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Introduction to Engineering Lab
Introduction to Engineering Lab
This course provides an introduction to engineering, including fundamentals of engineering study, different engineering disciplines, and interdisciplinary aspects of engineering. The laboratory will provide students with hands-on experience of engineering design and open-ended problem solving. The lab focuses on introducing aspects of the different engineering disciplines and allowing students to gain experience with each of the engineering disciplines. Engineering designs will be developed in a team-based environment utilizing visuals, written text, and oral presentation. Together with the ENGR 1 lecture, these courses fulfill the SCU Science, Technology, & Society core requirement.
Course Purpose and Organization
Course Purpose and Organization
The primary purpose of this lab is for students to gain hands-on experience with the engineering design process, with working in teams on technical problems, and to communicate their results effectively. In addition, students get an introduction into each of the 5 engineering disciplines offered here at SCU.
Teamwork
Working in teams is an expected and regular part of engineering. Engineering solutions often involve a significant amount of teamwork, which can increasingly involve a broad range of disciplines to solve today’s complex engineering challenges. Therefore, I strongly advocate the development of teamwork skills through peer learning, small group exercises, and group design projects.
It is crucial that even at this first class in engineering at Santa Clara that students are introduced to teamwork and begin to build their team skills. In this lab course, students are placed on a team immediately and asked to complete activities in-class the first session. Team size is typically 3 members, but occasionally pairs are made (to avoid going to 4 person teams which have historically been to be less effective for learning these concepts). Importantly, teams stay together throughout the quarter. This allows for student teams to have time to work past the forming and storming stages of team development. By the end of the quarter, student teams have reached norming and performing stages and are able to work together effectively. Teamwork throughout the quarter is also monitored through the use of weekly timecards through DEFT that contain a brief peer review assessment and also through in-class mid-quarter team reflections.
Example of instructors view of peer ratings (updated every week)
The five stages of team development
Excerpt from the Team Reflections exercise
Direct comparison of the scientific method and engineering design process after active learning teamwork exercise.
Slide comparing how engineers and consumers approach a design solution
Engineering Design
The Introduction to Engineering Lab is the first time most engineering students will be exposed (formally) to the engineering design process. I build bridges between what the students do know - the scientific method (all students have had science in high school) - and what they likely don't - the engineering design process. This is done actively through team participation and board work. The slide at the end of this exercise that directly compares them is shown!
Once the steps of the process are identified, a real-world example is used to bring the design process to life. This example shows how the same project definition and constraints could lead to completely different solutions when you consider the customer/client. In this case, a water supply to provide clean water is used as the design prompt, and the consumer is first in Santa Clara and then in rural Haiti.
Teams efforts in design and project work are reviewed through the DEFT software.
Communication
In this lab course, student teams have a variety of deliverables they need to complete. Since the engineering students are largely visual learners (over 90% are moderate to strong visual learners), many of the communication methods are visual. Some examples of team deliverables with a strong visual component include graphical build instructions, virtual poster presentations, concept maps, and 1-slide summaries. These organizational and communications skills are invaluable for engineers. Some examples of student work are shown.
Discipline Introduction
This course serves as an introduction to the engineering disciplines offered here at SCU. In most cases, the discipline is featured as part of a larger conversation around the multidisciplinary importance of understanding common skills of engineers, and in relation to the courses that they will take in the future as they progress in their chosen majors.
An example course timeline is shown with the expected week of focus for each discipline listed (for Spring 2018).
- Bioengineering (week 3)
- Civil, Environmental, and Sustainability Engineering (weeks 1-2)
- Computer Science and Engineering (weeks 7-10)
- Electrical and Computer Engineering (weeks 6-10)
- Mechanical Engineering (week 5)
An additional lab topics is Frugal Innovation (week 4), and two final project work weeks are implemented at the end of the quarter so students can put the design process to work on an open-ended project of their choice!
Key Lab Activities
Key Lab Activities
Robot Show
The end-of-quarter robot is a major design project where student teams design and construct an Arduino-controlled machine. The robot is built partially from components supplied by us and also from purchased or "found" materials which students procure on your own. The robot must meet the design criteria and be delivered for a public presentation during finals week. Overall, the robot, upon pushing a start button, must do ‘something interesting’ for a period of time after which it must complete its action(s) autonomously and be reset in order to repeat the action(s). The definition of ‘something interesting’ is completely up to the students, but at a minimum must involve some kind of motion which can be seen from a reasonable distance (10 ft). Along with motion, the machine may emit sound, light, or anything else that is appropriate. It is up to each team whether the machine does something "useful", or whether it exists only to amuse, delight, or otherwise amaze the audience.
This culminating project proves to be very challenging, largely given the time frame, but also very engaging to the students as they can design and build anything they like. We work hard to scaffold the skills they need to complete this project throughout the course, with extra emphasis on the design process around weeks 8-10. The show itself is very successful. We invite alumni, industrial judges, and faculty to act as judges and review the projects in a science fair-style setup. The judges are always very impressed with the students creativity and final projects!
The SCALE-UP lab classroom in the weeks leading up to the robot show!
Student team at the robot show, showing off their robot!
Extra Points Opportunities
In this introduction to engineering lab course, there is a variety of student backgrounds, skill sets, and familiarity with lab topics and activities. As instructors, we must balance those who have taken an 'intro to engineering' type course before or worked on high school robotics teams, with those who have had no exposure at all. Placing students on teams is one way to keep students engaged, as peer learning is an effective way to teaching these concepts. In fact, since moving to the SCALE-UP classroom in Alameda Hall, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of peer learning!
An additional way to mitigate these differences in abilities is to offer challenges in the form of extra points opportunities. These could be activities such as the paper circuit shown where individual students can be introduced to electrical concepts in a creative way, or they could be artistic efforts such as the robot poster competition for the robot show. More often, extra points opportunities are related to lab activities to further challenge their abilities. For example, we have an LED flasher activity that follows the 'Circuits' unit where LEDs are first introduced. As part of this lab, there are extra points available if students go above and beyond what we've taught them and they implement arrays of LEDs to accomplish specific lighting patterns (see video). This not only gives students something to strive towards, but also keeps them interested if the material is something they've experienced before.
The other added benefit that all extra points opportunities can be done individually. In general, for circuit and programming extra points, students can also work with TinkerCAD to simulate their code and circuits as an additional learning element, without the need to take kits home to physically build. Often students who are high achievers, may be on teams with those who are less high achievers, this gives them a method to increase their own grades to where they have expectations for themselves. This helps team storming stages lead to effective norming and performing stages. Students also use the extra points to better understand the concepts or if they simply want the additional challenge.
Example Course Materials
Example Course Materials
If you are looking for more details including learning outcomes, grading policies, etc. or more information about how the course is structured (timeline). See resources below!
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