Chapter 2 Course Description
The course is designed to coincide with lecture content in a standard engineering instrumentation course. The students are guided through numerous projects detailed in the subsequent chapters (See Chapter 4-Chapter 21). During the semester and in addition to the weekly projects, there is a large project which involves some systems engineering techniques (See Chapter 3). Finally, a results and discussion chapter details the over analysis of the course as experienced by anonymous survey results and quotes from actual students (See Chapter 26).
The specific course learning objectives, which include statistics, dynamic responses, operational amplifiers, and electronic circuits both analog and digital are shown below:
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Apply statistical concepts of error and uncertainty analysis using normal,“t” distribution and the \(\chi^2\) distribution
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Use propagation of error methods to determine the uncertainty of calculated quantities
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Apply the concepts of harmonic response to predict the response of measuring systems to input signals
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Apply the fundamentals of operational amplifiers and electronic circuits to design signal conditioning circuits including
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Apply microprocessor fundamentals to gain an understanding of digital circuits used for digital to analog and analog to digital conversion
This course is not designed to be a traditional lecture format, rather hands-on projects will be assigned every Friday using the lab at home kit. The projects every Friday are created to enhance the course learning objectives as dictated above.
The course is taught on a 2+1 style where the course meets three days a week for 50 minutes each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Monday and Wednesday the class is similar to what would typically be found in a standard lecture format. The instructor goes through theory and examples on a white board. On Fridays, the students come to class with their hardware kits and laptops to perform one of 20+ projects defined in the tutorials in this textbook. Fridays are nicknamed "Funday Fridays" to differentiate the format of the class and to get students excited about the projects. On Fridays, the instructor can walk around the classroom and assist students on their projects as well as highlight fundamental concepts. This is done by showing them what they learned on a whiteboard with their lab at home kit. During the COVID-19 pandemic when Universities were meeting via Zoom, class time on Friday was used to assist students on their projects while they showed their circuits via webcam in a virtual space. Since all students purchased their own kit, there was no issue with students getting hands-on experience even during COVID-19.
It is important to note here that Project Based Learning (PBL) in this course did not replace existing teaching frameworks; rather, PBL supplemented existing standard teaching measures by allowing students to apply theory to practice. The role of connectivism comes from the online networking tools that were added to the curriculum. The tutorials and assignments as well as example code are all hosted online on Github [33]. The availability of these tutorials and software opens the students to an ecosystem of free and open source software. Furthermore, the Adafruit Learning System is also used occasionally which opens them to an ecosystem of hardware and software tutorials as well as Adafruit IO (an internet of things site) and the Adafruit Forums [32]. The Adafruit Forums allow the students to comment and communicate with other groups outside the university that utilize the same hardware kits. If the instructor cannot find a solution online in a Wiki or Tutorial page, a student or the instructor can post on the forum and wait for a response from the larger Adafruit community.
Students in this course are also required to do a final project where they must create something new by using the microcontroller in the kit plus three other electrical components. One of the three components must be something not originally included in the kit. The students may also work in a group. PBL typically consists of ownership, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. These four aspects are clearly a big part of this lab at home kit and the final project. They can work in groups: collaboration. They must make something new: creativity. They must build the item themselves: ownership. They must apply fundamental principles of the course: critical thinking. In addition to PBL aspects, the students are exposed to the larger network of learning through Github, the Adafruit Learning system and Forums as well as general Wikis online. This network of learning is seen in the connectivism framework. The chapters that follow detail essential systems engineering techniques for the final project as well as the individual weekly projects. The ending chapters explain results from anonymous course surverys from students taking the class as well as conclusions drawn from the authors and faculty who have taught the course.
