Student Designed Lab Experiments: How Students Use Pedagogical Best Practices

The pedagogy of laboratory courses has been well discussed in the literature, but the extent to which these best practices are incorporated into laboratory experiment design varies wildly. At Northeastern University, various capstone design teams over the years have been tasked with designing new experimental apparatus for the undergraduate teaching laboratories along with appropriate lab handouts and other instructional material. In many cases, the students involved in these projects have taken the lab class for which they are designing the experiment and have reported negative experiences, and therefore are motivated to try to improve the class for future students. Student designed labs have the potential to reduce burden on instructors. Student developers may also provide a unique viewpoint that could result in labs that are more engaging for the student body. Historically, some of these student designed experiments have been incorporated into lab classes successfully, and some have not. Currently, there are three separate capstone teams involved in developing new experiments for the Internal Combustion Engines course and the Dynamics and Vibrations course. Past and current capstone projects were examined to determine the extent to which student designed labs incorporated established pedagogical best practices into their designs. Common features of successful and unsuccessful designs were also examined. Initial results indicate that one of the key features was a strong collaboration with an individual lab instructor, as even the best experimental apparatus will not be used if an instructor does not see the value of incorporating it into their course. It also seems that teams who incorporate pedagogical research produce more sophisticated apparatus from a design perspective. Finally, reflections of the students involved in the development of these experiments are examined in order to gain insight into how students perceive and use pedagogical information in their designs.