Exploring an Electronic World with Working Model Software

Frank Lee
Engineering Transfer Program, Chair
Science Division
Bellevue Community College
Bellevue, Washington
flee@bcc.ctc.edu

In the core engineering courses I teach--Statics, Mechanics, and Dynamics--I talk about the concepts, and the textbook has diagrams, but nothing's moving. A lot of the learning experience depends on the students' ability to visualize and wonder: "Okay, how would this thing move?" But since students can't do much wondering when they're just trying to do the calculations, I began using Working Model 2D,

Bellevue Community College Working Model 2D Working Model 2D Windows demo version MSC Software

a physical simulation software package, to verify with visualizations and simulations the theoretical calculations we were doing by hand in class. With Working Model, the sky is the limit; you can build anything you want. On a second level, the software is helpful for doing explorations and analysis--you know, exploring the "what if" questions and applying the concepts. What if we changed this parameter or that? As long as you can do the calculations once by hand, you realize how much work is involved. And you need to make sure you can do it right. But when you get to the "what if" questions, working on those by hand would be really laborious, doing the number crunching over and over. So that's when you want to take advantage of a computer program...

If you have any questions about our project, you can contact me at:
mzoghi@engr.udayton.edu