2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Some engineering concepts can seem trivial to students despite their struggles to fully comprehend them. This contradiction stems from the gap between the student’s experiential and domain knowledge of the topic. Once the student bridges the gap, the contradiction is resolved, and the concept is learned profoundly. Considering the demonstrated benefits of expecting to teach on learning and memory, the present study aims to help students bridge the gap by asking them to teach the engineering concepts to their audience of choice (friends, classmates, family members or an imaginary student).
The process of learning engineering concepts through teaching them is studied via a Kinematics of Mechanisms course at a mid-sized technological university. The effectiveness of the method is studied through three modules: weekly group quizzes, a term project, and a midterm exam. The group quizzes provide one-on-one sessions, in which students get to work on the given problem with their partner. The term project challenges students to work on an open-ended problem of their choosing in a larger group. The midterm exam allows the students to review the topic that they struggle with by teaching it to an audience of their choice.
The three modules are explained, and the effectiveness of them is studied through tracking the students’ grades and results of a self-evaluation survey designed by the instructor.