(61d) The Transport Cup

It has been argued that it is becoming more difficult to successfully engage today's engineering student. For example, the standard lecture is popular among faculty but is considered boring to students. In fact, some students have chosen to not even attend class on a regular basis. While it is possible (and often desirable) for students to teach themselves, class attendance has been linked with better performance on exams covering the subject material. A variety of teaching methods (in addition to lecture) must be employed to connect with students that exhibit different learning styles.

As such, this paper describes a semester long, interactive, in-class competition with the goal of increasing student attendance and attention. Students are broken up into one of five teams with the challenge of winning the "Transport Cup." During a break in the class session, a question is asked of a randomly chosen student, who receives participation points for attendance and for providing the correct answer.

The intended consequences of this competition are that:

? It allows the students a short break from notetaking

? It allows the instructor to take attendance on one or two students

? It allows the instructor to give as "prizes" something that he did not want to keep

? The students get a chance to laugh and have some fun while learning

? It allows the instructor a chance to review a concept from the last class

? It recaptures the student's attention after the question and review are over

An unintended consequence of this competition is increased student pride in the performance of their team and encouragement of their "team members" to come to class.