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A Multidisciplinary Engineering Laboratory Course
Author(s) -
King R. H.,
Parker T. E.,
Grover T. P.,
Gosink J. P.,
Middleton N. T.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1999.tb00452.x
Subject(s) - course (navigation) , multidisciplinary approach , engineering ethics , engineering , engineering education , engineering management , mathematics education , medical education , psychology , medicine , sociology , aerospace engineering , social science
The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) curriculum was recently modified by replacing laboratory courses in electrical circuits, fluid mechanics and stress analysis with a sequence of Multidisciplinary Engineering Laboratory courses (MEL I, II, and III). The MEL sequence prepares students for their professional careers by integrating discipline‐specific components into systems and building subject‐matter depth through a vertical sequence. The experiments move beyond basic theory verification by requiring students to practice higher level thinking. In addition, the systems experiments encourage students to reorganize knowledge and discover the connections among concepts in several courses. The MEL sequence helps students understand relationships among science, engineering science, and engineering design. The MEL experiments develop life‐long learning skills by encouraging higher levels of thinking on the Perry scale and requiring students to use a variety of Kolb's learning styles. This paper describes the educational objectives and experiments for the MEL I course. The paper gives assessment results for MEL I and compares it with traditional laboratories.