A New Role for the Undergraduate Engineering Laboratory

Ernst, Edward W.

doi:10.1109/te.1983.4321598

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…The laboratory demonstrator undertakes teaching in a laboratory environment and is especially used throughout science and engineering. In 1983 it was observed that it was becoming increasingly rare to find professors in the laboratory [25]. Thirty years later this trend has continued with over 71% of laboratory demonstrators in the USA being sessional [26].…”

Section: The Laboratory Demonstratormentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Laboratory Learning Experience: A Process to Train and Manage Teaching Assistants

et al. 2015

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This paper describes in detail a successful training program developed for sessional (part-time or nonpermanent) laboratory demonstrators employed in the Electrical Engineering Department of an Australian university. Such demonstrators play an important role in teaching practical concepts and skills in engineering. The success of the program relies on a centralized approach coordinated by a carefully selected Laboratory Manager responsible for the recruitment, allocation, training, and development of sessional teachers, and for assessing student satisfaction with them. The paper examines the overall impact of the program on these teachers': 1) introducing laboratory material; 2) preparation; 3) communication; 4) interest in student learning; 5) ability to respond to questions; and 6) overall effectiveness. Sessional teacher satisfaction with the training program is also examined, and the data were used to inform the program's further development. The results show that the training program successfully improved the demonstrators' teaching skills and thus led to greater satisfaction and hence learning experience of both students and demonstrators.

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Section: The Laboratory Demonstratormentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Laboratory Learning Experience: A Process to Train and Manage Teaching Assistants

et al. 2015

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“…This includes instrumentation and measurement theory." (Ernst, 1983). The wind tunnel is one such instrument.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Tunnels in Engineering Education

Libii

2011

Wind Tunnels and Experimental Fluid Dynamics Research

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“…They decry the dearth of literature on learning objectives associated with instructional engineering laboratories. In any earlier paper, Ernst [2] proposed as objectives that students "should learn how to be an experimenter", that the lab "be a place for the student to learn new and developing subject matter", and that the lab course "help the student gain insight and understanding of the real world". As indicated above, this was not our experience in general.…”

Section: "Education's What's Left Over After You've Forgotten Everythmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lasting Laboratory Lessons

Frommer¹,

Crilly²

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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As stated by Alexander Pope, "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Scientists and engineers will readily attest, a superficial knowledge of the theory can make us think we have more expertise than we really do, and thus at best will make us to look foolish and at worse cause tragic consequences. This paper describes the experience of a student who is able to perform well in courses in the physical sciences and engineering as indicated by grades, but who completes this education with only a shallow understanding of the subject. For the student, there remain gaps between theory and practice, and numerous assumptions necessary for a deep understanding are missing. We offer a solution to this problem in the form of a new approach to lab courses that emphasizes relevancy to the student and student participation in devising the lab. We maintain that labs designed with these two elements in mind, along with a set of guiding principles we discuss, increase the likelihood of deep and lasting learning in the student. We close with a proposal to implement labs of this nature not only in engineering and physical science courses, but in certain mathematics courses as well, with the intention of deepening student learning and retention of mathematical concepts.

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A New Role for the Undergraduate Engineering Laboratory

Cited by 56 publications

References 1 publication

Improving the Laboratory Learning Experience: A Process to Train and Manage Teaching Assistants

Improving the Laboratory Learning Experience: A Process to Train and Manage Teaching Assistants

Wind Tunnels in Engineering Education

Lasting Laboratory Lessons

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