Initial Impact of an Experiment-centric Teaching Approach in Several STEM Disciplines

Abstract

and a joint Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University and UMDNJ. Dr. Ladeji-Osias' involvement in engineering curricular innovations includes adapting portal laboratory instrumentation into experiments from multiple STEM disciplines. She enjoys observing the intellectual and professional growth in students as they prepare for engineering careers.

Utilization of Real-Life Hands-On Pedagogy to Motivate Undergraduate Students in Grasping Transportation Related Concepts

“…Figure 1 summarized the well-developed module structure where ECP is implemented and divided into four sections, and which was elaborated by Ladeji-Osias [13]. At the senior level, five modules were studied in the Highway Engineering course, comprising Principles of Highway Drainage, Soil Properties, Earthwork Calculations, Geometric Design, and Intersection.…”

“…ECP is a teaching method that integrates with multiple stem disciplines while measuring student success outcomes. ECP integrates technology with curriculum creation and innovative pedagogies to enable hands-on activities, experiential learning, and group work [13]. Overall, hands-on pedagogy utilizes portable multifunction instruments to substitute larger laboratory instruments to achieve interactive learning and long-term knowledge retention [8].…”

Preliminary Experience and Impact of Experiment-focused Teaching Approach in a Computer Architecture Course in Computer Science

“…Other versions of the Mobile Studio Board have been developed and are currently in use in universities worldwide, including India, Greece, Austria, Germany, Mexico, and Malaysia. Several research papers [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] have found that hands-on learning via mobile studio platforms such as the Mobile Studio Board (MSB) and the Analog Discovery Board (ADB) can help students with diverse learning styles, demographics, and academic backgrounds learn better. There are now several commercial products, such as Analog Devices Inc.'s ADALM 1000 board (ADALM 1K) and ADALM 2000 board (ADALM 2K), Digilent's Analog Discovery 2TM, and Quanser's QUBE-Servo portable platform, that allow students to conduct control engineering experiments.…”

“…Given the difficulty, if not impossibility, of obtaining hands-on experience in a traditional lab setting in a CS department, portable hardware platforms could provide a tremendous opportunity to supplement or replace hands-on laboratories. Despite the fact that ECP is widely used in other engineering and STEM disciplines [6,[10][11], our focus is on gaining specific insights into how ECP using a portable device plays out when applied to CS. This paper presents preliminary findings from the development, implementation, and expansion of ECP using the commercial ADALM 1K [27] in a computer architecture course at a university serving predominantly African American students in an urban setting for the first time.…”

Comparison of the Effectiveness of In-Person and Remote Labs for Undergraduate Physics Students at an HBC

“…Experiment-centric pedagogy (ECP) is a new teaching methodology that makes use of the hands-on device to engage, motivate, increase curiosity, and increase the success rate of students. It was discovered that using hands-on equipment through experiment-centric pedagogy (ECP) to teach a variety of STEM subjects remotely demonstrates a good influence of this teaching pedagogy on students' motivation, curiosity, and success rate [3], [4].…”