Educational Methods and Best Practices in BME Laboratories1

Abstract

Biomedical engineering (BME) is a practical discipline and laboratory courses that teach the practice of this discipline are an integral component of an effective undergraduate curriculum. Laboratory courses provide students with the opportunity to observe how the physical world compares to the quantitative descriptions of that world taught in the classroom. They also should provide students with the skills necessary for enhancing our descriptions of the physical world, for developing the tools required to interact with that world on a variety of scales, for designing experiments to accomplish these goals and for effectively communicating the results of these experiments. The purpose of this document is to outline the critical components of an effective BME laboratory curriculum and teaching methodologies most appropriate for delivering the content of that curriculum. The content is based upon a white paper submitted in advance of the second Biomedical Engineering Education Summit (BEES II) sponsored by the Whitaker Foundation, and on the discussions that occurred at that summit. BME is a broad discipline that integrates knowledge from the physical, chemical, and engineering sciences for application to the study of biology and medicine. The challenge in developing an undergraduate BME curriculum is determining how to provide students with the breadth required to understand the interdependence of these disciplines as well as the depth necessary to apply the acquired knowledge throughout their careers. Laboratory courses can provide hands-on exposure to the practice of BME. However, because of limited time and resources, it is not possible to cover the tools and techniques spanning the entire field in any undergraduate curriculum. Hence, it is imperative that laboratory courses deliver a foundation to support the skills