Preparing Freshmen For Future Energy Issues

In recent years, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has revised its Introductory Engineering Design Course from a traditional lecture and design on paper course to an active learning environment featuring a variety of hands on activities and project based learning. Each week, students attend not only lectures with a university professor but also a hands-on discussion section led by a specifically selected teaching fellow (TF) whom has recently completed similar coursework. During the discussion sections, students are grouped into diverse, interdisciplinary, and academically-balanced teams to emphasize the importance of teamwork and communication in engineering fields. Throughout the semester, the teams are required to utilize the concepts learned in lecture and apply them to the completion of a fun, yet inexpensive design project. In presenting their work, the teams must demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental engineering principles behind their design in addition to simply exhibiting the functionality of their project. During the Fall 2006 semester, the project facilitates learning of energy systems involving renewable energy sources. Students were required to construct a system that uses solar, wind, and/or hydro sources to collect energy. Furthermore, their system must be able to store, transport, convert, and utilize the collected energy to power a small light bulb. The overall effectiveness was judged based on the amount of energy that can be collected and distributed via the system versus a cost analysis for its design. Overall, the course is setup to combine the apprehension of fundamental engineering concepts in lecture with their application during the design project. This particular project is important because it educates aspiring engineers about renewable energy sources. The development of such systems that are efficient and effective are becoming increasingly vital to economical, industrial, and social growth worldwide. As part of the INSPIRES (INcreasing Student Participation, Interest and Recruitment in Engineering and Science) curriculum (funded by the National Science Foundation – Instructional Materials Development ESIE program), a web based tutorial and computer simulation has been developed for this energy system design project. The web based tutorial features interactive animations and design simulations that allows students to adjust parameters to investigate the effect that each has on the efficiency of their simulated design. In addition, the on-line tutorial features pre and post assessments on content knowledge of the design process and underlying concepts. The results of these assessments will be compiled and presented.