Development And Implementation Of A Common Investigative Methods Course For Undergraduate Engineering Students

A common concern among engineering faculty is that our students, while competent with engineering design concepts and processes, are increasingly incompetent in pragmatic application of those concepts. Historically students with an interest in engineering “tinkered” with things, had experience building and testing ideas, and generally knew their way around a toolbox. That understanding can no longer be assumed, as technological processes increasingly are treated as black boxes. In response to this concern we developed and have taught a course designed to introduce sophomore students in engineering to field and laboratory techniques used in biological systems, agricultural, and environmental engineering. Our experience has been that students are generally very resistant to discovery-based laboratories since by definition this approach lacks explicit step-by-step guidance.