Applications Of Real Time Sensors In The Freshman Engineering Classroom

Clemson’s NSF-sponsored EXPerimental Engineering in Real-Time (EXPERT) project is designed to assess the efficacy of using real-time sensors in freshman engineering classes. We wish to determine if use of these devices enhances student understanding of both physical concepts and graphical representations of those phenomena. Where parallel activities can be designed (one set with and one set without real-time sensors), the relative performance of students conducting sensor-based laboratories will help isolate the pedagogical benefit of using the sensors. It is also clear that the sensors are particularly useful in cases where no parallel educational design can be devised—situations in which it is either not possible to collect enough data quickly without sensors or in which dynamic measurement can be used to provide additional information regarding even an apparently static problem. The use of sensors to measure rapidly changing quantities is well known, and marked the widespread