Mechanical Testing of Materials course
This is a lab course, although it also includes 3 lectures about the principles of the measurement methods and 3 lectures about digital image correlation. Those are currently traditional lectures, and my plan has been from the beginning to split those into shorter pre-recorded videos after I have taught them a few times as lectures, and have a better feel for what students need from them.
Then there are three laboratory exercises, that the students do in small groups. The groups are different for each exercise, because the optimal group size is different for the different exercises. Each group carries out a comparable but different measurement, and writes a lab report. For example, the second lab is about standard tensile testing of materials, and each group tests a different material. Students are allowed to write the report together and submit the same report for the whole group, but they don’t have to.
The part that would benefit most from the collaboration is the group discussion of the lab reports. That is organized like a poster gallery walk (but with the lab reports instead of posters), so that everyone gets to present their lab report to people who did a comparable but different measurement, and they can discuss the similarities and differences. My intention with doing it like this, confirmed by student feedback from the two times I have taught the course now, was that students would not only learn about more tests than they were able to carry out themselves, but also learn a lot about their own results from explaining them to others and getting questions. I think that effect would be even stronger if the discussions include people who did similar measurements in entirely different labs, under the supervision of different laboratory staff.
Instead of a final exam, the course ends with a case study, where each student individually writes a detailed report about a mechanical test they are personally interested in. This can be from a published research paper or standard, or a test they have done or will do for their thesis or their work, or a hypothetical test.
This is a lab course, although it also includes 3 lectures about the principles of the measurement methods and 3 lectures about digital image correlation. Those are currently traditional lectures, and my plan has been from the beginning to split those into shorter pre-recorded videos after I have taught them a few times as lectures, and have a better feel for what students need from them.
Then there are three laboratory exercises, that the students do in small groups. The groups are different for each exercise, because the optimal group size is different for the different exercises. Each group carries out a comparable but different measurement, and writes a lab report. For example, the second lab is about standard tensile testing of materials, and each group tests a different material. Students are allowed to write the report together and submit the same report for the whole group, but they don’t have to.
The part that would benefit most from the collaboration is the group discussion of the lab reports. That is organized like a poster gallery walk (but with the lab reports instead of posters), so that everyone gets to present their lab report to people who did a comparable but different measurement, and they can discuss the similarities and differences. My intention with doing it like this, confirmed by student feedback from the two times I have taught the course now, was that students would not only learn about more tests than they were able to carry out themselves, but also learn a lot about their own results from explaining them to others and getting questions. I think that effect would be even stronger if the discussions include people who did similar measurements in entirely different labs, under the supervision of different laboratory staff.
Instead of a final exam, the course ends with a case study, where each student individually writes a detailed report about a mechanical test they are personally interested in. This can be from a published research paper or standard, or a test they have done or will do for their thesis or their work, or a hypothetical test.