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Development of Engineering Laboratory Projects for General Education Engineering Courses

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Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Technological Literacy for Undergraduate Students

Tagged Division

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

Page Count

22

Page Numbers

22.493.1 - 22.493.22

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17774

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17774

Download Count

365

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Paper Authors

biography

John Krupczak Hope College

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Professor of Engineering, Hope College, Holland, MI 49423

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Lauren Aprill

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Abstract

Development of Engineering Laboratory Projects for General Education Engineering CoursesA group from engineering programs at both four and two year colleges has developedlaboratory modules with an emphasis on activities and perspectives shown to besuccessful in technological literacy courses for non-engineering students. To meet theneeds of community college engineering programs, the logistical and commercialfeasibility of shipping boxes or palettes of equipment was investigated. This will allowcommunity colleges to borrow, rent, or lease rather than own the equipment. Theselaboratories are suitable for use in either introduction to engineering or technologicalliteracy courses. The laboratories attempt to utilize insights from non-engineeringstudents to determine themes that may enliven introduction to engineering courses.Beginning engineering students may have interests more closely aligned with their non-engineer peers than current engineering professionals. Technological literacy courses ona number of campuses have found that non-engineers respond positively to material that afocuses on technology familiar to the students in their everyday life, use extensive verbaland graphical explanations, and include useful information that helps to establish a senseof empowerment regarding technology. Eight laboratory projects were created and testedboth with non-engineering students and students enrolled in introduction to engineeringclasses. Projects include building and testing common technological devices such asspeakers, amplifiers, motors, and a photovoltaic battery charger. Testing was based oncontent tests administered to the students before and after completing the project. Thiswork was supported by the National Science Foundation under award: DUE-xxxxxxx.

Krupczak, J., & Aprill, L. (2011, June), Development of Engineering Laboratory Projects for General Education Engineering Courses Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17774

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