2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine - (Page 24)

SAILING TH AT 1/12 SCALE Engineering tradition celebrates 25 years A group of 66 students participated in this year's 25th annual Wooden Shoe Regatta in the Fred M. Keller Engineering Labs. photo by Elizabeth Lienau 24 Fall '15 by Leah Twilley It was a race to the finish on the high seas in the Fred M. Keller Engineering Labs during the 25th annual Wooden Shoe Regatta in July. Junior-level students majoring in mechanical engineering readied their handmade sailboats for style and speed competitions to celebrate the conclusion of a summer-long course about fluid mechanics. Using principles of fluid mechanics, like buoyancy and stability, students applied lessons they learned in class to model sailboats they built throughout the spring and summer semesters. Shirley Fleischmann, professor of engineering, began incorporating sailboats as a way to teach the course when she taught at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in the early 1980s. "I found that students weren't enjoying the course, and I felt they should not only understand fluid mechanics, but also enjoy the subject, since they would spend a lot of time on ships," Fleischmann said. The idea to incorporate ships came to her while carving a small sailboat for her children. "I remember thinking that I needed to find something to tie in all the material I was teaching in class, and I thought, 'This is it. I'm holding it,'" she said.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine

Campus News
Research
Athletics
Arts
Scientific symbiosis
Focal Point
Seidman College expanding EMBA
Sailing at 1/12th scale
Same song, different verse
Q&A Lynn 'Chick' Blue
Off the path
International Education

2015 Fall Grand Valley Magazine