2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice paper aims to analyze the development of physics modeling competences and soft skills among second-year students in Engineering courses. The main objective is to implement the Project Based Learning (PBL) approach during the Experimental Physics class. The students were divided into teams of four members, and each team was allowed to choose a scientific paper on electricity and magnetism from a Physics journal. These papers were pre-selected by the tutors. The students were required to read and comprehend the proposed physical model and experiment procedure outlined in the original paper. They then had to adapt it to the available equipment in our university laboratory. Once the teams had collected data, they were to analyze and compare it with the physical modeling of the observed phenomenon. Finally, they were to create a self-explanatory video presentation, limited to 10 minutes, where the student teams explained the physical phenomenon, the modeling, the experiment conducted, and the analysis and conclusions drawn. The PBL approach allows students to have a better understanding of important physical theories, including their logical and mathematical structures and experimental support. It also enables them to perform experiments independently and effectively describe, analyze, and critically evaluate experimental data. Additionally, students become familiar with important experimental methodologies and learn how to search and utilize physical and other technical literature as well as relevant sources of information for research and technical project development.