SHALL WE CONTINUE KEEPING HIGH SCHOOL COURSES IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM?

2014-06-27
Sonmez, Murat
Since the entrance of the graduates of technical high schools to engineering programs is hindered, in application, the graduates of general or science high schools only are accepted to engineering education. For these students, four years are not sufficient to teach the basic and the related application courses of the profession. Looking at the existing curriculum of mechanical engineering, it can be seen that in the 1st Year, the physics and chemistry courses repeat the content of the ones given in high school education. The current approach considers the students as they come to university with inadequate and incomplete knowledge and therefore not ready to follow the engineering science courses. This approach underestimates and denies the high school education contrary to the main objective of its curriculum. The main objective of high schools (secondary schools) is expressed in the Laws and Regulations with such a statement: "General high schools do not prepare students for a specific profession but rather for higher education". Today, the existing curriculum of Mechanical Engineering is to be renewed by some new science and application courses to satisfy the demands of labor market. However, the total course credit limit prevents such a renewal. In the face of this dilemma, the answer to this question becomes important: Should the university really repeat high school physics and chemistry? In science high schools and in science branch of general high schools the science and mathematics courses have the major importance. The students are well educated on physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. They are provided with the necessary science and mathematics background that is required in engineering education. Although only the well-educated graduates of science and general high schools are admitted to engineering programs and the students are already ready to follow the engineering science courses thanks to their high school background, unfortunately in some universities (in Turkey in all) science courses part of engineering curricula is filled by physics and chemistry courses with the same content of the ones taught in high school.

Suggestions

When will high school defend its science education against University?
Sonmez, Murat (2011-10-30)
Since the entrance of the graduates of technical high schools to engineering programs is hindered, in application, graduates of general or science high schools are only accepted into engineering education. For these students, four years are not sufficient to teach the basic and the related application courses of the profession. Looking at the existing curriculum of mechanical engineering, it can be seen that in the 1st Year, the physics and chemistry courses repeat the content of the ones given in high scho...
Senior year thermal design course elective or mandatory restricted elective
Tarı, İlker; Tarı, Zehra Sibel (2006-11-10)
According to the educational objectives of METU Mechanical Engineering Department, there should be two senior year design courses: a mechanical design course and a thermal or fluids design course. The department had a successful long running mandatory mechanical design course. Instead of preparing and offering a mandatory thermal or fluid design course, it is decided to change the status of three senior year elective courses in thermal or fluids field that were involving design elements. Among these, ME421 ...
Development of a STEM based engineering design curriculum for parental involvement in early childhood education
Ata Aktürk, Aysu; Demircan, Hasibe Özlen; Department of Early Childhood Education (2019)
The purpose of the current study was to design and develop a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) based engineering design curriculum that addresses to preschool children, parents, and preschool teachers (EDCPI). In this context, the first aim of this study was to identify the key design principles in designing a STEM-based engineering design curriculum for parental involvement (PI) in early childhood education. The second aim was to explore the possible contributions of the developed curric...
Motives that attract parents to send their children to curriculum laboratory schools and students' satisfaction with the services provided
Çelik, Nehir Taşkın; Ok, Ahmet; Department of Educational Sciences (2005)
The aim of this study was to identify the reasons of parents̕ preferring Curriculum Laboratory Schools (CLSs) for their children̕s education and to investigate whether the students attending Curriculum Laboratory Schools are satisfied with the physical, instructional and social opportunities (services) offered at these schools. The sample of the study consisted of 440 seventh grade students and 14 parents from seven curriculum laboratory schools in the province of Ankara. Two instruments were used for data ...
Evaluating the language improvement courses in the undergraduate ELT curriculum at Eastern Mediterranean University: a case study
Erozan, Fatoş; Daloğlu, Ayşegül; Department of English Language Teaching (2005)
The present study evaluates the language improvement courses in the undergraduate curriculum of the Department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at Eastern Mediterranean University. The language improvement courses are: Oral Communication Skills I and II, Reading Skills I, II, and Advanced Reading Skills, Writing Skills I, II and Advanced Writing Skills, and English Grammar I and II. In this evaluation study, the adapted version of Bellon and Handler̕s (1982) curriculum evaluation model was employed. The p...
Citation Formats
M. Sonmez, “SHALL WE CONTINUE KEEPING HIGH SCHOOL COURSES IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM?,” 2014, p. 0, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/63840.