First year Mechatronics students at the University of Waterloo consistently do not see the connection between their fundamental math and science courses with the practise of engineering. To address this issue, the first year instructors came together to launch a two day Hackathon style project for the students called Tron Days. Tron Days featured small warm up problems dealing with advanced concepts in each of the courses, and big problems that drew from all of the first year courses. The challenges only had communication marks associated with them and provided an opportunity for sustained engagement with the concepts. The metrics used to measure the event showed that it was successful at addressing the desired outcomes, but could be further enhanced to address more material.
At the University of Waterloo, students from many non-electrical engineering programs are required totake basic circuits courses. These courses are often disliked by students who do not see their relevance andcannot contextualize the material. In 2019 a new version of this course was developed to cater to the specific needs of civil engineering students. The new course was based around teaching civil engineers circuit theory through relevant examples and focusing on the content that civil engineers would reasonably be expected to see in the field. Lab exercises were developed to encourage independent capacity in circuit building and deep understanding of sensors and instrumentation. Student satisfaction with the course and performance on assessments has increased with the changes.
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