-: In my teaching, I always try to show,
as many real world examples as possible.
But I found not all of them were
interesting to students, especially in my
fluid mechanics class.
So I thought about using non-traditional
and even funnier example, to engage and
stimulate more students.
Because I like watching anime,
so I naturally started using anime.
I started using anime examples
in the spring semester of 2015,
so it has been 5 years.
Typically I use anime examples
in my undergraduate level classes,
because those classes are large classes.
Using these anime or non-traditional examples,
is really effective in drawing students attention,
in such a large class.
I really enjoy, think about
the science and engineering feasibility
of the concept presented in those
SF movies, anime and manga.
So, whenever I find an interesting example,
I write it down in my list of
non-traditional examples
with a related engineering question,
and brief answers.
So whenever I need a new example,
I look into my list and then find one.
It is really important to provide students
with a context and background of those examples..
For example, sometimes I use Ant-Man,
one of Marvel heroes, to explain the concept
of mass conservation, density and
of Brownian motions.
But not all students know about Ant-man,
so whenever I use that example,
I need to briefly explain what this story about. ,
then students can understand the background,
and then why I used that kind of example.
I think the students can feel passion,
of your passion, in your choice of
pop culture.
Yeah, I'd like to quote words from students.
So this is my recent paper,
on using anime for fluid mechanics teaching
and for this paper,
I asked students in my classroom,
what they felt and thought about my anime examples .
"It was enjoyable and gave a good example
to practice making reasonable assumptions
around a real world application."
"Helped me maintain attention
and showed practical application of a theory."
"I think they helped me understand
the concept better because it is
more intriguing than just equations."
"I seem to pay attention better."
And this is last one.
"I thought that the anime examples were very intriguing.
It made the learning fun and interesting,
which does not happen a lot in engineering."
Excellent teachers put themselves
in students shoes.
So they think about their teaching
from the perspective of students.
Also they learn the effectiveness
of their teaching from students,
so that they can improve their teaching.