Active Learning in Engineering: From Service Learning to Project Based Learning

Before accepting my appointment at Valparaiso University, I had never been taught how to teach engineering. In my interview, I mimicked the excellent professors and educators that I had been exposed to – my parents, my elementary/junior high/senior high school teachers, and my college and graduate school professors. When I attended a teaching workshop the summer after my first year at Valpo, I found my true passion – studying how to best teach engineering. In this lecture, I will focus on the trials, failures, and successes of innovative teaching strategies that I have attempted and in some cases studied. These include leading senior design teams to Nicaragua, helping the SAE team build a car that reached 713 mpg, guiding students to develop new laboratory equipment, and determining how to best teach sustainability principles. I will also describe a current project with Rob Swanson and Andy Richter and two engineering students on how we will modify a $150 guitar so that it sounds as good as a $5000 guitar.