Lasting Laboratory Lessons
- Conference
- Location
-
New Orleans, Louisiana
- Publication Date
-
June 26, 2016
- Start Date
-
June 26, 2016
- End Date
-
June 29, 2016
- ISBN
-
978-0-692-68565-5
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Engineering Physics & Physics
- Tagged Topic
-
Diversity
- Page Count
-
10
- DOI
-
10.18260/p.25516
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/25516
- Download Count
-
551
Paper Authors
Ian Frommer US Coast Guard Academy
Dr. Ian Frommer is an associate professor of mathematics at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. He earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Maryland and his A.B. degree in astronomy and physics from Harvard College. At the Coast Guard Academy he teaches a wide range of courses in mathematics and operations research, and is an active advisor in the senior capstone course. His research interests include the application of mathematics and operations research to sustainability and music.
Paul Benjamin Crilly U.S. Coast Guard Academy
Paul Crilly is an Professor of Electrical Engineering at the United States Coast Guard Academy. He is also an adjunct math instructor at the University of Connecticut. He received his Ph.D. from New Mexico State University, his M. S. and B.S. degrees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, all in Electrical Engineering. He was previously an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Tennessee and was a Development Engineer at the Hewlett Packard Company. His areas of interest include laboratory development, antennas, wireless communications, signal processing, and instrumentation.
Abstract
Abstract - As stated by Alexander Pope, “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Scientists and engineers will readily attest, a superficial knowledge of the theory can make us think we have more expertise than we really do, and thus at best will make us to look foolish and at worse cause tragic consequences. This paper describes the experience of a student who is able to perform well in courses in the physical sciences and engineering as indicated by grades, but who completes this education with only a shallow understanding of the subject. For the student, there remain gaps between theory and practice, and numerous assumptions necessary for a deep understanding are missing. We offer a solution to this problem in the form of a new approach to lab courses that emphasizes relevancy to the student and student participation in devising the lab. We maintain that labs designed with these two elements in mind, along with a set of guiding principles we discuss, increase the likelihood of deep and lasting learning in the student. We close with a proposal to implement labs of this nature not only in engineering and physical science courses, but in certain mathematics courses as well, with the intention of deepening student learning and retention of mathematical concepts.
Frommer, I., & Crilly, P. B. (2016, June), Lasting Laboratory Lessons Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.25516
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2016 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015