Minneapolis, MN
August 23, 2022
June 26, 2022
June 29, 2022
14
10.18260/1-2--40779
https://peer.asee.org/40779
361
Ms. Ngo is pursuing her bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at MIT with a minor in Computer Science. She worked at LEAP Group under Dr. John Liu and Emily Welsh from 2020 to 2021, developing augmented reality experiences for nanotechnology education. Her interests include innovating education technology, as well as exploring new applications of computer vision. She hopes to merge her background in mechanical engineering with computer science to create new modes of digital experiences.
Ms. Welsh works as an educational technologist in the LEAP Group at MIT. Her work includes the development and running of MOOCs, the development of digital education tools, and researching how digital tools impact learning. Her background is in mechanical engineering with a focus on manufacturing. Prior to joining MIT, she worked at an original equipment manufacturer.
Dr. John Liu is the principal investigator of the MIT Learning Engineering and Practice (LEAP) Group, which applies design and systems principles to solving challenges in learning and develops learning experiences to better meet the increasing demand for STEM skills in tomorrow’s workforce. He is a Lecturer in MIT's Mechanical Engineering department and Scientist of the MITx Digital Learning Laboratory. Dr. Liu's work includes engineering education, mixed reality and haptic experiences, workforce solutions to address the nation-wide manufacturing skills gap, open-ended assessments for scalable education settings, and instructional design theory for massively open online courses.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) can serve as a gateway for introducing students to the nanoscale world. Traditional instruction for the SEM may be broken into two parts: concept-based instruction on how an electron interacts with various materials, and skills-based instruction on the operation of the SEM. A disconnect can arise between fundamental atomic-level concepts and hands-on lab skills as students may have a tendency to treat the SEM as a “black box”. This tendency comes from the enclosed nature of the SEM that renders its inner workings inaccessible to visual inspection and tactile exploration. By addressing these instructional gaps, we aim to promote mastery of SEM imaging techniques through a more complete understanding of SEM operation and electron beam theory. Augmented Reality (AR) is a promising medium to help students visualize these concepts because of its ability to display and manipulate virtual objects in a realistic context.
We present the pedagogy, design and development, and initial course implementation of a vision-based AR app to teach the architecture and working principles of the SEM. The app enables learners to “look into” the SEM and examine in 3D the different subassemblies of the SEM, visualize mechanical and electromagnetic phenomena within the SEM, and probe how these phenomena are affected by commonly-used imaging parameters such as working distance and magnification. This app has now been released into an undergraduate-level laboratory class (“Micro/Nano Engineering Laboratory”) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Students were assessed before and after the learning activity to measure cognitive and affective outcomes (N=5). The development of the assessment and analysis are reported. Results suggest that this visually-rich approach is motivating for students and can promote proficiency in SEM imaging.
Ngo, M., & Welsh, E., & Comeau, B., & Fang, N., & Liu, J., & Studer, K. (2022, August), Opening Up the Black Box: an Augmented Reality Look into the Scanning Electron Microscope Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40779
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