Enhancing student learning through hands-on laboratories on renewable energy sources

Abstract

A theory based renewable energy sources course was complemented with seven hands-on laboratory experiments. The course was designed for engineering and non-engineering undergraduate students and did not require any advanced mathematics or physics background. Each laboratory experiment introduced a miniature version of an energy conversion device that mimicked the insights and workings of a real scale device. The seven hands-on laboratory experiments demonstrated the principles of the; flywheel, solar pathfinder, photovoltaic powered motor, hydroelectricity, wind turbine, thermoelectricity, and a fuel cell. In order to record the level of improvement of the class, each student was given a questionnaire before and after completing each experiment and at the end of the academic term. Each questionnaire consisted of five different types of questions relevant to an individual renewable energy source studied at that time. This paper presents results of our findings on performance improvements by laboratory type, class level, gender and student major. In more detail, our assessment showed that the students learned the most during the Flywheel laboratory experiment. When results were grouped by the class level, the most advanced class level, or forth year students, showed the most improvement. Overall, both genders showed significant improvement. Finally, when results were grouped by major discipline, our assessment showed that the students with social science majors showed the most improvement. A total of 140 students from the University of California, at Santa Cruz participated and as a whole, the class showed a significant increase in their knowledge at the end of the term. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.