Intro to Acoustics Course Development

Forster, Rhys

Student Work

Intro to Acoustics Course Development

Public Deposited

Acoustics engineering is a branch of mechanical engineering that combines theoretical mathematics and physics theories with hardware applications. It rose to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s as a serious field of engineering, in part due to texts like the 1954 book Acoustics by Dr. Leo Beranek. In the past few decades, many advances have furthered the connection of acoustics to manufacturing and architectural engineering, wave and sound physics, and medical sciences like audiology. As such, acoustics is a prominent area of study in the modern era. Currently, Worcester Polytechnic Institute does not have a course specifically dedicated to the study of acoustical engineering, thus this project was created to begin developing a course on the subject for Professor Joe Stabile to teach. There have been a number of students at the university who have expressed interest in such a course, meaning the need for an introductory course to the field is present. In the process of development, I first researched acoustical engineering, closely following the aforementioned Acoustics, before creating a number of lecture slides developed for instructing a class. To supplement this, I conducted research on different areas of pedagogy and how they can be applied to teaching science. I then incorporated these principles into my work to create a series of slides that are detailed and easily explainable, while incorporating methods of student cognition and retention.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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