Learning by doing: Collaborative active learning hands-on project-based homework for a large gateway engineering class

Abstract

“Tell me and I will forget, teach me and I will remember, involve me and I will learn”. This powerful quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin is the cornerstone for the study presented in this paper. Teaching and Learning engineering is not an easy task, especially for large size gateway courses. Engineering education researchers agree that a purely traditional lecture-based learning environment does not adequately prepare students to succeed in the collaborative and challenging environment existing in engineering careers. Same researchers emphasize the need of incorporating high impact learning practices to help students to succeed. This study presents some very promising results of incorporating collaborative active learning hands-on project-based homework (PBH) as a strategy for improving the students' success in a large Sophomore Engineering Class: Engineering Analysis Statics. Exam results were compiled for several consecutive semesters with the objective of establishing a baseline and identifying the most challenging topics for the students. Hands-on project-based collaborative homework was specifically designed to improve the comprehension of these nebulous areas. In addition to the traditional pencil-and-paper or online homework, students were offered the opportunity of forming small groups to create, test, and analyze their own real-life physical models of some assigned problems. In addition, students were asked to record and submit a short video explaining their models, discussing their experimental results, and comparing them with theoretical hand calculations. Assessment showed a very marked difference between the groups of students doing the hands-on project-based homework compared with those that only submitted the traditional assignments.