2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper documents the continuation of a long-term study on the use of storytelling to deliver technical electronics content. Stories have the ability to capture our attention and improve our retention. A particularly dry technical topic becomes engaging when introduced with a personal story. Lessons become more obvious, understood more fully, and retained for longer when delivered in the narrative form. A storybook was developed to introduce first-year engineering students to breadboards. The right-hand pages contain a narrative story about bringing light to a town, and the left-hand pages contain the corresponding technical information instructing students to build a simple LED circuit. The previous study found that a storybook is as effective as a lecture at delivering technical content, and participants who were exposed to the storybook were able to complete the activity faster than those who received the lecture. This paper proposes a revised instrument and protocol that employs machine learning for data analysis to assess technical learning objectives, retention of the material, and anxiety levels related to technology.