Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Breaking Away From The Laboratory: Using Lean-Computing Technology To Merge Theory-Based Learning And Experimentation, Thomas Connolly, Kathy Schmidt, Javier Kypuros

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This ongoing research involves a departure from traditional laboratory instructional practices in that it seeks to forge a closer connection between lecture-based and laboratory courses. As such, the authors have devised a program that: (1) relinquishes a degree of control to students by providing them some flexibility in determining the subject of their experiments and in the development of experimental procedures and protocols, (2) uses mobile experimentation as a powerful and flexible tool in lecture-based coursework, and (3) expands the concept of the “laboratory” to include virtually everything outside of it. A pilot program in mobile experimentation and data acquisition …