The use of Engineering laboratories for teaching Physics

Octavio Mattasoglio; Thiago de Assis Augusto; Fabio Sadao Sato

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Engineering Physics and Physics Division (EP2D) Technical Session 3
Tagged Division: Engineering Physics and Physics Division (EP2D)
Page Count: 14
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/57275

Paper Authors

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Octavio Mattasoglio Neto Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia orcid.org/0000-0001-7812-8491

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Undergraduate in Physics (1983), Master in Science (1989) and Phd in Education (1998) all of them from Universidade de São Paulo. Professor of Physics at Mauá Institute of Technology, since 1994 and President of Teacher's Academy at the same Institution.

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Thiago de Assis Augusto Maua Institute of Technology

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Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (2016), Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, in the area of Materials and Processes (2019), from the FEI University Center, and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Federal University of São Carlos (2023). Coordination assistant at Maua Technology Institute since March 2024.

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Fabio Sadao Sato

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Abstract

The aim of this work is to present experiences in using engineering laboratories for teaching Physics. The Physics teacher team of an engineering educational institution in Brazil has been striving to align the subject with real-life situations experienced in engineering laboratories. These laboratories are rich in applied physics, and these applications can be the key to giving meaning, motivating, and engaging students in Physics course. The institution where this project is being developed has over a hundred laboratories, surpassing the number of traditional classrooms, and also has a research center that provides services to various sectors of society, conducting tests and research in Engineering. The challenge is: how to utilize these engineering laboratories in the teaching of Physics? When students enter an engineering course, they are eager to practice engineering from the start, and often feel unmotivated when faced with Physics that is not well contextualized within the course. With this need for contextualization in mind, coupled with teachers' awareness, the aim was to find a set of experiences that would put students in contact with the Physics found in engineering laboratories. To develop this proposal, the team began prospecting in the institution's laboratories, aiming to identify processes and phenomena that could be studied from the perspective of Physics concepts and laws. Five laboratories were selected to start the project: Materials Resistance, Baja Motor, Fab Lab, Production Line in the Digital Manufacturing Laboratory, and the Robotics Laboratory. As approximately 300 students enroll each year, the proposal is for student teams to work in one of the school's laboratories. With this division, about 60 students would be involved in each chosen laboratory as the host laboratory. In the classroom, each class is composed of a maximum of six teams of up to five students, ensuring that each team in each class would work in one of the host engineering laboratories. Each team should collect data in the host laboratory, describe the process, identify the Physics concepts involved in modeling the phenomenon, present collected data and achieved results, highlighting potential engineering applications. Furthermore, each team should prepare a short video of no more than seven minutes, showing the phenomenon in the host laboratory and reporting on the work done. This video will complement the presentation each team will give at the end of the semester to the entire class, ensuring the sharing of experiences with other students. To assess learning in this project, students will take a pre-test and a post-test on the concepts and physical modeling related to the phenomenon studied in the host laboratory. Additionally, a questionnaire will be administered to gauge students' and teachers' perceptions of the work proposal. The theoretical foundation of this project is Ausubel's meaningful learning, which fosters the creation of a cognitive structure that gives meaning to new knowledge. The purpose of presenting this work at the conference is to share the structure of this project and the initial results achieved.

Citation
Format

Mattasoglio, O., & de Assis Augusto, T., & Sato, F. S. (2025, June), The use of Engineering laboratories for teaching Physics Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/57275

TY - CPAPER
AB - The aim of this work is to present experiences in using engineering laboratories for teaching Physics. The Physics teacher team of an engineering educational institution in Brazil has been striving to align the subject with real-life situations experienced in engineering laboratories. These laboratories are rich in applied physics, and these applications can be the key to giving meaning, motivating, and engaging students in Physics course. The institution where this project is being developed has over a hundred laboratories, surpassing the number of traditional classrooms, and also has a research center that provides services to various sectors of society, conducting tests and research in Engineering. The challenge is: how to utilize these engineering laboratories in the teaching of Physics? When students enter an engineering course, they are eager to practice engineering from the start, and often feel unmotivated when faced with Physics that is not well contextualized within the course. With this need for contextualization in mind, coupled with teachers&#39; awareness, the aim was to find a set of experiences that would put students in contact with the Physics found in engineering laboratories. To develop this proposal, the team began prospecting in the institution&#39;s laboratories, aiming to identify processes and phenomena that could be studied from the perspective of Physics concepts and laws. Five laboratories were selected to start the project: Materials Resistance, Baja Motor, Fab Lab, Production Line in the Digital Manufacturing Laboratory, and the Robotics Laboratory. As approximately 300 students enroll each year, the proposal is for student teams to work in one of the school&#39;s laboratories. With this division, about 60 students would be involved in each chosen laboratory as the host laboratory. In the classroom, each class is composed of a maximum of six teams of up to five students, ensuring that each team in each class would work in one of the host engineering laboratories. Each team should collect data in the host laboratory, describe the process, identify the Physics concepts involved in modeling the phenomenon, present collected data and achieved results, highlighting potential engineering applications. Furthermore, each team should prepare a short video of no more than seven minutes, showing the phenomenon in the host laboratory and reporting on the work done. This video will complement the presentation each team will give at the end of the semester to the entire class, ensuring the sharing of experiences with other students. To assess learning in this project, students will take a pre-test and a post-test on the concepts and physical modeling related to the phenomenon studied in the host laboratory. Additionally, a questionnaire will be administered to gauge students&#39; and teachers&#39; perceptions of the work proposal. The theoretical foundation of this project is Ausubel&#39;s meaningful learning, which fosters the creation of a cognitive structure that gives meaning to new knowledge. The purpose of presenting this work at the conference is to share the structure of this project and the initial results achieved.
AU - Octavio Mattasoglio Neto
AU - Thiago de Assis Augusto
AU - Fabio Sadao Sato
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The use of Engineering laboratories for teaching Physics
UR - https://peer.asee.org/57275
ER -