- PT Spicer and SW Prescott. Self-directed experimentation and reverse engineering consumer products as a route to learning about complex fluids. In S Griffith, K Carruthers and M Bliemel (eds.): Visual tools for developing cross-disciplinary collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship capacity, Vol. 20 November 2018
Abstract:
Reverse engineering offers a model of enquiry-based learning in which students can
collaborate to investigate how existing, familiar products work and emulate the
innovative steps that are central to product development. The reverse engineering
process offers a context in which the requisite content knowledge is immediately
useful, as well as teaching the relevant experimental and investigative skills required
to design and troubleshoot products in industrial laboratories. In this study, final year
undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students worked in teams to discover
how familiar consumer, household or food products are engineered. The students
drew on their backgrounds in chemical engineering and food science/technology to
analyse the fluid properties, the underpinning molecular basis for these properties and
how these properties were experienced by the end-user of the product. Students were
challenged to develop hypotheses about the microstructures within their chosen
product and then test these hypotheses by designing and performing simple
experiments using only equipment that was to hand in their kitchens. Selected video-
based experimental methods were demonstrated to the students who then adapted the
protocols to produce and analyse their own video content. The students presented
their experimental methods and communicated their findings to the class in
presentations and by producing short videos. The reverse engineering activity was
found to be a highly successful major assignment as part of the course on complex
fluids, offering flexibility for the diverse interests and backgrounds of the students as
well as opportunities to explore the field.
Last edited: Friday September 10, 2010
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