Engineering professor Les Grundman wins 2015 Leepoxy Award

The honor recognizes instructors for their teaching innovation

Indiana Tech is pleased to announce that associate engineering professor, Les Grundman, won the 2015 Leepoxy Award for Teaching Innovation. This award was established in 2008 by community supporter and owner of Leepoxy Plastics, Larry Lee.

The annual award is given to a full-time faculty member who:

• Challenges students to continuously progress to higher levels of thinking
• Engages students in active learning activities
• Connects to students in innovative ways to positively impact their experiences at Indiana Tech

Below is a summary of two initiatives that Grundman accomplished to earn this distinction:

During the fall 2014 semester, Grundman evaluated McGraw-Hill’s Connect adaptive learning approach in a junior level engineering course, Mechanical Engineering Design I. Connect is a web-based assignment and assessment platform that aims to help students connect more closely to their coursework, and, ultimately, use that experience for success beyond the course. Grundman used the Connect platform for two chapters of the course’s textbook. Comments from his students were positive, and they indicated that Connect helped them learn. As a result, the use of Connect is being expanded for fall 2015 and spring 2016. The entire textbook is available online and key sections of the textbook are highlighted to indicate must-read content. For each section, students take short online quizzes to assess their understanding of the content. If students are not successful on the quizzes, Connect redirects them to earlier concepts for more study and clarification.

In a second major initiative, Grundman is implementing a spatial visualization course for engineering students who are enrolled in his fall 2015 University Experience course. These spatial visualization classes incorporate mini lectures, sketching in a supplied workbook and the use of Snap Cubes and visualization software. This implementation is based on over a decade of research by Dr. Sheryl Sorby, who has shown that developing student’s spatial visualization skills is essential for helping students succeed in subsequent engineering courses and in engineering practice.

“Les’ commitment to helping his students grasp complex learning concepts is what makes him one of the most respected instructors on our campus,” said Dave Aschliman, dean of Indiana Tech’s College of Engineering. “He is a tremendous asset in our department and a joy to work with.”