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

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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.