To: Donna Shea, Instructor
From: Phil Fournier
Date: 10/27/2004
Subject: WR3 World Wide Web Resources
I conducted research on this
project for websites that would be appropriate to a class that I teach in
Automotive Engine Performance. My search
engine of choice is www.google.com but I also used www.yahoo.com
and the following search words were used: “Auto technicians”, “flat rate”
(jargon used by professional auto technicians), “engine diagnostics”, and
“engine performance.” It is interesting
that the words that yielded the most success were “engine performance” which
happens to be right out of the title of my course. I chose the words “flat rate” because they
are so well known among technicians who work under the unfortunate compensation
system that has plagued auto repair for many years, but it yielded only one
useful result.
This website is resource for
technicians looking for jobs. While the
students in my class may not be ready for employment yet, nevertheless a look
at this website early on in the semester should be a good incentive for the students
to stick with the course.
This website is a veritable
treasure trove of information. Most of
the information is pretty advanced for beginning students but even so there is
so much here that it wouldn’t take much searching around the site to find a
great deal of benefit even to the beginning technician. I would use this site as a source of research
assignments for my students. The website
requires technicians to join and requires they have four years of experience,
which most students don’t have. However,
I could allow the students to perform searches under my name.
3.
http://www.natef.org/career/auto.cfm
This is a fairly simple website that
came up while searching under “auto technician”. It is more or less a question and answer site
for students designed to convince them that being an auto technician is a
worthwhile career.
4.
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Trouble/Engine_diagnose.htm
This website is pretty simple and
dedicated to the BMW make, but is has some neat graphics and simple procedures
related to engine performance, as well to other parts of the vehicle. This site would make for a good research
assignment early in the class.
5.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question172.htm
While this website is mainly
connected to high performance and vehicle modification, this is often a good
way to ignite the automotive student’s interest.
6.
http://www.carcarecouncil.org/Engine/tune_up.shtml
This site appears to be mainly
directed to consumers, but it has some good information for beginning students.
7.
http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/tech/0209hpp_fire/
This site has great information on
the combustion process, essential to understanding engine performance. Like number 5 above, this site focuses on
high performance. Many young people get
into automotive because they start off wanting to “hot-rod” their own
vehicle.
This site is a subscription site,
but is has some good teasers that address some excellent critical thinking
skills, the kind I strive to teach in my classes. The subscription price is very reasonable and
may be within the reach of most of the students. Manufacturers write their troubleshooting
charts with the assumption that the technicians reading it either cannot or
will not think and therefore must be led step by step down a “trouble tree”. But the result is that they charts very often
fail to lead to a successful repair.
This site suggests troubleshooting strategies that rely on understanding
the system and using critical thinking skills to arrive at a determination of
what is at fault.