Supporting Student Agency at Home: A Hands-on Guided-Inquiry Materials Laboratory

AUTHORS

• Matthew, Ford, Mechanical Engineering, UW Tacoma
• Soheil, Fatehiboroujeni, Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University
• Elizabeth, Fisher, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University
• Hadas, Ritz, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University

JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON ZOOM (4:00-4:30 PM)>>

ABSTRACT

Engineering programs accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) must demonstrate, among other outcomes, that students have “an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.” Traditional, recipe-based labs provide few opportunities for students to engage in experimental design or develop a sense of agency, and research has cast doubt on their pedagogical benefit. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic forced institutions to move to remote learning. Our primary question is whether a high-quality open-ended design challenge with low-cost materials can achieve the same, or better, learning outcomes as traditional in-person labs.

We developed a scaffolded series of remote lab activities for a mechanics of materials course, culminating in a collaborative experiment design challenge. The activities involve very simple experiments that can be done with inexpensive, globally-available materials. We find that the absence of expensive, specialized equipment inspired students to develop a broad range of creative solutions.

Student outcomes were measured by post-lab surveys of attitudes and self-efficacy, as well as a previously-validated conceptual learning assessment. The fraction of students endorsing statements related to sense of agency increased dramatically over the course of the semester: from 53% to 83% for goal-setting and from 63% to 92% for choice of methods. Self-efficacy increased significantly in the primary targeted skills (designing experiments and making predictions), but there was no significant shift in skills not explicitly targeted by the guided-inquiry lab. The guided-inquiry lab was so successful that we are adapting it back to an in-person setting for Winter 2022 at UW Tacoma.

SUMMARY

RESEARCH QUESTION

Our primary question is whether a high-quality open-ended design challenge with low-cost materials can achieve the same, or better, learning outcomes as traditional in-person labs.

RESEARCH METHODS / SCHOLARLY BASIS

We developed a scaffolded series of remote lab activities for a mechanics of materials course, culminating in a collaborative experiment design challenge. The activities involve very simple experiments that can be done with inexpensive, globally-available materials. We find that the absence of expensive, specialized equipment inspired students to develop a broad range of creative solutions.

RESULTS

The fraction of students endorsing statements related to sense of agency increased dramatically over the course of the semester: from 53% to 83% for goal-setting and from 63% to 92% for choice of methods. Self-efficacy increased significantly in the primary targeted skills (designing experiments and making predictions), but there was no significant shift in skills not explicitly targeted by the guided-inquiry lab.

APPLICATION

The findings come from a direct application of the work. The guided-inquiry lab was so successful that we adapted it back to an in-person setting for Winter 2022 at UW Tacoma.