Work in Progress: Pilot Study for the Effect of a Simulated Laboratories on the Motivation of Biological Engineering Students

Abstract

The main challenge for biological engineering educators is that BE is a relatively new and broad discipline that integrates a diverse array of knowledge from the basic sciences and engineering sciences towards application in the biological and medicinal fields. Due to variety of possible career outcomes and limited department resources (money, laboratory space, etc.), it is not possible to create a single undergraduate curriculum that will cover all of the technical skills spanning the entire biological engineering field in a hands-on setting. As laboratory sections have been shown to provide a variety of educational benefits, it is imperative that university engineering departments seek alternative methods to deliver real-life application of classroom concepts. As such, interest in the development and usage of simulated lab sections has risen. While these lab experiences offer economic benefits to educational institutions and are more convenient for students to access, the exact educational outcomes of simulated labs, especially when compared to traditional hands-on labs, is still unclear. Due to the previously stated challenges, the biological engineering education community could benefit greatly by the implementation of simulated labs; however, there is a limited amount of literature on simulated labs in the context of biological engineering. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a case study on how the implementation of a commercially available simulated lab alters the motivation of students in a BE course. Data collection will help us answer three research questions: 1) How well does the simulated lab intervention work? 2) How do BE students experience disciplinary-specific simulated labs? 3) How do those experiences inform us on the student motivation? By utilizing the MUSIC® Model of Academic Motivation, we aim to pin down the social realities surrounding simulated BE labs, clarify the unique motivations of BE students, and provide vital information for the national discourse of proper BE curricula development.