Pedagogical strategies to enhance learning and awareness of acoustics within our engineering school community

Abstract

Acoustics is taught at the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS, Montreal, Canada) in a single advanced specialization course during the final year of the mechanical engineering bachelor's program. This course aims to equip students with the skills needed to measure and reduce noise based on the theoretical foundations of industrial acoustics and associated experimental techniques. The fact that the science of acoustics is not well-known among engineering students, coupled with the optional nature of this course, results in an average enrollment of only about thirty students each year (across two distinct sessions), a number further reduced since 2020 due to the unfortunate impact of the pandemic. Paradoxically, Quebec lacks engineers trained in this discipline and often recruits them from abroad. This presentation will aim to showcase various strategies and pedagogical tools that have been used and experimented with in recent years (e.g., flipped classroom, in-class experiments, cellphone measurements, community service-oriented semester projects). The goal is to ensure the quality and enjoyment of student learning and to contribute to raising awareness about acoustics and noise-related issues within the ÉTS community.