scholarly journals Teaching Renewable Energy Through Hands On Project Based Learning For Engineering Technology Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongrong Chen ◽  
David Goodman ◽  
Afshin Izadian ◽  
Elaine Cooney
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Hands On

Sustainable and Renewable Energy Undergraduate Research

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radian Belu ◽  
Richard Chiou ◽  
Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Hands On

Energy is a continuous driving force for the social and technological prospective developments and a vital and essential ingredient for all human transactions. The world is facing an energy “crisis”, due to limited fossil fuel resources, growing energy demand and population. All these facts led to and increased interests in renewable energy sources and green manufacturing. Equipping engineering students with the skills and knowledge required to be successful global engineers in the 21st century is one of the primary objectives of academic educators. Enabling students to practice self-directed learning, find design solutions that are sustainable, and helping them recognize that they are part of a global community are just of few of our educational goals. Project-based learning provides the contextual environment making learning exciting and relevant, providing opportunities to explore technical problems from systems-level perspectives, with an appreciation for the inter-connectedness of science principles. The quest for knowledge is the driving force behind education no matter what field is being studied. This means a lot of reading from textbooks, completion of assignments, exams, lectures but quite little of this work involves original research. Active research experience is one of the most effective ways to attract and retain talented undergraduates in science and engineering. At our institutions, we are regularly modifying curriculum content to embrace sustainability and green energy concepts in learning outcomes. However this crosses over between a numbers of multi-disciplinary, multidimensional study areas that include philosophy and ethics. Consequently a major challenge for us is to encourage engineering students whose primary focus is purely technical to include sustainability and renewable energy topics in their designs. To join into this effort of equipping the future engineers and technologists with renewable energy background, we developed a set of project-based courses related to these topics and include them also in our senior project design course sequence. The main objectives of these curricula changes are to provide students with theoretical and practical knowledge reinforced by hands-on experience. These projects are also good examples of multi-disciplinary cooperation of different engineering disciplines as well as providing valuable hands-on and research experience. This paper presents the changes in the course structure, sample of projects, student survey of the course, as well as plans and expectations for future success. We are also discussing here the project team structure, plan and management, component selection, system simulation, and experimental result.

Industry Based “Hands-On” Undergraduate Vibration Course for Engineering and Engineering Technology Students

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey J. Peter
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Instructional Approach ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Real World Problems

Modern technology and manufacturing methods often require engineers who understand the fundamental principles of vibration theory and who are also skilled in vibration applications. Simply processing, remembering and applying the material learned from lectures and laboratory experiments with artificial criteria are inadequate. Hands-on teaching techniques with real-world problems are needed to complete the engineering students’ education. This paper demonstrates how hands-on experiments performed in industry support and increase the students’ understanding of fundamental principles and skill in their applications. Graduates with both knowledge and skill are more competitive in today’s job market. A one-quarter industry-based vibration course was developed and taught with a hands-on segment at the Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering and Technology (MMET) program at Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) - Portland Campus. This novel instructional approach provided students with the opportunity to immediately apply material, learned in class and laboratory, in real-world industry situations with real-world problems. This instructional approach is applicable in many engineering fields and the author found the mechanical vibrations class particularly well suited for this instructional design style. The hands-on approach, grounded in the vibration course curriculum, provided a direct link to the fundamentals of vibration in industry. Student comments are included to demonstrate the value perceived by the students. Although this curriculum experiment involved mechanical engineering technology students, it would benefit mechanical engineering students equally well. In addition, the paper provides a brief description of the industries that participated in this project. Industries were selected because they use vibration based manufacturing, perform extreme testing or design their products to avoid failure due to vibrations.

scholarly journals Assessment Of An Engineering Technology Outreach Program For 4th-7th Grade Girls

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Dell ◽  
Jeanne Christman ◽  
Robert D. Garrick
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Outreach Program ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Student Volunteers ◽  
Technology College ◽  
The Impact

This paper describes a workshop led by female Engineering Technology students, with support from female faculty, to provide an introduction to Engineering Technology to 4th – 7th grade girls through a series of interactive laboratory experiments. This outreach program was developed to improve attitudes towards science and engineering in middle school-aged girls by making science tangible and fun. The workshop takes place on a college campus and makes use of four different Engineering Technology laboratories. Each lab activity includes a hands-on experiment, beginning with an overview of the engineering technology discipline and a brief description of the theories related to the experiment. The day culminates with a panel session between the participants and the college students. An ancillary outcome of the program is that it serves as a community building event for female Engineering Technology college students. Connections are developed between the students and between students and faculty in the college. The college students gain the satisfaction of influencing the attitudes of participants and develop critical communication skills. An attitude survey given to participants before and after the workshop shows that participation in these workshops results in a more positive attitude towards science and technology. College student volunteers were also surveyed after the workshop to determine the impact of their participation. A full workshop description is given in this paper as well as analysis of the assessment results for the participants and the college students. 

scholarly journals Experiential Learning in the Energy Based Classroom

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 4-26
Author(s):  
Cole Maynard ◽  
Jose Garcia ◽  
Anne Lucietto ◽  
William Hutzel ◽  
Brittany A Newell
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Student Perception ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Applied Knowledge

Engineering technology students revel in enhanced learning experiences that include the use of hands-on methods to teach the real-world usage of the tech-nical material. These learning experiences increase applied knowledge and retention in these students and others in related STEM fields. Using research-based learning theory in a project-based and team-based learning environment, the course developers transformed the learning experience from sterile lecture type courses to interactive experiences that enhance and build on the course concepts. Surveys were used to further delve into student perception of the learning experience providing faculty with an assurance that students have ful-ly developed a level of competency in the desired topic used in the interven-tion. The goal of this research is to further delve into the use of personalized learning to engage and encourage student growth. Course developers incorporated known practices of team and project-based learning theory when making changes to the course foundation. The application of project-based learning theory is based on literature reviews, and the results seen within similar technology and engineering based STEM disciplines. Course surveys were used to collect information from the students to further understand how changes to the course delivery impacted them and affected the learning environment. Initial results suggest improved student engagement, and engagement with course materials as a result of the transformation of class delivery. Evidence shows that the classroom experience is enhanced by this type of activity. Sup-porting findings by researchers in other areas show that experiential or active learning improves students’ understanding and engagement with concepts taught through project-based learning methods.

scholarly journals Collaborative Project-Based Learning Capstone for Engineering and Engineering Technology Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Ritenour ◽  
Chip Ferguson ◽  
Patrick Gardner ◽  
Brett Banther ◽  
Jeffrey Ray
Keyword(s):  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Technology Students

scholarly journals How Engineering Technology Students Perceive Mathematics

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Meher Taleyarkhan ◽  
◽  
Anne Lucietto ◽  
Therese Azevedo ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States Of America ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Technology Students ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Midwestern University ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Conceptual Nature

Engineering Technology (ET) is often combined with that of Engineering. Although Engineering Technology is based on a more hands-on approach and Engineering a theoretical approach, the two majors share a very similar pedagogy in teaching students the same engineering and scientific principles. An observation by an ET professor found that ET students more often than not would eschew the use of mathematical computations and instead provide answers they believe to be correct, without computation or explanation. Leading researchers to delve into possible reasons as to why ET students are reluctant to utilize mathematics. This study utilized in-person interviews with 15 undergraduate participants from a Midwestern University in the United States of America from ET to ascertain how ET students perceive mathematics. The results of the study found that although ET students were stated to not hate mathematics and are open to using mathematics, there was a slight apprehension towards math due to bad math experiences and not being able to connect the conceptual nature of mathematics to the visual and real-life scenarios ET students are used to facing. The results of this study help to lay the foundation for future research studies geared towards further understanding why ET students are apprehensive towards mathematics and ultimately how to help ET students overcome this apprehension.

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