Practicing Hypothesis Report Testing - an Effort to Enhance the Learning in Design Analysis Laboratory

Abstract

Laboratory experiments are designed to develop the problem solving skills in students to bring research and practice culture. From the earlier reports, it has been found that running few but more open-ended experiments compared to exercises enhances the learning. Skills to execute open-ended experiments through mini lectures, additional reading material, tutorials or self-study are not greatly effective. To bridge this gap, an effort was made to practice hypothesis report testing before the conduction of open-ended experiment in Design Analysis (DA) lab. A hypothesis has been drawn from the journal paper and effort was directed to prove the hypothesis. The report format was designed with due emphasis on decision making in hypothesis report testing. Assessment was done through the rubrics set in accordance with ABET's 3b program outcome criteria. Authors witnessed improved proactiveness amongst students in executing the open-ended experiment, that lead to enhanced achievement of ABET's 3b program outcome.