1 IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS SERVICE COURSE Cliff Grigg and Ed Wheeler ECE Department Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

2 Why?

3 Two Main Reasons: 1. Lack of student enthusiasm. 2. Lack of teacher enthusiasm. There are chicken and egg arguments that can be applied to the above reasons.

4 A typical “survey” service course covers many topics and spreads material thin. Our present focus is an electrical systems course required for Mechanical Engineering students which is preceded by an introductory circuits course.

5 The major causes of lack of enthusiasm were felt to be: 1.  Superficial coverage leads to discipline-specific material being omitted. 2.  The absence of hands-on applications.

6 Conventional labs were not felt to be the answer. Several years ago the lab portion of the course was dropped because it too failed to motivate students.

7 Studio format vs. conventional labs  With conventional labs, students disconnect theory from practice.  Conducting labs in a different place to in-class theory exacerbates the problem.  Conventional labs follow a weekly schedule, which often causes the exercises to be force-fit.

8 In the studio format  Lectures & Labs are in the same room.  Class periods are 2 hours, 3 times per week, for 10 weeks (quarter system.)  A diverse set of learning tasks are undertaken in the 2-hour periods.

9 Required major room renovations and purchase of laboratory equipment. This work is partially supported by National Science Foundation grant DUE

10 Course Content:  Power and Machines  Signals and Measurement  Controls The course concludes with a study of an integrated system, requiring measurements to be used to control a power device.

11 CONCLUSIONS  The studio format worked very well.  Discipline-specific material is well received by students.  The course will become a prerequisite for ME311 Mechanical Measurements.