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Testing Students’ Knowledge Gain in an Active Learning “Lab-similar” Environment Through Pre- and Post-lab Questionnaires

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Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

ET Pedagogy III

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--35290

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/35290

Download Count

453

Paper Authors

biography

Maher Shehadi Purdue University

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Dr. Shehadi is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) at Purdue University. His academic experiences have focused on learning and discovery in areas related to HVAC, indoor air quality, human thermal comfort, and energy conservation. While working with industry, he oversaw maintenance and management programs for various facilities including industrial plants, high rise residential and commercial buildings, energy audits and condition surveys for various mechanical and electrical and systems. He has conducted several projects to reduce carbon dioxide and other building emission impacts by evaluating and improving the energy practices through the integration of sustainable systems with existing systems. His current research focuses on engaging and educating students in sustainable and green buildings' design and energy conservation. He is currently investigating various ways to reduce energy consumption in office buildings.

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Abstract

In a recent paper, five interactive activities were added to Applied Fluid Mechanics course (MET31300) offered at XXX School of Engineering Technology. The previous paper was presented and published in the 126th ASEE Annual conference in Tampa, Florida. The paper presented challenges accompanied with active learning techniques, presented the proposed activities along with a case study where the activities were applied. Students’ scores were compared at the end of the semester with other classes who took the course with no active learning activities. The proposed activities were applied in two consecutive years and the students’ performance was assessed and compared to another group when no active learning activities were used. To further investigate the direct effect of each activity on students’ knowledge, the proposed activities presented in the previous paper were repeated in the same course (Applied Fluid Mechanics) but checking students’ knowledge of certain topics before and after conducting or completing the activity. Pro-lab and post lab questionnaire were handed to students during the lab session and they were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire without using the textbook, notes or other online sources. Ten questionnaires were designed, five to test students’ knowledge prior and five after each lab. The questions given in the post lab questionnaires were relatively at a higher level of difficulty than those given in the pre lab questionnaires. The percent increase in the average scores for all labs range between 22-75%. The percent increase or improvement was seen to increase through the labs from lab 1 to 5; a trend that would require further investigation to see if it was related to improved performance as the course progressed or due to more familiarity in one topic than the other.

Shehadi, M. (2020, June), Testing Students’ Knowledge Gain in an Active Learning “Lab-similar” Environment Through Pre- and Post-lab Questionnaires Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35290

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