Improving Student Intuition Via Rensselaer's New Mobile Studio Pedagogy

Abstract

Although computer literate, today's engineering students don't enter college with the same level of hands-on experience with hardware that prior generations exhibited. Experimentation provides students with a sense of where things deviate from theory, offering the opportunity to explore non-ideal conditions; while also giving them the chance to play with hardware and gain the experience and expertise that helps them become successful designers. 1,2 For example, electronics technicians who had vast hands-on experience were able to reproduce large portions of complex circuit diagrams after only a few seconds of viewing; whereas novices could not. Expert scientists and engineers are able to quickly recognize patterns of information; for example, physicists recognize problems of river currents and problems of headwinds and tailwinds in airplanes as involving similar mathematical principles, such as relative velocities. 4 Gone are the days when students were ham radio operators, played with Erector/LEGO sets, tinkered with electronic kits or simply taken things apart for fun. As a result, students have less "gut intuition" and expert skills than prior generations possessed when entering the job market. 5