Integrated Teaching of Experimental and Communication Skills to Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Students

The joint teaching of an undergraduate Experimental Projects Lab and a Communications Practicum is discussed. Written and oral assignments developed, shaped, and peer reviewed as part of the communications practicum, are used to satisfy the written and oral requirements for the experimental projects subject. The joint structure serves to educate students in a variety of aspects of professional practice including solving open-ended problems, system-level integration of disciplinary coursework, project development and planning, oral and written communication, peer review, and teamwork. The paper describes the unique features of this educational strategy, and represents a progress report following a three-year experimental implementation of the new course format. Assessment of the effectiveness of the courses is presented based on student evaluations and comments from the instructors. A high level of satisfaction with this new model is expressed, suggesting that both the quality of the research performed and the students' ability to transmit an understanding of that research to others have been enhanced.