The Use Of Student Generated Lab Plans In The Thermal Sciences

Practicing engineers are often required to design experiments that will be carried out by others (who may or may not have engineering degrees). Engineers must be able to clearly define the purpose of an experiment and specify the equipment and procedures needed for successful completion. As a means of developing this ability, mechanical engineering students at Ohio Northern University (ONU) are required to generate their own procedures for experiments in the thermal sciences. Rather than follow a set of pre-determined steps, students must consider how to use the available equipment to meet the specified objective. Students generate their own lab plans, review plans developed by their peers, and ultimately develop experiments that are conducted by other students in the class. This paper discusses the thermal sciences course sequence, describes the experiments that are performed, and explains how these experiments are implemented in order to achieve the objective described above. The effectiveness of this implementation is evaluated in two ways. First, the two instructors involved evaluate the quality of student-generated lab plans, and identify areas where progress does (and does not) occur as the sequence progresses. Second, a series of self-assessment surveys are given to the students several times during the three-quarter sequence.