Field Trips: An Innovative Approach In Teaching 'manufacturing Processes' To Traditional Undergraduates

Teaching manufacturing processes to undergraduates with industrial and mechanical engineering majors poses a challenge, in that, students have little background from which to begin building their knowledge. Comparing and contrasting different processes becomes just another ‘book’ problem to solve and/or visualization of the processes is problematical for many students. A ‘learning beyond the classroom’ experience of industrial field trips has been implemented for four years as a regular class activity and integral part of student learning. The industries selected are local to the college and four field trips per semester are scheduled during regular class time to assure participation of the entire class. Key to this learning experience is that all trips are scheduled to coincide with topics being covered in class. Students are able to ‘see’ the technology presented in the text, establish a dialogue with the company’s engineer and use their observations in class discussions. Small notepads are provided to each student to encourage note taking, improve retention of process details, and provide an opportunity for a student to roleplay, as a practicing engineer. A formal trip report is required and comprised of questions regarding the process technology and products manufactured at the facility. A key question on each trip report states, “What resources, i.e., information and people, would you request if you were a new engineer at this company?” In class, this question sparks discussion and to provides a link between the student’s pre-professional experience and their future in the real world. The feedback from the students has been overwhelmingly positive. Assessment of student learning and basic knowledge is evidenced by the significant improvement in quality of the class discussions and the technical content in the trip reports. The feedback from industry has also been positive and their cooperation has been an asset to this activity.