At the graduate level, I teach various courses in the
fluids/thermal area, ranging from entry-level
fluid dynamics, thermodynamics and convective heat transfer
to advanced topics in fluid turbulence.
Goals
At the graduate level, two types of students need to be served
- the professionally-oriented students, who want to earn skills
and credentials that will help them in their careers.
- the research-oriented students, who need to become familiar
with the range of ideas in their field of specialization
At the entry level (first year graduate), I strongly believe that
one must choose the perspective of the course to suit one or the
other group, rather than compromise with both. For more advanced
courses, being responsive to diverse interests in the class is
usually very productive.
Information technology can take a different role at the graduate
level, where more independence and different motivation can be
expected from the students. My
turbulence course ,
accessible by password only, combines
- an electronic textbook, including nearly 250 pages of cross-linked
material. The advantage of the hypertext form over the printed form
is that, after covering the material sequentially to follow the
lectures, it can be reexplored thematically for better learning
- an automated quiz environment, in which a different selection
of questions is called up interactively, graded on the spot, with
links to relevant pages of the texbook
- a newsgroup space, in which class-wide discussion on various
topics are organized for asynchronous use. This seems to be a good
tool for informal homework, in-depth discussion and peripheral
topics that add substance to the course beyond what can be
covered in class.
Experience
At one point or another, I have taught the following courses:
o MEE 651 : Thermodynamics
o MEE 643 : Fluid Dynamics
o MEE 657 : Convective Heat Transfer
o MEE 741 : Turbulence
o MEE 746 : Viscous Flows
o MEE 849 : Special Topics in Fluid Mechanics
Jacques Lewalle, jlewalle@syr.edu
