Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate Engineering Education, The

Journal of Engineering Education, Jan 2005 by Feisel, Lyle D, Rosa, Albert J

ABSTRACT

The function of the engineering profession is to manipulate materials, energy, and information, thereby creating benefit for humankind. To do this successfully, engineers must have a knowledge of nature that goes beyond mere theory-knowledge that is traditionally gained in educational laboratories. Over the years, however, the nature of these laboratories has changed. This paper describes the history of some of these changes and explores in some depth a few of the major factors influencing laboratories today. In particular, the paper considers the lack of coherent learning objectives for laboratories and how this lack has limited the effectiveness of laboratories and hampered meaningful research in the area. A list of fundamental objectives is presented along with suggestions for possible future research.

Keywords: laboratories, learning objectives, history of laboratories

I. INTRODUCTION

Engineering is a practicing profession, a profession devoted to harnessing and modifying the three fundamental resources that humankind has available for the creation of all technology: energy, materials, and information. The overall goal of engineering education is to prepare students to practice engineering and, in particular, to deal with the forces and materials of nature. Thus, from the earliest days of engineering education, instructional laboratories have been an essential part of undergraduate and, in some cases, graduate programs. Indeed, prior to the emphasis on engineering science, it could be said that most engineering instruction took place in the laboratory.

The emphasis on laboratories has varied over the years. While much attention has been paid to curriculum and teaching methods, relatively little has been written about laboratory instruction. As an example, in surveys of the articles published in the Journal of Engineering Education from 1993 to 1997, it was found that only 6.5 percent of the papers used laboratory as a keyword. From 1998 to 2002, the fraction was even lower at 5.2 percent [1].

One reason for the limited research on instructional laboratories may be a lack of consensus on the basic objectives of the laboratory experience. While there seems to be general agreement that laboratories are necessary, little has been said about what they are expected to accomplish. In most papers about laboratories, no course objectives or outcomes are listed, even though it is not unusual for the author to state in the conclusion that the objectives of the course were met. An accepted set of fundamental objectives for laboratories, as set out in this paper, would help engineering educators focus their efforts and evaluate the effectiveness of laboratory experiences.

It is useful to distinguish among three basic types of engineering laboratories: development, research, and educational. While they have many characteristics in common, there are some fundamental differences. These differences must be understood if there is to be agreement on the educational objectives that the instructional laboratory is expected to meet.

Practicing engineers go to the development laboratory for two reasons. First, they often need experimental data to guide them in designing and developing a product. The development laboratory is used to answer specific questions about nature that must be answered before a design and development process can continue.

The second reason is to determine if a design performs as intended. Measurements of performance are compared to specifications, and these comparisons either demonstrate compliance or indicate where, if not how, changes need to be made.

While a development laboratory is intended to answer specific questions of immediate importance, research laboratories are used to seek broader knowledge that can be generalized and systematized, often without any specific use in mind. The output of a research laboratory is generally an addition to the overall knowledge that we have of the world, be it natural or human made.

When students, especially undergraduates, go to the laboratory, however, it is not generally to extract some data necessary for a design, to evaluate a new device, or to discover a new addition to our knowledge of the world. Each of these functions involves determining something that no one else knows or at least that is not generally available. Students, on the other hand, go to an instructional laboratory to learn something that practicing engineers are assumed to already know. That "something" needs to be better defined through carefully designed learning objectives if the considerable effort devoted to laboratories is to produce a concomitant benefit.

Laboratory instruction has been complicated by the introduction of two phenomena in the past two decades: the digital computer and systems of distance learning, particularly over the Internet. The digital computer has opened new possibilities in the laboratory, including simulation, automated data acquisition, remote control of instruments, and rapid data analysis and presentation. The reality of offering undergraduate engineering education via distance learning has caused educators to consider and discuss just what the fundamental objectives of instructional laboratories are. These discussions have led to new understandings of laboratories and have created new challenges for engineering educators as they design the education system for the next generation of engineers.