Great Ideas for Teaching Students (GIFTS): Developing Students Through a “Design a Lab” Exercise

Roger J Marino; Gabriel R Burks; Matthew N VanKouwenberg; Brandon B. Terranova

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2018 FYEE Conference
Location: Glassboro, New Jersey
Publication Date: July 24, 2018
Start Date: July 24, 2018
End Date: July 26, 2018
Conference Session: Technical Session IX
Tagged Topics: Diversity and FYEE Conference Sessions
Page Count: 5
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--31418
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/31418
Download Count: 304

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Roger J Marino P.E. Drexel University

visit author page

Roger Marino is an Associate Teaching Professor in the College of Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia Pennsylvania. His home Department is Civil Architectural and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Marino has 30+ years of field experience, and is licensed as a Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey. His primary focus at Drexel is in the Freshman and Sophomore curriculums teaching courses across all disciplines.

visit author page

biography

Gabriel R Burks Drexel University orcid.org/0000-0003-0985-0450

visit author page

Gabriel Burks holds his PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from Drexel University, where his primary research focus was polymer physics and crystallization. He completed his Baccalaureate Degree in Physics with a minor in Chemistry from Grambling State University. Gabriel was a three year National Science Foundation GK-12 STEM Fellow, where he taught in partnering high school classrooms in the School District of Philadelphia. Gabriel’s educational passion is providing access to under-served groups and bridging community and higher education institution gaps. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Bioengineering Department at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he focuses on STEM education assessment, reform, and educational psychology.

visit author page

biography

Matthew N VanKouwenberg Drexel University

visit author page

Matthew N VanKouwenberg is a Master Teacher with Drexel’s DragonsTeach program. He has helped students develop methods for cleaning water and sustainably generating electricity and heat locally and around the world through programs including Engineers Without Borders. He has also led and assisted in teacher professional development efforts centered upon authentic projects for USAID and the US government in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America.

visit author page

biography

Brandon B. Terranova Drexel University

visit author page

Dr. Terranova is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the College of Engineering at Drexel University. In his current role, he is the lead instructor for the freshman engineering program, and oversees activities in the Innovation Studio, a large-area academic makerspace. He has taught and developed courses in general engineering and mechanical engineering at Drexel. Prior to Drexel, he has taught and developed courses in physics and mathematics at SUNY Binghamton, University of Delaware, Missouri Online College, and St. Mark’s High School. Dr. Terranova’s research interests include plasmonics, optical tweezing, photonics, electromagnetism, and engineering education. He received his MS in Physics from SUNY Binghamton, and his PhD in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Electrophysics from Drexel University for his work in 3D plasmonic nanostructures.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

In an effort to improve existing skills (and/or to develop new ones) of First Year Engineering students, student teams consisting of either three or four members were tasked with creating and designing a teaching experiment that demonstrated engineering principles for a target population of either high school or middle school students. The teams were presented with considerations of constraints such as: budgets for materials; classroom restrictions of space and time; quantity of class population served; ease of construction; and durability/ robustness of design. The First Year students navigated through the project using Guided Inquiry provided by an Instructional Team. The Instructional Team consisted of: a Teaching Professor; a STEM Education Specialist and two PhD Candidate Students.

Most students began the project with: ill-defined objectives; a lack of understanding of their target audience (and no consideration of the intellectual level of that audience); a lack of understanding of how to engage their target audience (relevancy, enthusiasm; fun); inhibited "free-thinking" conceptual/ ideation skills; no understanding of the creative process (including the use of the Engineering Design Process and decision matrices); limited understanding of the research component of a new idea (Does it exist already? If so, how do you make your idea novel, or improve on an existing idea that is not fully developed?); limited group interaction skills (and how to act as an equal member of the group including conflict resolution); and limited oral and written presentation skills. Students subsequently developed these skills (to various degrees) through the duration of the course. The Conceptualization-through-Implementation Phase of the Project followed an existing, recognized Product Development format developed by Karl Ullrich and Steven D. Eppinger of the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, a Communications Professor was brought into the classroom to present a session on "Effective Oral Presentations" to help the students develop their presentation skills.

The results of the exercise were positive – with measured outcomes being encouraging. Additionally, the students commented in their end-of-term evaluations that they believed the greatest benefit to them was the “team teaching” by the members of the Instructional Team, who provided weekly monitoring and mentoring. This paper will also present the components of the course – which can be adapted by the reader for implementation in their own course.

Citation
Format

Marino, R. J., & Burks, G. R., & VanKouwenberg, M. N., & Terranova, B. B. (2018, July), Great Ideas for Teaching Students (GIFTS): Developing Students Through a “Design a Lab” Exercise Paper presented at 2018 FYEE Conference, Glassboro, New Jersey. 10.18260/1-2--31418

TY - CPAPER
AB - In an effort to improve existing skills (and/or to develop new ones) of First Year Engineering students, student teams consisting of either three or four members were tasked with creating and designing a teaching experiment that demonstrated engineering principles for a target population of either high school or middle school students. The teams were presented with considerations of constraints such as: budgets for materials; classroom restrictions of space and time; quantity of class population served; ease of construction; and durability/ robustness of design. The First Year students navigated through the project using Guided Inquiry provided by an Instructional Team. The Instructional Team consisted of: a Teaching Professor; a STEM Education Specialist and two PhD Candidate Students.

Most students began the project with: ill-defined objectives; a lack of understanding of their target audience (and no consideration of the intellectual level of that audience); a lack of understanding of how to engage their target audience (relevancy, enthusiasm; fun); inhibited &quot;free-thinking&quot; conceptual/ ideation skills; no understanding of the creative process (including the use of the Engineering Design Process and decision matrices); limited understanding of the research component of a new idea (Does it exist already? If so, how do you make your idea novel, or improve on an existing idea that is not fully developed?); limited group interaction skills (and how to act as an equal member of the group including conflict resolution); and limited oral and written presentation skills. Students subsequently developed these skills (to various degrees) through the duration of the course. The Conceptualization-through-Implementation Phase of the Project followed an existing, recognized Product Development format developed by Karl Ullrich and Steven D. Eppinger of the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, a Communications Professor was brought into the classroom to present a session on &quot;Effective Oral Presentations&quot; to help the students develop their presentation skills.

The results of the exercise were positive – with measured outcomes being encouraging. Additionally, the students commented in their end-of-term evaluations that they believed the greatest benefit to them was the “team teaching” by the members of the Instructional Team, who provided weekly monitoring and mentoring. This paper will also present the components of the course – which can be adapted by the reader for implementation in their own course.

AU - Roger J Marino P.E.
AU - Gabriel R Burks
AU - Matthew N VanKouwenberg
AU - Brandon B. Terranova
CY - Glassboro, New Jersey
DA - 2018/07/24
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Great Ideas for Teaching Students (GIFTS): Developing Students Through a “Design a Lab” Exercise
UR - https://peer.asee.org/31418
DO - 10.18260/1-2--31418
ER -