AC 2007-1598: STUDENT/TEACHER ROLE SWAP IN HEAT TRANSFER

Groups of mechanical engineering students taking the undergraduate heat transfer course were asked to play the role of a professor and design an experiment to teach future students the concept of thermal resistance and thermal resistance networks. The students had to construct and run the experiment to demonstrate its functionality. They also had to provide a technical report of the design and construction of it. In addition, they were required to create complete experimental procedure, data sheets, and analysis and to describe the requirements for a lab report based on the experiment that future students can complete and turn in for a grade in the heat transfer lab. The last part of the project that challenged the students to reflect on their own learning and the way future students may learn the concepts. The reflection component may not be present in typical projects, and/or may not be probed. The learning of the students was probed via a survey of a few questions. The questions asked the students if the project increased their understanding of the technical concept they had to design the experiment for, amount of work involved, ease of playing the role of a teacher, whether they became aware of the their own learning process, whether the new awareness would help in learning other materials, advantages/disadvantages and level of enjoyment and time spent on the project. The survey results were analyzed and have showed positive advantages of this learning experience in the areas mentioned above.