2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Underrepresented sophomore and junior engineering students come to the classroom with misconceptions or rumors about the first course in Electric Circuits. Despite passing their Calculus II and Physics I courses, some of them have little to no understanding of concepts such as voltage, current or power. This lack of knowledge leads to misconceptions, learning difficulties and low test scores. A significant number of students fear taking Electric Circuits. When surveyed at the beginning of the semester, 38 percent of our 46-student class stated they were nervous about taking Electric Circuits. Solving circuit problems correctly is difficult for most students. One student said, “Unlike our calculus courses, these questions to evaluate voltage and current are word problems - they are puzzles like I have never seen before.”
Only 63 percent of students perceive the traditional problem-solving methods help them. Solving the circuit problems is like making dinner - the tools and ingredients should be chosen carefully with a specific taste in mind. Recipes are predictable, repeatable and a wonderfully creative. When asking a junior about this analogy, the student responded: “Wow, that was a really good analogy. I never thought about it like that.” Analogies provide an interpretive bridge in comparing features of familiar and unfamiliar concepts.
In the first course on circuit analysis the foundational concepts include Ohm’s Law, Kirchhoff’s Laws and Nodal Analysis. To the end, if a student does not understand the fundamentals of elementary circuit analysis, they are unlikely to appreciate or learn more advanced topics.
In this first work-in-progress (WIP) report, the primary goal is to introduce an inventory of Circuit Teaching with Real World Analogies (CTRWA) for Electric Circuits I. Course modules with CTRWA will be developed to increase student perception of learning in the topics of voltage, current and power as well as Ohm’s Law, superposition and the Thevenin equivalent circuit. For example, Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law CTRWA will include a running track analogy while KCL will use a ‘recipe' to find the ingredients of a parallel circuit in order to “make the cake” (solution). The analogies will be applied with consideration to students’ prior knowledge and cognitive resources.
Using surveys and interviews as well as test question responses, this WIP is guided by several questions: 1) What are students’ perception of learning Ohm’s Law, KVL and KCL with real-world analogies? 2) Are in-person quiz scores with analogies comparable to web-based multiple choice homework scores? 3) Are students more confident and knowledgeable about KVL, KCL, superposition and Thevenin equivalent circuits at the end of the semester? 4) What is the correlation between student academic success (grades) and student misconceptions gained from CTRWA.
The secondary goal is to seek feedback from the ECE teaching community who teach juniors and seniors in Circuit Analysis II and Electronics who would be the potential users of the CTRWA instrument. This WIP provides an opportunity for the engineering community and curriculum designers to innovate instructional design and create methodologies to remedy potential misconceptions in Electric Circuits.