Final Grades Notes

After the final exam was graded I processed all the course grades as described in the syllabus.  They are now posted.  Here are the adjustments I made – all in your favor:

• Attendance was adjusted to allow two misses without penalty
• Discussion scores were adjusted so that the lowest score was dropped
• Lab scores were adjusted so that the lowest score was dropped
• Scores were rounded when determining the letter grade

Overall the class did very well.

Notes on reading your “Most” & “Least successful” answers

• Most of you found much to like in the course, though the specifics varied.  Some liked the labs, some the reading/discussion.  And almost everyone liked the field trips, especially the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge Trip.
• Some of you, especially environmental engineers, felt that the environmental portion of the course was too separate from the rest.
• Some didn’t like the discussions, though others found them most helpful.
• One person was strong in their criticism of Access Science as having little they found worthwhile
• Many liked meeting the department faculty
• Several felt that the lab periods could be better used
• One person wanted physical experiments – you’ll get them in CAE-210.

Thank you all for a good term, and thanks especially to the Shamia, Lauren and Jonathan for making the course flow so well.

Jim Mitchell

Take-Home Exam – Grading Notes

We’ve completed the grading of the Take-Home exam.  There were a number of corrections to the raw scores that were appropriate on review of the exam results and also several emails from students.  All increased your score.  They are as follows:

Calculated Questions

• VistaBb had a bug that marked a number of your answers wrong when it shouldn’t have.   All these were corrected manually.
• For the soil pressure calculation the wording wasn’t clear whether there was water in the ground.  I therefore allowed the calculation with and without water.
• I also reviewed all the answers for the full set of calculated questions and gave partial credit in a number of cases for answers close to the acceptable range.

Multiple Choice Questions

The questions noted below had ambiguities in their phrasing or used information that may not have been available everyone.  In these cases everyone who didn’t get the “right” answer received 90% credit (2.0 out of 2.2).  The questions were:

• EER- Energy Efficiency Ratio
• Revit Features
• Revit Type
• Role of Senior Design Advisor
• Tacony-Palmyra Bridge Opening
• Use of Energy in Buildings

Paragraph Answer Questions

I went through and ensured that you got the maximum credit for all your attempts as on the highest-marked answer.

Jim Mitchell

Lab-9 – Grader Comments

• The vast majority of you did an excellent job on Lab 9. 
• Limited confusion using the excel functions was noticed. 
• If you are unsure of anything, please ask for help.  This serves as advice for future classes as well.
• The majority of the memos were professional and of sufficient length. 

Lab-8 – Grader Comments

• The most common points lost were from not including a proper memo format when it wasn't already provided to you in a template. 
• A memo requires To, From, Subject and Date and Microsoft Word provides templates that you can use for future organization. 
• The other major points lost were for not following the directions and including the information about the group: group number, group member names and advisor, project title, etc.
• When writing a maximum 2 page memo make sure to make your statements meaningful and realize that a paragraph is composed of 3 or more sentences.  
• Otherwise the memos seemed extremely well-written and a great improvement from the beginning of the term, keep it up!

Week-10 Discussions – Grader Comments

The discussions this week were excellent!  Most of you wrote some really well thought out and meaningful responses to your week 2 discussions.  It was great to read how your opinions have or have not changed towards your intended major, and they were very well written.  

A few students lost points for not including a source from access science, so my advice is to always make sure to read each assignment's grading criteria carefully before you begin each assignment to make sure you will get full credit. 

L7 – Grader Comments

• Memos are an extremely important form of communication in the engineering industry.  They serve as as means of information exchange and also as legal documents.  It is very important that you follow a standard memo format when writing.  Microsoft office has many pre-loaded templates that you can use as a starting point.
• Avoid saying "plugging these values into the equation".  A better way to say this is "through engineering analysis, it was determined....".  Furthermore, the person reading your memo may not have engineering training and is most likely just looking for your expert opinion on the situation.  It is important to be direct and know your audience when writing memos.
• Many of you have shown significant improvement in calculation procedures, complete engineering analysis and writing a corresponding memo to support your findings.  Keep up the good work.
• Please don't hesitate to ask questions if you are confused about the lab.  It is advisable to attempt the lab a few days before it is due to avoid roadblocks at the due date.
• Use the spell check option for reviewing the memo before submitting, simple errors can be avoided easily.
• Before solving an equation such as this in excel it is easier to break it down into components and solving it by parts. That way errors can easily be traced and corrected

Week-9 Discussions – Grader Comments

* The majority of discussions this week were excellent.  It seems as though many of you are benefiting from doing your own research and writing a discussion about it.  There were also several comments which linked what you read during research to the senior design presentations you attended.

* Many of you used transitions in your discussions which adds quality to your writing.  Good work!
* Drexel has a superior engineering librarian in Jay Bhatt.  Please keep Jay in mind as you advance through Drexel for all research inquiries. 

* Jay Bhatt
Librarian for Engineering
Hours M-F: 9am-6pm
Hagerty Library, Room 132
bhattjj@drexel.edu
* Please continue to put effort into your labs and discussions as the term comes to a close. 

L6 – Grader’s Comments

• The labs this week were exceptional!  The most common place students lost points were for Question 2 when calculating the electricity consumed by the chiller where a conversion factor was not needed because it was already taken care of within the EER value.  Make sure to pay attention in class and lab for key information like this. 
• Another place students lost point was when plotting many switched the data between CO2 and O3 and did not even notice the difference. Before submitting anything please go over your work and make sure what you are turning in makes sense.
• There was no memo required this week; however, a few students decided to write one anyway, which is a great habit to get into and also a great way to improve your writing skills, keep it up!

Week-8 Discussions – Grader Comments

• While each week the discussion grades are improving, I would still recommend putting a little more thought into the "most confusing" and "most interesting" sections.  Make sure to expand upon what you found interesting and confusing in both your primary and secondary source.  This section should be 2-4 paragraphs, as opposed to one sentence each, and is meant to be a thought provoking process.

• Most people have been taking advantage of the preview button BBVista allows and the organization of the articles has much improved, for which I thank you.  Keep up the great work!

Week-7 Discussions – Grader Comments

The discussions this week were excellent. 

• The majority of the class discussed specific examples from their articles and supported them with personal experiences. 
• Furthermore, the majority specifically stated what was most interesting and most confusing in the articles. 
• There is a noticeable improvement in grammar and spelling which dictates professionalism in your writing. 
  
• Lastly, transitions are a great way to keep the readers attention and establish connections to previous statements in your posts.  Please click here to learn more about how transitions can improve your writing.

Please continue the heightened level of effort as you will truly benefit from

Lab-4 Grader Comments

1. Organize your lab reports into an easy to read progression without   jumping around so much, especially with calculations. Refrain from submitting multiple files to grade, instead organize everything into one file, preferably a PDF for this type of assignment.  If you would like to utilize excel's capabilities with equations it is fine to submit an excel file.
2. Make sure to carefully read what you earn points for, especially in the memo, and make sure to address all of those points completely, i.e. expand upon one sentence.
3. After writing read over what you have written carefully. Sentences ending with words such as ‘like’ or having ‘amuse’ instead of ‘amaze’ indicate complete carelessness on the part of the writer.
4. Scaled drawings mean ‘scaled drawings’, not scanned pages of hand drawn figures.

Discussion Week-6 Grader’s Comments

• Overall the discussions have improved greatly.  It makes it a lot easier to read them now that people are taking advantage of the preview function and spacing their posts nicely.
• Also, make sure to address the week-specific question in a thoughtful and meaningful manner. 
• Finally, people are making more of an effort to specifically state interesting and confusing aspects of both articles they read.  A few people lost points for incomplete or inadequate interesting or confusing aspects for both articles, but that was a lot less common than in past weeks.  Keep up the great work!

Lab-3 – Bridge Collision – Grader’s Comments

• Specifically state "this was an implication of the lab" or "this was a limitation of the lab" in your memos. 
• Many used the height of the wall =8' instead of the length of the bridge =520' for question 4 when calculating the bending moment.  You needed to use the bridge length instead of wall height for Q4.  This changes your bending moment.  Partial credit was given for this question.
• Please put your first and last name in the title when you save the document.
• Be sure to follow the formatting instructions already in the lab: "Example of making formulas visible - We want you to display the formula for calculating the momentum. We show each of the ingredients. Then we show the formula - highlighted in pink. Then we actually calculate the result. Note that we used named variables to make the actual cells read readily."
• Part of being an engineer involves professional calculations and writing.  Your calculations may need to be checked by other engineers at a later date and thus you should be neat and organized.  If you are completing the labs via hand calculations, please be neat and organized. 
• Instead of only stating what numbers were obtained during the calculations, try to think if the numbers make sense and why.
• If you are scanning in calculations, please combine them into a single PDF. 

Discussion-5 – AE – Grader Comments

• The most common place for students to lose points was in the "most interesting" or "most confusing" categories.  
• A few posts lacked sufficient length.  Please dedicate more time to your posts and reference your articles more.
• Overall, most discussions were very thorough, organized and informative.  Keep up the good work.

Discussion-3 – Bridges – Grader Comments

• As with the past 2 weeks, the most common place for students to lose points was in the "most interesting" or "most confusing" categories, although substantially less points were lost in this discussion.  
• However, the course information available on VistaBB states that the "most interesting" and "most confusing" sections of the post should be one to two paragraphs.  So expand upon one sentence, which typically cannot sufficiently describe the most interesting aspect of an article.
• Simply listing dimensions of a particular bridge should not be the most interesting part of an article.  While the facts are good to include in your post, talk about something new you learned about the bridge or actually found interesting, in addition to their dimensions.  And again, if nothing was confusing, simply state that.
• I had a comment about how VistaBB won't let you indent, if you want to clean up your post so it's easier to read add an extra return between paragraphs to space them out nicer.  And still take advantage of the "preview" function associated with the discussion posts and make sure to proofread and spellcheck! 

Discussion-2 Grader Comments - Materials

• The term "material" seems to have been loosely interpreted. No points were taken off for choice of material, but for future discussions, it would be wise to select a material typically used in the field you are studying.
• Make sure to post your discussion reply under the thread that most closely relates to the topic of your discussion post.  Many students wrote on the same material and used the same sources, but few referred to the posts of other students. Do not be afraid to change the title of the post to represent the topic of your discussion.
• The most common areas that students lost points was in the "most important" and "most confusing" categories.  As previously said, each student should talk about what they found to be the most important and confusing things about both their primary and secondary articles.  If the article was straightforward and not confusing, simply state that.
• The rest of the comments are minor. 
• Take advantage of the "Preview" function associated with the discussion posts.  This way the post can look exactly as you want it to, in an organized fashion and easy to read. 
• Finally, make sure to proofread your discussion before submitting it.

Lab-2 Grader Comments

• Fill in the "Assignment #" on the top of the "Summary" sheet
• Explicitly state the implications and limitations of the lab.  And expand upon these more than just one sentence.
• State the objective of the lab clearly and discuss the results obtained or the trends of the graphs plotted.