Experiential Learning: The Heart of a Successful Education - One Journey Through Graduate School

Lynn Albers is a Ph.D. candidate in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at North Carolina State University with a passion for Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and K-20 Engineering Education. Albers has been active in ASEE since 2008 when she presented her first conference paper with Althea Smith in the K-12 and Pre-College Division. Since then, she has authored or co-authored nine ASEE conference papers spanning the K-12 and Pre-College, Mechanical, Minority, and Energy Conversion and Conservation Divisions; presenting all of them with the exception of one paper in 2010 when she was double-booked. Albers most recently held the position of project coordinator for the ARRA funded Student Energy Internship Program in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at NCSU. She mentored and coordinated 60+ interns with energy professionals in the private and public sectors and recruited interns to volunteer at Family STEM Nights. Prior to this experience, she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow in K-12 Education working under the direction of Liz Parry, Dr. Laura Bottomley and Dr. Karen Hollebrands in the RAMP-UP program at NCSU. During this tenure she created Energy Clubs for students in grades 3-5. Albers is passionate about experiential learning and strongly encourages the inclusion of hands-on activities into a curriculum. Her dissertation spans the Colleges of Engineering and Education and quantifies the effects of hands-on activities in an engineering lecture.