Gerald Recktenwald's Teaching Page

Current Schedule
Teaching Philosophy and Advice
Strategies for Studying
Studying for and Taking Tests
Miscellaneous Notes
Courses with Web Pages

Current Teaching Schedule

During Spring 2008, I am coordinating the graduate seminar.

Teaching Philosophy and Advice

I have a separate web page where I discuss my grading philosophy and practice.

Dr. Richard Felder, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University has some excellent articles containing advice for engineering students. In particular, I suggest you read:

And for some good ideas (some would say advice) on living life:

Steve Job's 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford (YouTube Video, 15 minutes)

Strategies for Studying

The University of Guelph has a nice collection of advice for college students. In particular I recommend the page on Learning from Lectures, the Top 40 Study Strategies.

Studying for, and Taking Tests

Staying Calm

Here's a list of tips for staying calm during a test that I borrowed and adapted from a a web page at Texas A&M University.

Prepare well in advance.
Admit to yourself, "I will not know all of the answers."
Allow yourself time to "warm-up." Don't panic if you don't know the first few questions.
Pay attention to the test, not to yourself or others.
If you notice you are not thinking well, relax yourself physically during the exam.
Don't hesitate to ask for clarification.
Read over the test and allot time for questions in proportion to their point value.

Making Good Use of a Practice Exam

Often I give practice exams. When I do, I usually provide the solutions.

If you have access to a practice exam use these steps to make the best use of it.

Do most of your studying for the real exam before taking the practice exam.
Do not look at the practice exam questions before you take the practice exam.
Take the practice exam in a quiet environment.
Try to simulate the as closely as possible the experience of taking the real exam. Do not have your textbook or notebook available unless the exam is open-book. Stick to the time period allocated to the real exam.
Do not stop taking the exam to study some question that you cannot answer. Just keep going.
Have a special study-only notepad or sheet of paper. During the exam when you encounter a topic that you don't understand, write a quick note on the study-only notepad. Use this notepad later to prepare additional studying.
Take a break immediately after completing the practice exam. Resist the urge to start working through the solutions as soon as you finish the practice exam.
After taking a break, compare your answers to the solutions and give yourself a meaningful grade.
Resume studying by consulting your study-only notepad and the questions from the practice exam that you answered incorrectly.

The basic idea is to simulate as closely as possible the experience of taking the real exam. Your study-only notepad is the exception. The study-only notepad allows you to have the experience of "If only I had studied that before the exam" before you actually take the exam.

Advice on Writing

Colin Purrington's advice on writing up biology labs is applicable to engineering lab reports.
Slides from a brief presentation on Writing by Re-Writing given in ME 493 during Spring 2004. You can download the PDF file in either one slide per page (14 pages total) or two slides per page. (7 pages total)

Miscellaneous Notes

Internet Info

I've collected a few miscellaneous links about electronic communication and the Internet.

Courses with Web Pages

Notation: "F" = Fall Quarter, "W" = Winter Quarter, "Sp" = "Spring Quarter"

As Chair of the department my teaching duties are reduced.

Number	Title	Last Taught	Next Taught

EAS 361	Engineering Fluid Mechanics	F 2006
ME 322	Applied Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics	W 2007
ME 352	Engineering Numerical Methods	F 2008	F 2009
ME 441/541	Advanced Fluid Mechanics	Sp 1997
ME 447/547	Transport and Rate Processes	W 2000
ME 448/548	Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics	W 2008	W 2010?
ME 449/549	Thermal Measurements in Electronic Equipment	Sp 2006
ME 492-493	Mechanical Engineering Design Projects	W, Sp 2003