2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper presents a laboratory course design strategy to align material testing standards with hands-on experiments, game-based learning, and real-world application. The goal of this strategy is to strengthen the student’s ability in understanding and applying material testing standards. This work presents two case studies that applied the same approach, with one case focusing on the characterization of mechanical material properties and the other on thermofluid properties. In each case, the four-week laboratory module began with the following material selection questions: "Which of the materials provided should be selected to build a turbine blade?" or "Which of the provided glycol-water mixture is the best engine coolant for cold weather?" Students had to conduct multiple material tests,compare their experimental results to literature with statistical considerations, and predict what the provided materials were to answer the selection question. Each experimental procedure was adapted from American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards and students were asked to highlight any differences. We embedded game-based learning using Kahoot! in lectures to motivate students and help them comprehend each ASTM standard. In addition, students were given an opportunity to design their own experimental protocol within the module. The module culminated in a conference paper style report where the students selected the ideal material to answer their selection questions. They needed to support their decision by following a guided analysis using their experimental results. For example, analyzing a heat exchanger's performance based on the thermofluid property values obtained from their experiments for each unspecified specimen . After completing the four-week laboratory module, our survey data indicated that 91% of the students (n=157) are confident or very confident in their abilities to apply the same ASTM standard in the future and 78% are confident or very confident they can follow a new ASTM test standard. The majority (84%) of the students agreed that the activities helped them understand the real-world application of the theory they had learned in their Mechanical Engineering (ME) curriculum. Additionally, 76% of the students agreed they applied knowledge from their past ME courses to these lab activities. We concluded hands-on experiments were consistently the most encouraging activities that motivated students to read and understand the ASTM standards disregarding the class size and topics.