Developing And Implementing Hands On Laboratory Exercises And Design Projects For First Year Engineering Students

During the past ten years, The Ohio State University’s College of Engineering has moved from a series of separate freshman courses for engineering orientation, engineering graphics, and engineering problem solving with computer programming to a dual offering of course sequences in the Introduction to Engineering Program (IEP) and the Freshman Engineering Honors (FEH) Program. These new programs retain part of the traditional material but add in hands-on laboratory experiences that lead to design/build projects. Teamwork, project management, report writing and oral presentations have assumed important roles in this program. This paper describes the range of laboratory exercises employed, the design projects with the written reports and oral reports required, and the lessons learned in the transition to this dual offering freshman programs.