Asking Students To Design Their Own Laboratory Experiments

An undergraduate environmental engineering laboratory class was revised to include an open experiment in addition to traditional experiments. Each student group identified a problem, designed an experiment to address the problem, performed the experiment, and documented the results with a laboratory report. The topics selected were remediation of acid mine drainage, evaluating different absorbents for oil spills, evaluating water quality of campus buildings, and evaluating water quality in local rivers. An evaluative questionnaire was distributed to the students to assess the effectiveness of the open experiment compared to the traditional experiments in enhancing the student learning experience. A statistical analysis performed on the responses to several items on the questionnaire showed that students believed that the open experiment provided a better learning experience compared to traditional experiments. Student responses to open-ended questions revealed that most students enjoyed the experience of performing an open experiment and that it should be included as part of the laboratory class.