Lab-in-a-Box: Development of Materials to Support Independent Experimentation on Concepts from Circuits and Electronics

工程-电气(55)该项目建立在之前NSF资助的工作的基础上，开发了一种廉价的实验室套件(Lab-in-a-Box)，以解决通常以讲授为基础的电气工程初级课程中对具体例子的需求。该方法提供了一套“动手”练习，让学生设计、建造和测试各种华盛顿特区。和AC。在教室-实验室环境之外使用便宜的电子套件、数字万用表和软件示波器的电路。目前的项目是对调查人员的观察做出的回应，在使用这种方法时，即使是最好的学生也经常不确定自己是否有能力正确地进行实验工作。因此，该项目的主要目标是在学生的工程生涯中第一次用物理元件而不是符号部件来构建电路，并通过直接测量而不是计算来确定电路中的电压降和电流时，向学生灌输自信和提高自力更生能力。为了实现这一目标，研究人员正在开发多媒体学习材料，以支持实验室中a-Box的教学目标，并可供学生在独立学习时随时访问。此外，他们正在将这种方法推广到这所四年制学校的电子课程中，并将其纳入附近一所社区大学的类似课程。评估工作正在使用学生和教职员工调查、特殊表现测试和焦点小组，以在国家公认的外部专家的指导下监控项目的进展。教学材料和成果正在通过期刊出版物和会议报告以及通过与一家主要出版商的安排进行传播。更广泛的影响包括材料的传播和与社区大学的紧密联系。

Engineering - Electrical (55)The project builds on prior NSF-funded work that developed an inexpensive laboratory kit (Lab-in-a-Box) to address the need for concrete examples in the normally lecture-based beginning course in electrical engineering. The approach provides a set of "hands-on" exercises in which students design, build, and test various d.c. and a.c. circuits using an inexpensive electronics kit, digital multi-meter, and a software oscilloscope outside of the classroom-laboratory setting. The current project is responding to the investigators' observation that, in using this approach, even the best students are often uncertain of their abilities to properly perform experimental work. Thus the project's primary goal is to instill self-confidence and improve self-reliance in the students when, for the first time in their engineering careers, they construct a circuit with physical components rather than symbolic parts and determine voltage drops and currents in the circuit by direct measurement rather than by calculations. To accomplish this, the investigators are developing multimedia learning materials that support the pedagogical objectives of the Lab-in-a-Box and can be readily accessed by the students as they work independently. In addition, they are expanding the approach into the electronics course at the four-year institution and incorporating it into simialr courses at a near-by community college. Evaluation efforts are using student and faculty surveys, special performance tests, and focus groups to monitor the project's progress with guidance from a nationally recognized external expert. Instructional materials and results are being disseminated through journal publications and conference presentations and through arrangements with a major publisher. The broader impacts include the dissemination of the material and the strong connection with a community college.