Highlighting Faculty Achievement
Penn State Intercom......September 27, 2001

Professor strives
to turn students
into expert engineers

Editor's note: This article is the first in a series of articles that underscore the accomplishments of University faculty to improve teaching and learning.  

By Celena Kusch
Teaching and Learning Consortium

Stephen R. Turns, professor of mechanical engineering, has been a role model for effective innovation in teaching, while achieving success in research and service to the University.

Turns, who was the 1997 winner of the Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching, has made a science of teaching thermal fluid engineering. His current research focuses on the interactions of radiation, soot and pollutant formation in flames, but his teaching goes beyond specialty courses on combustion. He has taught every course in the thermal fluid side of the mechanical engineering curriculum so he could see for himself how the courses are connected.

"When you have a great teacher like Steve, it is an inspiration to others," said Richard Benson, professor and head of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. "Based on his example, a number of faculty have since decided to do the same thing."

Turns also has delivered faculty seminars about his innovative teaching practices based on his review of the problem-solving practices of students and experts.

"The research shows that the novice has disjointed ideas, but the expert has structured various concepts holistically," Turns explained. "Beginning students tend to see things as uniformly important and as a result may not know where to start when they encounter an unfamiliar problem or situation. Helping students develop these structures is important to their progress."

It also is the basis for the textbook Turns is working on. The book attempts to arrange concepts hierarchically.

"Mechanical engineers know what is important, but most textbooks do not tell you how concepts fit within a hierarchy," he said. "I put related concepts together in the text, starting from the simp-lest to the most complex. Thus, students see more directly how more advanced topics are connected to the simpler ones. I hope that this arrangement will help students to learn better and faster."

The new text, Thermal-Fluid Sciences: An Integrated Approach, integrates a series of courses currently taught and also reflects Turns' emphasis on "real world" applications. The manuscript uses fundamental engineering principles with examples of applications as widely diverse as a fossil-fueled steam power plant, a solar-heated building and a jet engine. Turns believes that these complex applications are a necessary part of learning.

"Real problems in the real world are fuzzy and ambiguous, and they have multiple possible solutions," he said. "Students need practice with the kind of problems they will see when they become engineers."

In the classroom, Turns focuses on design projects and in-class team problem-solving to build the student experience. The engineering accreditation board, of which Turns is a program evaluator, also has been emphasizing the importance of design in undergraduate classes. This focus has led Turns to promote an active learning environment in his classes.

Lectures, he believes, need to have dialogue, and he calls on students by name to encourage participation and in-class problem-solving. According to Turns, the students are challenged by their active roles in the course, but not discouraged.

"I get feedback from my students that my courses are tough," Turns admitted, "but that they learn a lot. They are solving the problems, not watching me do it, and that leads to success. There have been times when I ran an exercise and no one left at the end of the class period."

Benson credited Turns' success to his enthusiasm and his ability to link his teaching to his research.

"His research shows up in his teaching and in his textbooks," Benson noted.

Turns conducts research on combustion at the University's Propulsion Engineering Research Center. He also has performed sponsored research for NASA, the Gas Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force, and Air Products and Chemicals Inc. His first textbook, An Introduction to Combustion: Concepts and Applications, was based on his research and contact with engineers in industry. Now in its second edition, it serves as a comprehensive introductory text on combustion for undergraduates and first-year graduate students, as well as practicing engineers.

"Steve's textbook on combustion is widely used in the U.S. and abroad, and it has been translated into Korean," Benson said. "I see the book on many bookshelves when I visit other colleges."

Benson added that Turn's dedication to research and teaching has advanced the reputation of the department as a whole. Turns recently completed service as the professor-in-charge of the department's graduate program. During his tenure, Turns' innovative approaches to graduate recruits as both students and future researchers contributed greatly to the program's success, Benson noted.

"Thanks to his legacy of graduate recruiting, our enrollment has been excellent in a period when many engineering programs were experiencing declining numbers of students, and the high quality of our graduate students has strengthened the program in all sorts of ways," he said.

Benson continued, "Steve Turns epitomizes the all-around faculty member with innovative teaching, highly successful research and outstanding service leadership in guiding the departmental programs."

 

Profile: Stephen R. Turns Name: Stephen R. Turns, professor of mechanical engineering Began teaching at Penn State: 1979 Research Interests: Combustion and combustion-generated air pollution and control Teaching philosophy: Turns strives to teach the way he would want his own sons to be taught. "I have been moving more and more toward a coaching role in teaching," he says. "I feel that you have to be truly interested in the students and their progress in learning." Teaching award: 1997 Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching Education: Bachelor of science, master of education, 1970 from Penn State; master of science, master of education, 1974, from Wayne State University; doctoral degree, 1979, from University of Wisconsin-Madison Family: Turns has been married for 31 years and has two sons, ages 21 and 23. Hobbies: Amateur trumpet player, eclectic reader

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