Assessment of Engineering Reasoning in Student Journals

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Assessment of Engineering Reasoning in Student
Journals
Engineering Industrial Design Business
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About Polytechnique

• Third-largest teaching and research establishment
  in Canada and first in Québec.
• First in Canada for the scope of its engineering
  research.
• 30,000 students graduated since 1873.
• 1,000 graduates per year.
• 27 of Quebec trained engineers are Polytechnique
  graduates.
• 220 professors.
• 50 of our graduates work for Small-Medium
  Enterprises.
• Operating budget of 85 million Cdn.
• Annual research budget of 60.5 million Cdn.

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About our capstone projects

• Projects done in collaboration with industrial
  customers
• Students from three schools collaborate in a
  common project team
• Polytechnique (engineering)
• University def Montréal (industrial design)
• HEC Montréal (business, marketing, management)
• Large scale multidisciplinary teams (up to 20
  students per team)
• 8 month long projects (6000 to 8000 student hours)

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Learning project structure and journals
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Capstone project (2007)
Project 333 Ecology-Economy-Experience
Design François-Olivier Dagneau, Louis Drouin
Customer ITAQ, Quest Enterprises
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Capstone project (2008)
Project AUA Advanced Urban Bus
Exterior Marc-André Rémillard Interior Maryse
Pelletier Seating Karine LeBon
Customer ITAQ, CDCQ
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Capstone project CAMAQ (2008)Aerospace industry
consortium for education
Prototype manufacturing from CAD data
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Project 1 (2009)
Exterior-interior Étienne Bérubé, Daniel Racine
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Project 2 (2009)
Exterior Stéphane Carrier Interior Paul
Ta Seating Catherine Lagacé
Driver compartment Cléo Poirier, Maude Blanchard
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Journal assessment
Text Graphics Graphics and text Engineering
reasoning
Date and week number Time spent Page
number External source references Meeting
minutes
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Journal samples
First year student
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Journal samples
Fourth year student
Date of journal entry
Time spent
3D hand drawn dimensioned sketch
Documented question to be adressed
Supporting calculations
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Journal samples
Fourth year student
Documented hypothesis
3D sketch and design decisions
Design calculations and criteria check
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Journal assessment
Criteria Evaluation Grade
1) How many types of information in logbook. 40/40  10-13 types 32/40  8 à 9 types 24/40  6 à 7 types 16/40  6 and less 40
2) Engineering reasoning demonstration 30/30  Excellent 20/30  Good 10/30  Must improve 30
3) Individual task identification and completion Assigned tasks Completed work Documented progression Timesheet 30/30  Excellent 20/30  Good 10/30  Must improve 30
Total Total 100
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1- Content type
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2- Critical thinking
Personal problem framing and resolution abilities
measured not solution quality. Solution quality
measured in the team reports.
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3- Project information

• Personal meeting notes and actions to do present
• Individual tasks assigned and clearly identified
• Written elements to prove the student worked on
  his assigned tasks
• Demonstration of progress over time towards
  completion of the tasks
• Compilation of all personal hours spent on the
  project
• Entries to the journal are marked with the date
  they were done on
• Empty pages identified as intentionally left
  blank
• No ripped out pages to insure integrity of the
  content timeline

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Outcomes

• Students learn to document their personal work
  and questions on a daily basis in a centralized
  document (their project journal).
• Students share journal content at a moment notice
  during team meetings.
• Students find for themselves the value of
  documenting personal work when questioned on work
  done 6 months ago.
• Students use teacher feedback to adjust their
  journal writing.
• New recently revealed outcomes
• 3 year project fosters use of old student
  journals in team transitions.
• Students use older journals to better understand
  project decisions in support of published
  milestone reports.
• Students voluntarily leave their journals to the
  team who will continue their work after they have
  left the project.

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Future developments

• Journal tagging methodology testing in
  preparation of electronic journal format.
  (Collaboration with the University of Bath)

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For information

• Clement Fortin
• Director of mechanical engineering
• École Polytechnique
• clement.fortin_at_polymtl.ca

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