Increasing Engagement in Materials Laboratory with Backward Design and Quadcopters

Abstract

This paper describes a laboratory experiment that was designed to increase student engagement and enhance student development in a materials laboratory. The laboratory module described is part of a broader effort to enhance the mechanical engineering laboratory curriculum to incorporate modern pedagogical methods and to improve student outcomes using backward design.The new laboratory modules encourage students to work in small groups, develop team skills, and learn about basic measurement methods. The first module is a simple cantilever beam mounted with a strain gage. Students develop an understanding of the correlation between bending stress and strain. While doing so, they also determine a calibration factor for the beam in order to use the beam as a load cell to measure the weight of an object. For the second module, students are provided an instrumented beam with a known calibration factor and are asked to determine the amount of lift produced by a small quadcopter.To assess the effectiveness of the laboratory experiment, a student survey was designed and the experiments were observed by an education expert. The results indicate the new laboratory modules have been successful in increasing student engagement and meeting learning objectives.

Design of a Cross-curricular Circuits Laboratory Experiment

“…This questionnaire covered questions ranging from how much control they had on the overall lab itself, to how confident they felt in their competency in the material itself. Many of the questions were consistent with prior survey questions tied to understanding the larger curriculum modification as outlined in prior papers [1][2][3].…”

“…To reduce cost, it was decided that all of the strain gages used in this new laboratory module would have a resistance of 350Ω so that this laboratory module could use hardware from previously developed bending modules for a Material Science class [1]. These bending modules included aluminum bars with 350Ω strain gages already attached.…”

“…The two laboratory modules have been developed to help scaffold knowledge and increase engagement in a circuits laboratory. The first module includes a bending beam with a strain gage that has been documented in a prior paper [1]. The second module introduces the same equipment to a circuits laboratory that is required for mechanical engineering students and adds a Wheatstone bridge circuit that students build.…”

“…The overall goal of the project is to improve how engineering students learn particular concepts which are pertinent throughout the four-year mechanical engineering curriculum [1]- [3]. It is possible to assess the success of these new laboratory modules through using evidence collected via surveys conducted after the lab the module was completed by students.…”

“…It is this concept of creating a better understanding of a complex subject, by using two disciplines in the same module, that generated the idea for the new circuits module. Following the success of other new scaffolding laboratory modules [1]- [3], it was decided to create a laboratory module that helped mechanical engineers in circuits.…”