Restructuring the Undergraduate Laboratory Instructional Process

There is little doubt that a laboratory experience can be a beneficial component of the undergraduate engineering learning process. Observing physical demonstrations of textbook and lecture information can enhance a student’s perception of a concept and produce clarity of key issues. Unfortunately, limitations often exist that constrain the developing laboratories and sometimes reducing the student’s experience to little more than performing “cookbook” experiments and copying previous lab reports; an exercise that benefits neither the instructor nor the student. This paper summarizes an alternative approach for undergraduate laboratory instruction that relies on the undergraduate students working in teams to design and conduct experiments. The instructor acts as mentor to a process that ensures a quality laboratory exercise without being the sole responsible party. The students’ learning is increased and the laboratory experience is enhanced due, in part, to the experiments being designed by students and for students; matching students’ needs, education, and interests with experiments. An additional benefit comes from participants being immersed into the concepts of experimental design and analysis using a team of peers.