Using Modeling Activities to Engage Students in Learning

Mathematical models using differential equations are among the most difficult topics for the engineering majors at our institute.Most of them are required to take an introductory differential equations course during their sophomore years, and some of them take a mathematical modeling course as an elective, afterwards.We address how mathematical modeling activities can be used to motivate and engage students in learning difficult topics in this paper.We use the modeling activities of a falling column of water as an example that includes data collection, parameter estimation and model validation.