Emily Kupa
Final Reflection
This
semester I have found ME 250 to be quite a challenge in many ways, but it has
also brought me a lot of pride and confidence in my abilities. I can honestly
say that ME 250 has been one of the most rewarding classes I have taken thus
far in engineering at U of M, and has reinforced my decision to major in
engineering in college. Although
this class was a joy to take and I definitely learned a lot, it did have
challenges for me.
What
I discovered the most from this class was learning all about the different
machines, materials, and fasteners. Before taking this class, I barely knew the
difference between a flat head and Phillips head screwdriver. Now, I can
honestly say that I know the difference between several different fasteners and
tools and when it is appropriate to use each one. Something else I learned in this class, which I did not expect
to, was discovering what kind of learning style I liked best and also the
learning style associated with each member of my team. I thought this was one
of the most beneficial tasks we did in lecture, because it enable me to understood
my teammates more and why they acted the way they did. I believe if we did not have
this understanding before going into the project, my teammates and I would have
gotten on each other’s nerves a lot more and would not have worked as well
together, as a team.
Some
critiques I have for this class are that it needs to devote more time in teaching
hands on training and to not assume we have previous knowledge about machine
tools before going into this class. It is already very frustrating to be a women
engineering student, but then to go into this class and be expected to have
previous knowledge of materials and machine tools is at first intimidating. I
had no prior knowledge about machine tools before going into this class and it
seemed like other design teams (made up of mainly boys) had a leg up on my team
(which had three women). Also on
the final, I believe there was material we were expected to know which we had never
learned previously, like for instance, a bore cutter. Another suggestion I have
is for isometric drawings to be covered in class in more detail, because it was
a major portion of our exam and we didn’t have much practice with them. Finally,
a lecture I didn’t really like was when a guest speaker came and gave us
flashcards and told us to create new innovations. I did not find this lecture
very beneficial and it did not seem like other students I talked with gained
much from it either.
One
problem I did not really have in this class was time management. Our team finished
our project very early and we really used our time well. We even had enough
time to paint our robot, which was a nice end to the project. One thing I
believe I could have improved on in this class was preparing and studying for
the exam. I always went to
lecture, but when I went to lecture I later found I did not take notes that
were detailed enough. Therefore, when
it came time to study for the exam, I found it to be a very big challenge to
review the material and the lecture slides barely touch on each topic.
All
in all, this class has been my favorite engineering class thus far and I am
really glad I took the class. ME 250 has steered me in the direction of engineering
design for my career path and I am looking forward to taking ME 350 next term.
I really think ME 250 allows you to see how our engineering classes are
utilized in the work force and we were able to apply everything we had learned
thus far in developing a “real” product.
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