Designing Laboratory Procedures to Enhance Graduate Attributes

Abstract

In undergraduate laboratory courses, students often perform experiments by following standard procedures designed by the instructors or outlined in the laboratory manuals. The calculation procedures are also provided to estimate certain parameters using experimental data. Finally they report the findings from the experiments. These activities lead to anumber of different learning outcomes and students achieve a number of attributes. They gain experience with problem analysis, use of engineering tools, investigation and communication which are identifiedas required graduate attributes by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. However, the important aspect of design that may be achieved through the development of structured experimental procedure remains unattended. In this article we discuss an approach for undergraduate laboratory experiments to enhance the attributes of engineering graduates. In this approach students are not provided with the experimental procedure; instead they need to develop the procedure to meet the goal of the experiments. This approach is currently being implemented in the laboratory component of a Process Dynamics and Control course at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. A survey on students’ achievement of graduate attributes as well as an assessment of learning outcomes will be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach.