Laboratory development for dynamic systems through the use of low cost materials and toys

Abstract

In an effort to provide students with a hands-on learning experience while demonstrating dynamics concepts, the authors have developed several laboratory activities. The goal of these laboratories is to engage students in an active learning exercise that employs higher level thinking skills to integrate multiple course concepts. The laboratories are focused on inducing the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Each laboratory was designed with low cost materials that are readily available at most hardware and toy stores. The labs were intentionally created to be easy to implement for undergraduate or high school physics and dynamics. Using children's toys also provides a psychological effect to make the experiments less intimidating for students struggling with dynamics concepts by adding an element of fun. All measurements for data collection can be made with a tape measure and scale. Time values are not recorded, but can be calculated and verified if precise timing equipment is available. For an added degree of complexity, students were given the optional challenge to use smart phones to record the motion of an object and use frame analysis to extract position, velocity and acceleration data. The labs explore the topics of position, velocity, acceleration, circular motion, force, momentum, elasticity, and more. The result is a simple and cost-effective set of dynamics laboratory activities which would be easy for other engineering programs to introduce into a curriculum or use for educational outreach events. One of the main advantages of the proposed laboratory activities is its portability. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2014.