During the summer of 1993, twelve incoming honors level freshmen participated in the pilot offering of the laboratory. Seventeen incoming freshmen and one high school senior enrolled in the second offering of the course during the summer of 1994. The initial response to the laboratory has been quite favorable.
A. Student Performance
The initial offerings showed that students clearly enjoyed and profited from communicating with each other during all phases of the laboratory. The oral presentations at the end of each cycle seemed to inspire and to compel the students to present themselves well in front of their peers. The three recurring comments from the students were: 1) we liked working collaboratively rather than competitively, 2) we liked having time and freedom to tinker through assembly and disassembly of the devices, and 3) we liked teaching each other through the oral presentations and team activities. In short, these students liked being empowered to direct their own learning.
B. Course Evaluation
After the initial pilot offering, a questionnaire was developed with NCSU's Professor Richard Felder to evaluate the lab format, what effects having taken the lab had on various abilities, and students' opinions of this collaborative learning experience (27).
1. First Offering: Near the end of their freshman year (eight months after the summer lab), the first student group of ten men and two women was given this questionnaire. In response to general questions, students thought the workload was reasonable, the subject matter was more interesting than they had expected, and the course was helpful. Further, the students felt that they got into the subject matter substantially, learned what engineers do, gained a lot of hands-on experience, and learned how to work in groups and make oral presentations.
The students attributed success in the course either to their natural ability in this area or to the benefits of working in groups. They rated working in groups as either "excellent" or "very good." Benefits they attributed to working in groups included shortening the time required to complete the assignments, getting the material explained to them, learning the material better by having to explain it to others, and learning the material from a different perspective. Given the choice of working future lab exercises alone or in groups, all students said they would work in groups. The students noted that in their other freshman courses they were only allowed the opportunity to work in groups on isolated assignments, but they tried group study for their other classes whenever possible.
The students felt that the greatest benefits of presenting each lab section to the class were in improving their public speaking ability and in learning the material better by having to inform others. Once again, given the choice of making or not making the presentations, the students said they would continue presenting.
The students' responses also indicated that the lab experience had a positive effect on their performance in other technical courses, their ability to solve technical problems, and their desire to become engineers. Compared to how they felt before taking the lab, their self-assessments were either the same or higher in the areas of basic problem-solving, creative problem-solving, teamwork, performance of hands-on tasks, public speaking, and overall self-confidence.
2. Second Offering: The second group of students was given the same questionnaire to complete on the last day of their summer lab. All students felt that working in groups was helpful, that the lab taught them how to make oral presentations, and that these presentations helped them to learn the material better. Further, the lab helped them learn what engineers do.
This second group consisted of 6 men and 12 women. The women seemed to find the class much more valuable/helpful than the men did. Women also indicated that the class had a positive effect on their desire to be engineers, more so than the men. Men felt that the lab had a positive effect on their confidence to solve technical problems, and the women felt that the lab improved their ability to perform "hands-on" tasks. Several women commented that they liked the freedom to work on their own and that as a result of taking this lab, they have a better understanding of how things work.
Women seemed to benefit more from the group work; given the choice, these women were more likely than the men to work in a group rather than alone. The women found that group work helped them to understand the material better and the men felt that group work helped them to learn the material from a different perspective.
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