engineering program, along with the teaching methodology, teaching materials and results obtained, evaluatng
the fnal objectve in terms of student satsfacton and level of learning.

Keywords – Online questonnaire, Learning strategies, Student-centered methodology, Interdisciplinary,

Engineering, Motvaton.

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1 INTRODUCTION
The establishment of the European Higher Educaton Area (EHEA) has led to important changes in our university
educaton system, and thus in engineering programs. In spite of the fact that artcles such as that by Mills and
Treagust (2003) show a clear need for change in teaching methodology, away from the dual noton of teaching-
professor and towards that of learning-student, engineering programs contnue to show an unfortunate
inclinaton towards the former approach. This is in spite of the fact that this discipline allows for a multtude of
learning tools.
The overall environment also plays an important role in the university educaton system, in which providing
students knowledge with a fundamentally theoretcal structure fails to develop the practcal skills and abilites
that are so needed by the job market. Problem solving is an inherent part of the feld of engineering.
The teaching-learning process of Fluid Mechanics has been characterized by being difcult and uninterestng for
many engineering students. Some very interestng experiences have been introduced to address this, such as
project-based learning (Barrio, Blanco, Martnez & Galdo, 2010). As Gad-el-Hak (1998) describes it, the art of
fuids in moton came about in an empirical manner, with no clear idea of what either a fuid or mechanics even
were. It originated through experimentng, for example, with the diference between the wind's efect on
streamlined and bluf bodies. Nevertheless, at an engineering level, this discipline stll remains a great
unknown, in spite of its functon, rigor and interdisciplinary nature.
Within their teaching methodology, professors must contemplate the potental lack of interest or partcipaton
by students in class and the difculty of understanding concepts or with oral and writen expression. It must
also be assumed that it is possible that the instructor's teaching strategies do not match the learning styles of

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most of the students, which does not promote a positve climate of motvaton and assimilaton for the
teaching-learning process. Learning is not teaching; we must teach to learn.
Generally speaking, the type of student registered for Fluid Mechanics knows litle about the subject, and has a
keen interest in the core subjects to the detriment of more interdisciplinary knowledge. There is also the
handicap that the subject is studied hand in hand with other basic subjects, or even afer them. To summarize,
Fluid Mechanics students can be characterized by some of the following characteristcs:
• A lack of motvaton that comes from not knowing anything about its content
• The obligaton to take the course, since it is a common core subject for the degree
• A lack of interest that results from not seeing its applicaton/usefulness in terms of their major or
specialty
• A lack of satsfacton resultng from taking the course and not reaching the established expectatons
One reference we have is the Kolb model (1984), which classifes student learning styles into four categories,
based on how the student processes the informaton that is received:
• Actng, in the case of actve students: he/she learns from a concrete, direct experience, putng the
concepts into practce in new situatons.
• Refectng, in the case of refectve students: he/she learns through refectve observaton and thinking
about the experiences received.
• Theorizing, in the case of theoretcal students: he/she learns through abstract conceptualizaton,
obtained by reading or having things explained.
• Experimentng, in the case of pragmatc students: he/she learns by actvely experimentng with the
informaton received.
This present work makes no atempt to base itself on the planning and design of strategies based on learning
styles and the Kolb model, rather on a teaching methodology that uses teaching tools that lead to the
productve learning of Fluid Mechanics, with actvites that appeal to all learning styles. At the same tme, this
methodology must motvate students, highlight important concepts, employ simple examples and refrain from
repetton, while leaving aside obsolete methods and procedures that have fallen into disuse. As Felder (2014)
rightly explains, in an introductory Fluid Mechanics course, it is not of much use to dedicate three classroom
lectures to a detailed derivaton of the Navier-Stokes equatons when the professor will not put it on a test and
it is not within the realm of applicaton of undergraduate engineering students.
Thus, this work focuses on three main objectves:
• The instructors' objectve: to implement a teaching method that uses a number of varied and diverse
tools that lead to the productve learning of Fluid Mechanics.
• Objectve of the work presented: to evaluate, from a qualitatve and a quanttatve perspectve, the
efectveness of the teaching methodology in terms of learning by students of Fluid Mechanics, based
on diferent parameters that come into play.
• Final objectve: to improve the instructonal quality, which coincides with increased levels of learning,
beter academic results and greater satsfacton on the part of students studying Fluid Mechanics.

2 THE ENVIRONMENT AND CONTEXT SURROUNDING THE FLUID MECHANICS COURSE

“Mechanics” and “Fluids” are familiar concepts for any newly-registered engineering student. However, when
combined into the term “Fluid Mechanics”, students are thrust into the great unknown; when you start to have
an idea about it, you fnd yourself sitng in class, faced with an exam over it in the near future. One very
interestng case is that presented by Gynnild, Myrhaug and Petersen (2007), in which a laboratory and a
computatonal algebraic program is used in class to introduce the phenomena of Fluid Mechanics. Other recent
experiences that have successfully increased student motvaton have been based on games and atypical
experiments (Absi, Nalpas, Dufour, Huet, Bennacer & Absi, 2011) and on touch screen devices used for dynamic
learning experiences (Kumar, Ramana, Afrin, Ortega, Agarwal & Udoewa, 2013). Figure 1 shows a diagram
summarizing the 5 pillars that consttute the environment and context surrounding Fluid Mechanics.

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2.1 The Structure

The Fluid Mechanics course presented in this paper is a common core subject worth 6 ECTS points in the
second year of the undergraduate engineering program for 5 diferent specialtes: Electrical Engineering (EL),
Industrial Electronics and Automaton (IE), Mechanical Engineering (M), Chemical Engineering (CH) and Textle
Technology and Design (T), each of which is taught at the Escola d’Enginyeria de Terrassa (EET) of the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). It is a common required course for all undergraduate students, and
therefore it must have a broad, general focus (with both the positve and negatve aspects that this entails), as
the aim is to meet the needs of the diferent technological profles of the undergraduate degree programs
ofered.
The courses have an average of 225 students registered for classes taught by 7 professors, and therefore it must
be emphasized that a large number of the students take the course during the same quarter and all of them
partcipate in the same actvites. The students are divided into:
• 4 large groups (LG) for theoretcal classroom lectures (groups A, B, C and D), with 2 hours of face-to-
face instructon per week. Each lecture group has a diferent professor.
• 4 large groups (LG) for problem-solving exercises (groups A, B, C and D), with 1 hour of face-to-face
instructon per week. Each exercise group has a diferent professor.
• 12 small groups (SG) for laboratory work, with 2 hours of face-to-face instructon every two weeks.
Several small groups have the same professor for laboratory work.
However, students from the 5 specialtes are not evenly divided among groups A, B, C and D, as shown in Figure
2 below. Furthermore, it should also be kept in mind that those students who had not yet selected a major at
the tme they registered for this course have been categorized as “No specialty” (NS) in this work.

Figure 1. Mental map of the environment and context surrounding the Fluid Mechanics course

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2.2 Planning and Teaching Materials

Exhaustve planning is carried out, based on a syllabus of one-hour lessons, each with its corresponding subject
mater. The lecture, exercise and laboratory hours are planned and made available on the Virtual Campus in
such a way that students know exactly what is expected of them at all tmes. The Moodle ATENEA is the version
of the Virtual Campus used at UPC.
All teaching materials for the course are available on the Virtual Campus from the start of the course. The notes
for the lectures are structured exactly the same as the syllabus, with transparencies/notes for each one-hour
lesson. The problem set for the course used for the exercise sessions is diverse and the problems are organized
by topic, in such a way that they complement the lectures and serve as a tool for both classroom and group
work and individual study at home. The practcal laboratory actvity instructon and report book contains the
instructons on how to do each of the practcal actvites, additonal informaton and questons. The reports
contain spaces for the experimental data, the calculatons and the results, as well as graph paper to show the
corresponding graph, if appropriate.
The course rules and the teaching guide are available on the Virtual Campus from the start of the course. They
contain informaton about evaluatons and their respectve weights, calendars, quizzes, exams, due dates, lab
reports, rules for presentatons and ofce numbers and ofce hours. They also contain a list of professors
organized according to theoretcal classroom lectures, problems and practcal laboratory actvites, which is very
important, as it directs the students to the corresponding professor. When the tme comes, grades and exam
revisions are posted on the Virtual Campus.

3 METHODOLOGY FOR LEARNING ACTIVITIES DESIGNED FOR FLUID MECHANICS

The methodology used for the learning actvites is based on tools for individual and group work in both the
classroom and at home. The implementaton of this methodology requires very close, coordinated collaboraton
among the 7 course professors. The faculty is coordinated by means of one main meetng at the end of the
course, another before it and, during the course, personal meetngs among the instructors and as a group on
Moodle, where the explanatons given in each lecture, problems, incidents, etc. are recorded in a partcular
secton. This ensures that everything is documented and all class groups receive the same informaton,
regardless of the professor teaching the course.

3.1 Actvity at the Beginning of the Course

The self-assessment at the beginning of the course is administered individually as an online questonnaire that
is made available to the students on the Virtual Campus during the frst week of the course. It consists of
approximately 15 multple choice questons. It is to be completed individually, and three atempts are allowed
during a one-week period. The advantage of this online questonnaire is that it allows students to evaluate their
own knowledge about the subject mater and the course they are going to study. The intenton is thus to let
students know their startng point with regard to the course.

3.2 Individual Actvites

These are the set of actvites that are to be completed individually by the student, primarily as independent
work done at home.

3.2.1 Assignments
Assignments, which are to be completed individually and in writen form, are given on a regular basis
throughout the course. Students are required to complete the assignments to ensure contnuous learning
throughout the duraton of the course. The forums created on the Virtual Campus for each assignment foster
communicaton among the students in order to answer any questons they might have and to solve problems.
Professors partcipate in the forums, moderatng them and providing informaton as necessary. Student
partcipaton is voluntary and is not evaluated.

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3.2.2 Self-Assessment of Theoretcal and Problem-Solving Lessons

These are referred to in this way because they consist of an online questonnaire that is answered individually
for the purposes of evaluatng the student's own knowledge. The self-assessments are available to the students
on the Virtual Campus. Two evaluatons each term (for a total of four) are planned. They consist of
approximately 25 multple choice questons each, addressing theory and problems created on WIRIS. The data
for the questons changes with each try, and thus so does the answers, which builds comprehension of the
problem and the error. They are to be completed individually, and three atempts are allowed over a period of
ffeen days. The big advantage of the online questonnaires is that they allow students to evaluate themselves
and receive their score instantaneously, displaying the correct answers and marking the errors as soon as the
questonnaire is completed.

3.2.3 Self-Assessment of Practcal Laboratory Exercises

The self-assessment of practcal laboratory exercises is administered individually as an online questonnaire that
is made available to the students on the Virtual Campus. One is planned for the course, and it consists of 10
multple choice questons on theory and/or problems created on WIRIS, related to the laboratory exercises. It
will be completed individually and will allow a single atempt on the scheduled date and tme. The self-
assessment is intended to keep the students' atenton focused on the value and importance of the laboratory
actvites, not just when they are engaged in them, rather on their direct relatonship to the theoretcal
explanatons and problems.

3.2.4 Reading of a Scientfc Journal Artcle

The reading of a scientfc journal artcle of interest related to Fluid Mechanics completes the individual work.
According to Carson and Miller (Carson & Miller, 2013), an actvity of this nature during the early years of the
undergraduate program considerably improves the students' research skills. Unfortunately, we are unable to
dedicate as much tme to its development and evaluaton as would be advisable. This individual assignment
includes a short critcal analysis of the artcle. It is submited by means of an online questonnaire, and a single
atempt is allowed during the established period. A very positve assessment of this actvity by the students can
be inferred, as they express their opinion on learning about applicatons of Fluid Mechanics.

3.3 Collaboratve Actvites

Quizzes involve an element of camaraderie with a previously chosen classmate. The quiz is the same for all
students and is answered in pairs in the classroom. Four quizzes are planned per course, two each term. Each
consists of 8 multple choice questons that address both theory and problems. The tme allowed to take the
quizzes is not sufcient for them to be answered individually, so cooperaton with a partner is required.

3.4 Team Actvites

The practcal laboratory exercises build teamwork, as they are intended to be carried out in a group, promotng
diferent roles among the students in a partcular group and boostng cooperaton. Cranston and Lock (2012),
from the University of Bath, demonstrate the importance of practcal group work in the specifc case of Fluid
Mechanics, in order to visually assimilate the concepts explained in the classroom.
The practcal exercise team is made up of a group of 5 students. Each member of the team is assigned a data
collecton role in the laboratory so that the same person always reads the same instrument. This minimizes
errors. The student/group must come to the laboratory having read the instructons and printed out the report
to complete during the exercise with the experimental data, the calculatons and the results.
The report for each practcal exercise is completed immediately aferwards, at the computer staton inside the
laboratory itself. The professor in charge of the practcal exercises is present at all tmes to guide the groups and
answer any questons they might have. If everything is correct at the end of the practcal exercise, the professor
signs the report and the group has fnished the practcal exercise. Their fnal task is to upload the report onto
the Virtual Campus.
This practcal exercise methodology builds critcal reasoning in the context of group work, fosters
communicaton among the group members and diferent groups, and promotes discussion and reasoning, all

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under the direct leadership and guidance of the professor. As a result, oral communicaton is partcularly
encouraged through questons and issues presented by group members and the professor, promotng both
student-student and professor-student problem-solving discussions.
A book is available for the professors containing all the solutons for the practcal exercise reports, along with
data and results, so that the expected results are known for each practcal exercise session, regardless of who
the professor is. This also serves as a guide in the event of experimental errors and malfunctons. This aspect
has proven especially relevant in improving the results obtained and the rato between the performance in the
exercise and the tme spent.

3.5 Classroom Actvites

The problem-solving sessions are conducted by the professor, and are dedicated to solving one or two problems
on the blackboard with the entre class of students. These sessions guide the students through the problem-
solving process, indicatng the methodology and a six-point procedure to be followed:
• 1. Data/Order,
• 2. Hypothesis,
• 3. Sketch/Diagram,
• 4. Basic principles/concepts of Physics,
• 5. Explanaton and
• 6. Soluton, results and critcal analysis.

3.6 Assessment Actvites (Exams)

Partal and fnal exams are focused on demonstratng the student's analytcal and problem-solving skills.
Writen exams show not only the student's knowledge of the subject mater learned, but also good writen
communicaton skills. Exams are corrected using a six-point rubric, where scores between 0 and 10 are assigned
according to the procedure explained during the problem-solving sessions (see Table 1). The rubric is explained
and provided to the students at the beginning of the course. For a detailed explanaton of rubric assessment,
consult Smit and Birri (2014) and the references for their work. The rubric has also been included, showing its
indicators.
The rest of the actvites are evaluated, each with their own weight. These include assignments, reading of
artcles, self-assessment on theory, self-assessment of practcal exercises, quizzes and practcal laboratory
actvites.

Category 10 7.5 5 2.5 0

The sketches The sketches The sketches The sketches No sketches or
and/or drawings and/or drawings and/or drawings and/or drawings drawings are
A. Sketches
are clear and are clear and are a litle are difcult to used
and Drawings
help understand easy to difcult to understand
the procedures understand understand
This work is The work is This work is The work The work is
presented in a presented in a presented in an appears careless careless and
way that is way that is organized and disorganized. It is
B. Neatness orderly, clear and orderly and manner, but it disorganized. It is impossible to see
and Order organized so that organized, so may be difcult difcult to what informaton
it is easy to read that, generally to read determine what is related
speaking, it is informaton is
easy to read related

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Category 10 7.5 5 2.5 0

Hypotheses are Some of the Most of the The most No working
clear, precise and hypotheses are hypotheses make important hypotheses are
reasonable not clear or no sense working writen it down
C. Hypotheses precise or hypotheses are
reasonable not suggested
and they are too
few in number
The explanaton The explanaton The explanaton The explanaton The explanaton
shows a shows shows some shows a very shows that the
thorough substantal degree of limited student has not
understanding of understanding of understanding of understanding of understood the
D. Physical the physical the physical the physical the underlying underlying
Concepts concept used for concept used for concept required concepts concepts
problem solving problem solving for problem required for required for
solving problem solving problem solving
or has not
writen it down
The explanaton The explanaton The explanaton The explanaton No explanaton
is clear and is clear is a litle difcult is a litle difcult was included
detailed to understand, to understand
E. Explanaton
but it includes and it is missing
critcal several
components components
The results are The results are The results are The results are The results are
clear, correct and not correct neither correct either incorrect, neither correct
use the proper however, they nor reasonable, unreasonable or nor reasonable,
F. Results
units are reasonable however, they do not use the and they do not
and use the use the proper proper units use the proper
proper units units units
Table 1. Rubric and indicators for the assessment of partal and fnal exams in Fluid Mechanics

4 RESULTS
Tables 2 and 3, complemented by Figure 2, show the distributon of the 4 large classroom lecture groups made
up by students from all 5 undergraduate specialtes and one group of students who had not yet selected a
specialty when registering for the course (designated by the acronym NS). In this analysis, it must once again be
stressed that each classroom lecture group has a diferent professor. They show that specialty M has the largest
number of students (especially in group A), and more than either the EL or IE groups; however, the relevance of
the NS group should be noted, partcularly in the case of group A.

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Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical
17 15 12 11 55
Engineering (EL)
Industrial
Electronics and 9 22 18 12 61
Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
8 11 28 13 60
Engineering (M)
Chemical
4 4 5 10 23
Engineering (CH)
Textle Technology
4 3 1 2 10
and Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 8 11 5 7 31
Total 50 66 69 55 240
Table 2. Distributon of students by specialtes and groups. Academic year 2012/2013

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical
5 9 5 6 25
Engineering (EL)
Industrial
Electronics and 8 12 14 9 43
Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
10 18 23 11 62
Engineering (M)
Chemical
1 9 5 4 19
Engineering (CH)
Textle Technology
2 0 11 4 17
and Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 29 12 9 15 65
Total 55 60 67 49 231
Table 3. Distributon of students by specialtes and groups. Academic year 2013/2014

Figure 2. Percentages of the distributon of groups by specialtes. Academic year 2013/2014

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Tables 4 and 5 show the percentages of students who have passed and failed the course (percentages of failing
students are indicated in parentheses), for two consecutve academic years. In both cases, the percentages
shown correspond to the groups as compared to the course total. For the two years analyzed, beter results are
observed for the specialtes M, IE and EL than for the remaining specialtes, in terms of both the number of
passing students and the low number of students who failed the course.
This trend can also be extrapolated to the analysis of the classroom lecture groups. Those groups made up
predominantly by students with specialtes that might be considered the most closely related to the course
subject mater show the best results, as in the case of B and C; conversely, the trends are difuse for those
groups with a homogeneity of specialtes. In the case of group A, responses from NS students predominate, and
in the case of group D, the response is more equal, as shown in Figure 2.
These observatons coincide with the opinions of the professors of the groups. Tables 4 and 5 show a
predominance of the specialtes M, EL and IE over the specialtes T and CH. As an example of the results
observed, it can be seen that in the two periods analyzed, M and IE have indicators closely correlated with the
number of students per specialty in each group, when comparing Tables 2 and 4, and Tables 3 and 5. This
establishes a motvaton and performance factor that is notceably diferent among the diferent groups.

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
22% (12%) 17% (6%) 16% (1%) 16% (4%) 18% (5%)
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
14% (4%) 32% (2%) 26% (0%) 22% (0%) 24% (1%)
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
16% (0%) 17% (0%) 38% (3%) 24% (0%) 24% (1%)
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
6% (2%) 6% (0%) 7% (0%) 18% (0%) 9% (0%)
(CH)
Textle Technology and
6% (2%) 5% (0%) 0% (1%) 4% (0%) 3% (1%)
Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 16% (0%) 17% (0%) 7% (0%) 11% (1%) 13% (1%)
Total 80% (20%) 92% (8%) 94% (6%) 95% (5%) 91% (9%)
Table 4. Academic year 2012/13 – Percentages of the distributon of students passing the course (the
percentage of students failing the course is indicated in parentheses), by group and specialty

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
9% (3%) 12% (3%) 6% (1%) 14% (1%) 11% (1%)
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
14% (2%) 17% (3%) 22% (2%) 19% (2%) 18% (2%)
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
17% (2%) 28% (2%) 31% (2%) 24% (1%) 26% (2%)
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
1% (2%) 15% (0%) 6% (1%) 14% (1%) 7% (1%)
(CH)
Textle Technology and
4% (1%) 0% (2%) 15% (1%) 9% (1%) 7% (1%)
Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 39% (6%) 18% (0%) 7% (6%) 12% (2%) 19% (5%)
Total 84% (16%) 90% (10%) 87% (13%) 92% (8%) 88% (12%)
Table 5. Academic year 2013/14 – Percentages of the distributon of students passing the course (the
percentage of students failing the course is indicated in parentheses), by group and specialty

The conclusions of the present analysis are further supported by a comparison of the distributon of grades by
specialty and group, since the exams used to evaluate the students are the same for all four classroom lecture
groups, regardless of the professor. Tables 6, 7, 8 and 9 show the fgures for the classifcaton of those students
who earned high grades, >=8/10, and those students who earned average passing grades of between 5 and 8.

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At frst glance, the fgures revel that those groups with the largest number of students from specialtes the most
closely related to the course subject mater are those demonstratng the best performance.

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0%
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
4% (1%) 2% (0%) 6% (2%) 2% (0%) 3%
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
4% (1%) 3% (1%) 4% (1%) 4% (1%) 4%
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
2% (1%) 0% (0%) 4% (1%) 2% (1%) 3%
(CH)
Textle Technology
0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 2% (0%) 0%
and Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0%
Total 10% (3%) 5% (1%) 14% (4%) 10% (2%) 10%
Table 6. Academic year 2012/13 - Percentages of grades equal to or beter than 8/10, by group
and specialty (the percentage of the total is indicated in parentheses)

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0%
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
0% (0%) 0% (0%) 1% (0%) 4% (1%) 1%
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
0% (0%) 12% (3%) 4% (1%) 4% (1%) 5%
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
0% (0%) 5% (1%) 1% (1%) 0% (0%) 2%
(CH)
Textle Technology and
0% (0%) 0% (0%) 0% (0%) 4% (1%) 1%
Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 2% (0%) 0% (0%) 1% (1%) 0% (0%) 1%
Total 2% (0%) 17% (4%) 7% (3%) 12% (3%) 10%
Table 7. Academic year 2013/14 - Percentages of grades equal to or beter than 8/10, by group and
specialty (the percentage of the total is indicated in parentheses)

Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
22% (5%) 17% (4%) 16% (5%) 16% (4%) 18%
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
10% (2%) 30% (8%) 20% (6%) 20% (5%) 21%
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
12% (3%) 14% (3%) 33% (9%) 20% (5%) 20%
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
4% (1%) 6% (2%) 3% (1%) 16% (4%) 7%
(CH)
Textle Technology
6% (1%) 5% (1%) 0% (0%) 2% (1%) 3%
and Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 16% (3%) 17% (5%) 7% (2%) 11% (2%) 12%
Total 70% (15%) 88% (23%) 80% (23%) 85% (20%) 81%
Table 8. Academic year 2012/13 - Percentages of average passing grades (>=5/10 and <8/10), by
group and specialty (the percentage of the total is indicated in parentheses)

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Specialty A B C D Total
Electrical Engineering
9% (2%) 12% (3%) 6% (2%) 12% (3%) 10%
(EL)
Industrial Electronics
13% (3%) 17% (4%) 19% (6%) 12% (3%) 16%
and Automaton (IE)
Mechanical
16% (4%) 17% (4%) 27% (7%) 18% (4%) 19%
Engineering (M)
Chemical Engineering
0% (0%) 10% (3%) 4% (1%) 8% (2%) 6%
(CH)
Textle Technology and
42% (9%) 18% (5%) 7% (2%) 20% (4%) 20%
Design (T)
No Specialty (NS) 2% (1%) 0% (0%) 13% (4%) 8% (2%) 7%
Total 82% (19%) 73% (19%) 78% (22%) 80% (18%) 78%
Table 9. Academic year 2013/14 - Percentages of average passing grades (>=5/10 and <8/10), by
group and specialty (the percentage of the total is indicated in parentheses)

The statstcs in Tables 6 and 7 indicate that the largest proporton of students with grades equal to or beter
than 8/10 are from the specialty M, followed by EL and IE, as shown graphically in Figure 3. In the case of the
academic year 2013/14, 40% of all students with a grade equal to or beter than 8/10 had the specialty M. This
trend contnued and even increased during the following year, to 50%. When we analyze the interval of average
grades between 5 and 8, the groups are shown to become more homogenized in terms of specialtes (see
Tables 8 and 9). Figure 4, however, highlights groups that might be expected to have less interest in the course
content, as in the case of groups T and CH. The course assessment system is responsible for this
homogenizaton.
The observatons lead us to conclude that those classroom lecture groups that include students with specialtes
that are closely oriented towards mechanical-electrical principles are more aware of the importance of the
course contents. On the contrary, the group of students who had specifed no specialty showed heterogeneous
performance levels that were difcult to predict, and they tended not to atain the fnal course objectves. It
might be concluded that students with specialtes such as CH and T are misinformed and believe that the
objectves and applicatons of Fluid Mechanics are clearly unrelated to their specialty.

Figure 3. Percentage and number of passing/failing students by specialty. Academic year 2013/2014

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Figure 4. Percentage and number of passing/failing students by group. Academic year 2013/2014

Another complementary analysis can be performed using the survey administered by UPC. This includes 9
questons, of which 5 have been highlighted in relaton to this work: interest, learning, progress, Virtual Campus
and satsfacton. Figure 5 shows a course score for each secton greater than 3, with a slight, yet hopeful
positve evoluton, especially with regard to the use of the Virtual Campus, which is atributed to the online
questonnaires.

Figure 5. Evoluton of the ofcial course survey administered by the University

(evaluaton scale: 1–Strongly disagree to 5–Strongly agree)

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5 CONCLUSIONS
The study allows us to draw the following relevant conclusions:
• The fgures reveal that those groups with the largest number of students with specialtes related to the
course subject mater show the best performance, fostering a much more motvatng and high-
performing work environment, with fewer distractons and interruptons, which enhances learning.
• The distributons of the specialtes in the classroom lecture groups are not homogeneous and
defnitely mark the trend of the group with regard to its evoluton throughout the course, which
indicates that eforts should be made to improve this distributon.
• The number of students without a specialty increased from year to year, and their heterogeneous
distributon makes it more difcult to concentrate eforts aimed at motvatng them. In terms of the
total percentage, this increase was refected in the evoluton of the group with the largest percentage
of failing grades, which was also the group with the largest percentage of students without a specialty.
• The cut-of grade for undergraduate studies at EET is the same for each specialty, and thus it was
automatcally eliminated as an indicator in this study.
Nonetheless, the main conclusion of this work is the need for the study itself, to identfy more precise strategies
focused on the teaching of Fluid Mechanics, in order to beter motvate those students who, due to a lack of
knowledge or motvaton, fail to appreciate the importance of the subject in the overall context of their
curriculum. These strategies should take into account that:
• Actvites in which students actvely partcipate, where they are not merely passive recipients of
informaton, are those that they like the best.
• Students value actvites in which they partcipate as a team.
• It is important to present practcal cases that have some connecton to the specialtes of the diferent
groups of students.
• The course contents must be broken down to a greater degree in accordance with student
expectatons.
• Eforts must be intensifed to provide guidance and assistance to those students who are the most
"lost".
• One trend that has been observed is the proporton of all students without a declared specialty during
the last period analyzed. This may be atributable to certain degree of uncertainty with regard to their
professional future.
• If the students were divided into classroom lecture groups according to their specialtes, diferental
instructon could be provided to each group, making the course more atractve and useful for each
profle.
In terms of future work, it is difcult to predict the changes that would be the most successful and provocatve,
where students with specialtes closely ted to Fluid Mechanics would show the greatest interest and obtain the
most satsfactory results. The challenge lies in posing diferental instructon for students in the groups T, CH and
NS.
Promising proposals for change could be the teaching of the basic principles that dominate Fluid Mechanics by
presentng real, practcal cases that have to do with each of the specialtes, according to which the syllabus
would not be organized in any theoretcal order, rather by applicaton. Students would be beter motvated by
relatng Fluid Mechanics to the engineering degree they wish to study.
However, it should not be overlooked that the above also poses a risk that must be carefully assessed: learning
and managing the basic principles and fundamentals that govern Fluid Mechanics through the presentaton of
real cases could prove to be overwhelming. Instead of making the subject more accessible to the students and
motvatng them, it might have the opposite efect.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors of this work wish to thank the students in the undergraduate program for their collaboraton on
the actvites and questonnaires they were asked to do for this study. There is no queston that their opinions
and comments have helped us to improve our teaching actvity.

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Citaton: Gamez-Montero, P.J., Raush, G., Domenech, L., Castlla, R., García-Vílchez, M., Moreno, H., Carbó, A.
(2015). Methodology for developing teaching actvites and materials for use in fuid mechanics courses in
undergraduate engineering programs. Journal of Technology and Science Educaton (JOTSE), 5(1), 15-30.
htp://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jotse.135

On-line ISSN: 2013-6374 – Print ISSN: 2014-5349 – DL: B-2000-2012

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Pedro Javier Gamez-Montero
P. Javier Gamez-Montero obtained his MSc (1999) and, with a 4 years’s grant, his PhD (2004) in Mechanical
Engineering both at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). From 2004 to 2008 he was an Adjunct
Lecturer, an Assistant Lecturer and a Temporary Lecturer. Since 2009 he has been an Associate Professor at the
above-mentoned university. He teaches in the Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Technology Engineering, in the
Aerospace Technology Engineering and in the Aerospace Vehicle Engineering, being coordinator of several
subjects in those Degrees.
With regard to his research actvites, his main research feld is fuid power technology by using numerical,
dynamical and experimental techniques, such as Bond Graph, CFD and TRPIV, being lead/coordinator
researcher of natonal compettve research projects, researcher in internatonal projects in the LABSON
research group, and author of more than ffeen papers. Dr. Gamez-Montero’s research interest includes
pedagogic innovaton in higher educaton and he has partcipated in seminars and projects related to innovatve
teaching, publishing the results in an internatonal conference.

Gustavo Raush
Gustavo Raush obtained his degree in 1989 on electrical/electronic engineering with honor to “Best Promoton
Grade”. During 1984 to 1995 he hold several academic positons. In 1995 he got a tenure-track associated
professor positon of Physics Department, at the ICCyC Insttute on Universidad Nacional del Nordeste,
Argentna. In 2008, he reached the PhD in Thermal Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
(BarcelonaTECH - UPC). In September 2009, he became tenure-track Lecturer professor at the Department of
Fluid Mechanics at UPC. He focused his research actvites mainly on experimental fuid dynamics, fow
visualizaton, measurement techniques and aerodynamic tests. He is also interested in teaching practces to
develop positve and motvatng learning environments, therefore his lectures are contnuously reinforced with
his research experience.

Lluís M. Domènech Rubio

Graduate in Applied Geology in the University of Barcelona and Master in Environmental Engineering in the
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). His current positon is Associate Professor in the Department of
Fluid Mechanics. He has been researching in hydrodynamic transport and dispersion in porous media. His
current interest feld is Computatonal Environmental Contaminant Transport Modeling in porous and fractured
aquifers.

Robert Castlla López

Ph.D. in Applied Physics in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). His current positon is Associate
Professor in the Department of Fluid Mechanics. He has been researching in Turbulence and in Partcle Image
Velocimetry applied to internal fows. His current interest feld is Computatonal Fluid Dynamics for multphase
fows both in macroscale and microscale, and internal complex fows in Fluid Power components.

Mercedes García-Vílchez
M. García-Vílchez is a member of the Fluid Mechanics Department at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
(UPC) and she is also part of the research center LABSON - UPC (Laboratorio de Sistemas Oleohidráulicos y
Neumátcos). She earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2010, and a PhD from UPC in 2014 (Mechanical
Engineering, Fluids and Aeronautcs programme). With a strong teaching and research vocaton, she works as
an associate professor in UPC since 2010. Her research has focused on the study of fuid dynamics of hydraulic
systems, and she has worked mainly in Computatonal Fluid Dynamics and Partcle Image Velocimetry
methodologies.

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Hipòlit Moreno Llagostera

Hipòlit Moreno Llagostera obtained his degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (UPC), and now he is Associate Professor in Fluid Mechanics at the same University. MBA in General
Management Program from ESADE Business School. He has published several papers at specialized journals and
has presented contributons in several Internatonal conferences.

Albert Carbó Bech

Albert Carbó obtained his degree in Industrial Mechanical Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de
Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), and now is Associate Professor in Fluids Mechanics at the same university. He is
writng his thesis focused on Fluid Pipelines leak detecton using transient-based methods. He is author of
several patents.

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