Engaging High School and Engineering Students - Semantic Scholar

136

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 53, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2010

Engaging High School and Engineering Students: A Multifaceted Outreach Program Based on a Mechatronics Platform Riadh W. Y. Habash and Christine Suurtamm

Abstract—If we aim to enhance the interest of students in engineering and therefore produce the best engineers, it is essential to strengthen the pipeline to high school education. This paper discusses several outreach activities undertaken by the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa (UO), Ottawa, ON, Canada, to help the transition between high school and engineering education and to make students aware of the engineering profession. At the heart of these activities is mechatronics education, which demands an interdisciplinary approach, connects to fundamental math and science concepts, and promotes collaborative project-based learning (PBL). Connected to this focus, a multifaceted program of outreach activities has been initiated. The program includes creation of design-simulate-and-build projects by engineering and high school students, as well as an interactive presentation program whereby engineering students connect with high school students through the sharing of projects that they create in their engineering courses. The survey results indicate that for the high school students, these programs promote students’ awareness of engineering and how the mathematics and science they take in school connects to engineering concepts. For the engineering students, they are provided with a meaningful context within which to share their projects and explain their own understanding of engineering principles. Index Terms—Engineering career, math and science, mechatronics, outreach activities, project-based learning (PBL).

I. INTRODUCTION

E

NGINEERING is one of the few professions that high school students are unlikely to have contact with, whether in school or through their own experiences. If we aim to enhance the interest of students in engineering and accordingly produce the best engineers, it is very important to strengthen the pipeline to high school education. Strengthening the engineering career decision-making can happen in several ways [1]: through high school math and science courses, by providing career information, and through the influence of parents. It is important to reach Manuscript received January 30, 2009; revised May 18, 2009. First published October 16, 2009; current version published February 03, 2010. This work was supported by the Centre for University Teaching and the Office of the Vice President Academic and Provost, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. R. W. Y. Habash is with the School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada (e-mail: [email protected]). C. Suurtamm is with the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada (e-mail: [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2009.2025659

out to high school students to inform them about engineering concepts and how they connect to the math and science they are learning in high school. Career talks that guide high school students through the career path of an engineer, including the skills, education, and motivations involved, are another facet of the outreach process. Parents are identified as a strong preeminent influence on adolescents’ career decision-making, a fact that has been largely unrecognized by teachers and school administrators. In addition, it is important to provide a first-year program in engineering that builds on high school math and science and provides students with a strong view of the nature of engineering. This paper builds on this knowledge and presents a multifaceted outreach program that connects with students both as they are entering high school and as they are completing high school. The outreach program promotes engineering concepts and their relationship to science and math to a wide range of students, increasing the pool of students who will be both prepared for and interested in an engineering career. Furthermore, the program both draws on and builds the expertise of current engineering students as an aspect of their project-based learning (PBL) program. The Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa (UO), Ottawa, ON, Canada, have worked together since 2004 to create programs that complement existing activities to ease the transition from high school to first-year engineering. The Faculty of Engineering is made up of several engineering programs as well as computer science. The major engineering programs include the fields of chemical, civil, computer, electrical mechanical, and software. There is a focus on establishing an across-disciplines theme in the engineering program by introducing students to fields like mechatronics and biomedical engineering. The Faculty of Education prepares both elementary and secondary teachers and offers graduate programs in education. It also has a dedicated laboratory for research in math education supervised by the second author of this paper. Since both faculties focus research on such topics as the pedagogy of learning, the role of technology in education, assessment of student learning, as well as on specific disciplines such as math, it seemed natural for the two authors of this paper to work together on bridging the gap between high school and engineering education. The collaboration provides a link between the knowledge and pedagogical practices in both high school and university contexts. In addition, the partnership has resulted in outreach programs for high school students including a recent activity that puts Ottawa engineering students in high school classrooms.

0018-9359/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE Authorized licensed use limited to: Univ Politecnica de Madrid. Downloaded on April 27,2010 at 10:53:28 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

HABASH AND SUURTAMM: MULTIFACETED OUTREACH PROGRAM BASED ON MECHATRONICS PLATFORM

II. EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES Today’s high school students may lack interest in science and math due to insufficient connections between their work in math and science classes and real-life applications. At the same time, these students are attracted to new gadgets such as video games, iPods, and cell phones, which rely on engineering principles that integrate math, science, and technology. The challenge is to build on students’ interest in engineering applications and to make them aware of the potential of engineering in their life. The goals are to attract high school students to engineering, and for those who do choose engineering, to provide a smooth transition from high school to engineering. The problem of transition between high school and first-year engineering programs is well-documented in the engineering education literature [2], [3]. In terms of attracting students to engineering, there have been many outreach programs that have been designed to familiarize high school students with engineering concepts [3]. Several of these programs have targeted audiences who might not otherwise think of engineering as an option, and they use a variety of means of outreach such as virtual technology or incorporating introductory engineering courses in a high school program. The transition issue has also been addressed at the entry level into engineering through means that include restructuring the first-year engineering program and providing sessions and academic counseling during the first year to ease the transition [2], [3]. Some innovative ideas include revamping first-year engineering programs to incorporate pedagogies such as cooperative or collaborative learning [4] or PBL [5]–[7] that help students work together to connect engineering concepts to real-world applications. Furthermore, revising and reorganizing the content of the first-year engineering courses to provide an integrated approach, such as a focus on mechatronics, can provide a bridging platform between various engineering disciplines; it also helps to bridge the gap between high school education and expected standards for engineering education [8]. The UO has incorporated many of the ideas that others have found to be of benefit in addressing the issue of transition. For instance, the UO engineering program uses the integration of several disciplines to attract students to engineering ideas and to help them connect the pure and applied subject matter in a way that extends math, science, engineering, and technology into their world. The program focuses on mechatronics as a learning platform to support student learning in engineering. The program also strives to improve teaching in engineering, especially through the use of PBL, which provides teachers and students with experience in system integration and the product development cycle, including modeling, simulation, analysis, prototyping, and validation stages. In addition, the engineering program has developed a series of outreach activities as a bridging platform between the UO and high schools in Ottawa that have the following focuses: • to promote engineering education collaboration in community outreach to excite the high school students about the field of engineering; • to boost the ability of high school teachers to prepare students for engineering practice and innovations;

137

• to enhance early exposure to interdisciplinary design and the growing field of mechatronics in order to engage young minds in a high-tech subject that integrates various engineering disciplines including electronics, computers, and mechanics. In the following sections, the use of mechatronics as a learning platform in the engineering program is explained. Then, the work of building a multifaceted program of outreach activities, some of which have the unique feature of connecting engineering students with high school students to share their knowledge of engineering and to connect students with engineering concepts, is described.

III. MECHATRONICS AS A LEARNING PLATFORM Mechatronics is the synergic design of computer-controlled electromechanical systems. It has been evolving over the last few decades as an emerging field of pedagogy within engineering curricula, and a focus on mechatronics helps to bridge the gap for high school students entering engineering. The development of mechatronics may be attributed to the rising number of applications and product development at the interfaces of traditional disciplinary boundaries within the broad areas of electrical, electronics, computer, and mechanical engineering. Many authors have attempted to define mechatronics since it was first established as an academic subject [9]–[11]. Several of those definitions can be summarized as follows: “Mechatronics is an interdisciplinary engineering process, which involves the design and manufacture of intelligent products or systems involving hybrid mechanical and electronic functions.” In mechatronics, there is a synergy in the integration of mechanical, electrical, and computer tools with information systems for the design and manufacture of products and processes. This includes system analysis and design, decision and control theory, sensors and actuators, microprocessors, prototyping, interfacing, and so on. The synergy can be generated by the right combination of parameters; that is to say, the final product can be better than just the sum of its parts. Given the role of electronics as a fundamental grounding for other disciplines [12], the design of learning activities should include practical exercises in which the students develop whole systems involving multidisciplinary knowledge. In a multidisciplinary education context, PBL [13] appears as one of the most interesting instructional strategies [14]. PBL differs from the typical lecture teaching where the instructor teaches fixed problems using common techniques. With PBL, the students’ understanding of the material deepens by requiring them to apply the learned techniques to an open-ended task. The students receive feedback on aspects of a design as they progress in the project, and it is easy for them to recognize the connection between various subject areas. Also, PBL is more closely aligned with teaching methods that are encouraged in the high school mathematics and science curricula. For instance, in Ontario, the province where the UO is situated, both the math and science curricula for high school students place emphasis on problemsolving and student investigations [15], [16].

Authorized licensed use limited to: Univ Politecnica de Madrid. Downloaded on April 27,2010 at 10:53:28 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

138


TABLE I RESPONSE OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DURING AN INFORMATION SESSION IN 2007

In the following outreach activities, mechatronics has been chosen as an effective platform of learning that helps engineering students interact with high school students, which then helps high school students recognize the connection between topics in science, math, and engineering and, as a result, gain a better understanding of real-life applications. IV. OUTREACH ACTIVITIES The authors carry out a multifaceted outreach program that takes on a variety of forms, including traditional activities such as holding information sessions and creating Web-based resources. However, they also have activities targeting students before they enter high school, such as the Spring Enrichment course for 8th- to 10th-grade students. This activity also includes discussions with parents, which have been shown to be an important component to promoting engineering. One of the most innovative programs is the presentation of engineering student projects to groups of high school students. This program enhances both the engineering students’ experience and the high school students’ interest. The outreach activities outlined below are aimed not only at increasing high school student awareness of engineering, but also at responding to the demand for integrating more PBL in engineering education. The discussion of these activities describes the programs and presents the results of student surveys to show the impact on student learning and understanding of engineering. Details of these outreach activities are available at: http://www.www.g9toengineering.com/activities/main.htm. A. Information Sessions In 2007, the first author conducted two information sessions at All Saints Catholic High School in Ottawa, ON, Canada,

and École Polyvalente Le Carrefour in Gatineau, Quebec, QC, Canada. The sessions consisted of a career talk and were intended for students in grades 9–12. Career talks guided students through the career path of an engineer, including the skills, education, and motivations involved. The sessions also included a question-and-answer time, an overview of engineering disciplines, and a glimpse into the outreach activities that link math and science to engineering. The goal of the sessions was to help build long-term collaborative relationships between high schools and the UO. The information sessions led to further collaboration between engineering students and high school students as described later in this paper. Table I shows the results of a survey for 54 high school students who have attended the information session at All Saints Catholic High School. As shown in Table I, more than 73% of students see math and engineering as a way to solve problems; 41% of the students recognized math as a tool for everyday life, while 55% of the students recognized engineering as a tool for everyday life; 64% of the students recognized math programs at the high school as a way to prepare students for university or college math or other education, while 73% of students realized the role of math in science and technology. B. Internet Learning Resource The Internet is currently one of the first places where people go for information, and it can be of great assistance to both educators and students. Hence, in 2007, the authors started an outreach Web site (www.g9toengineering.com) that provides easy access to information and resources on engineering that would be relevant to high school students and teachers. In addition to giving details of the various outreach activities,



the Web site includes a listing of various definitions and interpretations of the term “engineering,” along with links to their sources. It also includes descriptions of the different disciplines of engineering including the interdisciplinary fields of mechatronics, aerospace, biomedical engineering, and engineering management. The resources section of the Web site provides many learning modules that describe the basics of mechanical, fluid, thermal, and electrical systems. The modules help students learn how engineers use math, science, and technology in engineering problem-solving, a step that leads to engineering design. The Web site has also become a way to keep former students informed about present and future outreach activities. C. Enrichment Course: “Robots to Play: Robots to Learn” Since 2002, the first author of this paper has delivered a series of enrichment courses. Usually, this week-long course is held in the first week of May. The main objective of the enrichment course is to provide education to early or pre-high school students about engineering and to show them that it may be a feasible career choice. The course has been of particular interest to 8th-grade students, as much of the class is made up of these students who will be entering high school the following Fall. The course includes lectures, hands-on practical activities, instruction by undergraduate engineering students and engineering and education faculty, and the engagement of high school students in the sort of reasoning and problem-solving used by engineers. From 2002 until 2007, the enrichment course title was “The Well Rounded Engineer.” However, the course for 2008 mainly focused on robotics and mechatronics and was titled “Robots to Play: Robots to Learn.” This revised week-long course kept the main format of the previous years, but included new projects based on Lego Mindstorms and deleted some of the laboratory tours and exercises that previous years’ participants did not enjoy as much as others. The aim of the course was to highlight the fun and excitement of engineering and to engage young students in some of the PBL strategies that are used in engineering courses. In addition, building robots with Lego pieces immediately interested students and allowed them to focus on learning about sensors, motors, and controllers. Two days prior to the start of the course, the instructors (the authors and four undergraduate electrical and mechanical students) met with the high school students registered in the course and their parents in the course classroom. The content of the course, the methodology of instruction, and the activities involved were all described and explained to the parents and students so that they would know the rationale of the program and what to expect. The course was scheduled over a one-week period. Individual days consisted of 3-h morning and 2-h afternoon sessions separated by 1 h for lunch (for a total of 6 h per day). Morning sessions generally consisted of a presentation delivered by one of the authors demonstrating various engineering topics and relating them to basic math and science. Afternoon sessions were in a lab and connected engineering students with high school students as engineering students explained and demonstrated the projects that they had designed in their courses. The objective of this structure was to provide a sufficient “hands-on” opportunity for the students while still providing a pedagogically

139

sound learning environment with a chance for the students to interact with one another. The syllabus of the enrichment course is shown in Table II. Prior to the enrichment course, the students completed a preprogram questionnaire, which included asking them to describe what an engineer does and to identify their favorite subjects in school. Less than a third of the high school participants could correctly describe engineering or what an engineer does. After participating in the course, the students completed a post-program evaluation. More than three-quarters of the students gave an accurate description of engineering and what engineers do. Examples of such descriptions were: “An engineer is a problem-solver.” “An engineer researches and develops things to serve the community.” “Engineers design and build things; anything (almost) can be engineered.” “Engineers use technology to develop devices to help improve people’s lives.” This demonstrates that the course had a positive influence on students’ understanding of engineering and what engineers do. Another part of the questionnaire asked students to provide comments about the course. The comments were all positive and included specifics about what students learned and what they liked. Examples include: “I enjoy electronics and I learnt a lot about robots/electronics in this course.” “I learnt Ohm’s law, how to build circuits, all about engineering, and how to program a Lego Mindstorms.” “Engineering is a fun way to use math and science.” In addition to the questionnaire, the students filled out a course evaluation form on the last day of the course. The responses indicated that the students rated the content, clarity, and class interactions as good or excellent. All students considered this course to be interesting. Students reported that the robot and practical electronic sessions provided them with the hands-on experience of incorporating science and engineering. Students felt that building robots and electronic circuits was a new experience that highly impacted their understanding of engineering. The instructors observed that the high school students were enthusiastic about the practical operation of their laboratory exercises. They were satisfied with the topics and suggested that the same content be kept for 2009 program. Also, the instructors asked students to recognize elements of math and science in their robotic and electronic exercises. Students realized how math is applied to electronics and automation through fractions, equations, points, lines, and angles. The introduction of this course has enhanced students’ realization of engineering through the integration of sensors, motors, and gears and stimulated their interest in the area of mechatronics. The instructors observed that students gained increased confidence in their ability to use the knowledge gained in math and science subjects. Consequently, this course helps to make


140


TABLE II SYLLABUS OF THE ENRICHMENT COURSE

the educational experience more interesting and may encourage high school students to select engineering in their future studies. D. Projects: Connecting High School Students and the Engineering Class Another outreach component is for engineering student projects to be shared with high school students. The objectives are threefold. One is to introduce high school students to the field of engineering and show the connections between their high school math and science learning and the field of engineering. Another objective is to provide a meaningful context for the engineering students to share their projects and to explain engineering concepts in a way that makes them meaningful to high school students. The third objective is to provide a setting for high school students to connect with engineering students and engineering students in turn to serve as role models for the younger students. Projects are introduced into engineering courses offered by the first author in order to increase students’ motivation, provide a context for practical engineering skills, encourage student teamwork, and integrate hands-on mechatronics in the educational program. Each student project requires the development of building blocks for the design of a mechatronics system. These projects involve teams of two to three students and require a mechatronics kit that consists of breadboards, sensors, motors, gears, controllers, and other accessories.

The students define their project topics according to their own interests. The first author teaches three undergraduate courses: electronics to third-year mechanical engineering students, and both electronics and control systems to fourth-year electrical engineering students. The three courses create a foundation for mechatronics. Students taking these courses are encouraged to form groups and pick a project that can be successfully completed. Projects are divided into two categories: educational and technical. Educational projects that include components of high school math and science are presented to high school students at the end of each semester, while technical projects are presented in the classroom. Project guidelines, constraints, presentation format, research resources, and deadlines are clearly specified at the beginning of the semester. These guide the students through the methodical design and help to guarantee that the educational and performance objectives of the project are satisfied. Students are given a two-week period to conduct a literature review and select a topic for their project. Topics usually address a need within society or industry. A plan, including a design brief, has to be submitted and is judged by the instructor (first author) and teaching assistants (TAs). The design brief assists them in devising active experiments that lead to more concrete experiences. The groups are advised to use the electronic journals facility at the digital library. After approval of the plan, simulation and detailed characterization of the components in the setup has to be completed. Students are encouraged to apply what they learned in lectures



141

TABLE III EXAMPLES OF EDUCATION-BASED PROJECTS AND LEANING OUTCOMES

in their design project. This process is judged again by the supervisors, and then the construction of the prototype begins. Often, impressive prototypes are realized. At the end of the semester, each group gives a demonstration of their project to the instructor and TAs in the laboratory. The students are also required to give two oral presentations. The first of these presentations is the proposal given in the classroom after selection of topic (brainstorming concepts and design review). The final presentation is given in the classroom on the final week of study. A written report and/or Web-based summary are also submitted. Overall, the project quality in terms of completeness of both electrical and mechanical design is assessed by the instructor and the TAs. The students have developed many education-based projects. Their concepts can be roughly grouped into three categories: sensors, sensor-actuator systems, and control. It is necessary to note that students are, for the most part, mostly conducting a system design where electrical and mechanical components must work together. Students breadboard their circuitry and observe the functionality of the circuitry by the use of test equipment in the lab. Each project has unique problems, but the key point is that these are problems that students are willing to solve through defining the project themselves. Table III shows a list of projects and their learning outcomes through applying science and math studied in the high school. The authors and students from the Faculty of Engineering visited All Saints Catholic High School on November 28, 2007, so

that the engineering students could present their projects on sensors and actuators. Given the competitive nature of the project and the venues where the presentations are held, the students work very aggressively to create the most successful systems. Some of the engineering students also met with the second author to discuss pedagogical approaches suitable for high school students and to verify that the math they are presenting connects to high school math. The event, designed to inspire high school students about the engineering profession, was delivered to approximately 100 7thto 12th-grade students who are enrolled in math and science courses. Engineering students talked about their projects and discussed concepts of engineering. Computer displays, mockups, and functioning prototypes were also displayed, and the high school students had the opportunity to interact with some of these. The presentations focused on the integration of math, science, engineering, and computer technology in mechatronics design. The high school students were presented with various systems and interacted with robots that had a variety of sensors. Enthusiastic audience participation and written feedback indicate that the collaboration of engineering students with the high school students was very successful. A brief written survey was conducted at the end of the presentations and had survey responses from 44 high school students. The survey responses indicate that all (100%) of the students either agree or strongly agree that the presentations were interesting. Nearly all (97%) of the students thought that the presentations helped them un-


142


TABLE IV CONTRIBUTION OF OUTREACH ACTIVITIES TO MEET EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES

derstand how the math and science they learn in school apply to real life. Students also came away with a better sense of what engineering is. A large majority (72%) of the students thought that the presentations helped to make them a little more interested in science and math. Also, 86% of the students found a career in engineering more interesting because of the presentations. It is clear that the presentations helped to increase students’ awareness of engineering, its application to real life, and its connection to the math and science they learn in school. On March 31, 2008, another presentation was given at the same school, targeting grades 11 and 12. At this presentation, a group of four fourth-year electrical engineering students from the UO presented their work on control systems and feedback. The presentation was an attempt to provide a bridge between traditional mathematical knowledge such as algebra, trigonometry, and vectors, which most students had seen in a math or physics course. For instance, it was shown that the input and output signals to the system are functions and that these functions can be added and multiplied by scalars. These two operations on functions have algebraic properties that are completely analogous to the operation of adding vectors and multiplying a vector by a scalar [17]. Finally, it was concluded that the mathematical foundation for system engineering rests on vector spaces. The engineering students aimed to introduce feedback control as being a useful design principle as well as essential for understanding both natural and artificial complex systems. The presentation consisted of a computer-based learning environment designed to help students come to a more expert understanding of feedback control systems. In particular, it was designed to help students develop their own internal model of feedback systems. In addition, the presentation included demonstrations with various control systems examples including the Lego Mindstorms collection, a set of videos demonstrating control systems in action (for example, how cruise control and adaptive cruise control work), and a valuable interaction session where select students tried some of the Mindstorms collection. Much of the presentation was interactive so as to engage the students

with the subject matter. Students were also provided with fun Web references where they can explore the subject matter further. The high school students who attended the presentation were given evaluation forms. A summary of the results for the 32 high school students who responded show that all (100%) students agreed or strongly agreed that the presentations were good and the presenters were competent. This shows that the high school students made strong connections with the engineering students and that the engineering students were well prepared and presented the material at an appropriate level. Furthermore, the survey results show that 94% agreed or strongly agreed that the information was useful; 94% agreed or strongly agreed that they saw how math and science can be used in the real world, and 84% agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to see more presentations of this type in the future. Feedback was also received from the high school teachers, who felt that the presentations would greatly benefit students in mathematics and science classrooms as it helps them see the useful applications of these disciplines. On the other hand, engineering students were excited to interact with the high school students, an opportunity they wished they were given when they were that age. In general, the presentations and subsequent feedback show that this outreach activity is an effective educational tool to encourage and motivate engineering students to develop such a sound understanding of the scientific and mathematical roots of engineering concepts so that they can effectively share their knowledge with the high school students. These project presentations also encouraged high school students to connect the math and science they learn in high school to real-life applications, which led to their developing a better understanding of, and appreciation for, engineering. V. CONCLUSION AND LESSONS LEARNED Encouraging high school students to learn more about engineering and creating a smooth transition between high school and engineering education is essential to producing high-quality



engineers. This paper emphasized the evolution of mechatronics as an interdisciplinary field and showed how mechatronics is developed, taught, and shared with high school students. It also described how the outreach program is embedded in the engineering program so that engineering students work as a team to design projects and communicate their understanding with high school students. The paper also highlights the importance of outreach programs. The survey results show a significant contribution of the various outreach activities to help meet educational challenges. Table IV provides a summary of some of the challenges and the different components of the outreach program that addressed them. This table highlights the important role that the Internet learning resource (www.g9toengineering.com), enrichment course, and project presentations played in addressing the educational challenges. For instance, the varieties of real-life applications presented in the project presentations and in the enrichment course helped students to realize the impact of math and science in the real world. Also, students involvement in projects helped them develop the ability to function well and communicate in a team. The close connection between the activities and the principal educational challenges is a strong argument for further development and dissemination of educational activities in engineering, especially those that involve engineering students connecting with high school students to share knowledge and experience. It was found that having high school students and engineering students working together created a reciprocal synergy that brought forth the connections between math, science, and engineering and promoted the understanding and value of engineering for both groups.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to express gratitude to UO for the valuable financial assistance that makes “the Mechatronics mini-lab” possible. They also thank L. Krauthaker, coordinator of Cooperative Education, and C. Morreau, Science Department head at All Saints Catholic High School, Ottawa, ON, Canada, for their cooperation.

REFERENCES [1] C. M. Jagacinski, W. K. Lebold, K. W. Linden, and K. D. Shell, “Factors influencing the choice of an engineering career,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. E-28, no. 1, pp. 36–42, Feb. 1985. [2] D. Budny, “The freshman seminar: Assisting the freshman engineering student’s transition from high school to college,” in Proc. ASEE Annu. Conf. Exp., Albuquerque, NM, Jun. 2001, pp. 1–7. [3] L. Jackson, “Applying virtual technology: A joint project between the University of Queensland and Townsville State High School,” Australian Sci. Teachers, vol. J.46, no. 2, pp. 19–22, 2000. [4] M. Huang, D. Malicky, and S. Lord, “Choosing an optimal pedagogy: A design approach,” in Proc. 35th Annu. ASSE/IEEE FIE Conf., San Diego, CA, Oct. 28–31, 2006, pp. 1–6.

143

[5] J. Froyd, A. Srinivasa, D. Maxwell, A. Conkey, and K. Shryock, “A project-based approach to first-year engineering curriculum development,” in Proc. 35th Annu. ASSE/IEEE FIE Conf., Indianapolis, Oct. 19–22, 2005, p. T3H. [6] E. Moesby, “Curriculum development for project-oriented and problem-based learning with emphasis on personal skills and abilities,” Global J. Eng. Educ., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 121–128, 2005. [7] E. Moesby, H. H. W. Johannsen, and L. Kornov, “Individual activities as an integrated part of project work: An innovative approach to project oriented and problem-based learning,” World Trans. Eng. Tech. Educ., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 11–17, 2006. [8] Y. Doppelt, “Assessment of project-based learning in a mechatronics context,” J. Tech. Educ., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 7–24, 2005. [9] T. R. Hsu, “Mechatronics—An overview,” IEEE Trans. Compon. Packag., Manuf. Technol. C., vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 4–7, Jan. 1997. [10] M. Acar, “Mechatronics challenge for higher education world,” IEEE Trans. Compon. Packag., Manuf. Technol. C., vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 14–20, 1997. [11] M. Grimheden, “Mechatronics engineering education,” Ph.D., KTH Industrial Engineering and Management, Stockholm, Sweden, 2006. [12] J. Macías-Guarasa, J. M. Montero, and R. San-Segundo, “A projectbased learning approach to design electronic systems curricula,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 389–397, Aug. 2006. [13] G. Solomon, “Project-based learning: A primer,” Technol. Learn., vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 20–30, Jan. 2003. [14] M. Hedley, “An undergraduate microcontroller systems laboratory,” IEEE Trans. Educ., vol. 41, pp. 345–353, Nov. 1998. [15] “The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10: Mathematics, 2005 (Revised),” Ontario Ministry of Education, Queen’s Printer, Toronto, ON, 2005. [16] “The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10: Science, 2008 (Revised),” Ontario Ministry of Education, Queen’s Printer, Toronto, ON, 2008. [17] D. C. Lay, Linear Algebra and Its Applications. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley, 2003. [18] M. C. Borba and N. F. Scheffer, “The mathematics of motion, sensors, and the introduction of function to eight graders in Brazil,” presented at the Annu. Meeting Amer. Educ. Res. Assoc., Seattle, WA, Apr. 10–14, 2001. [19] J. Cortes and W. B. Dunbar, “A high school-level course in feedback control,” IEEE Control Syst. Mag., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 79–89, Jun. 2007. Riadh W. Y. Habash received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq, in 1979 and 1983, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical communication engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 1994. He has taught and participated in various research projects in Iraq, India, Malaysia, Finland, and Canada. He is currently a Faculty Member of Electrical Engineering at the School of Information Technology and Engineering, holding a research chair at the R. Samuel McLaughlin Centre for Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. He has developed an academic record that yielded three books, three book chapters, two proceedings, and more than 50 journal and conference papers. His research interests are in the areas of bioeffects of electromagnetic fields, mechatronics, and engineering education. Dr. Habash has been a Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada, since 2002.

Christine Suurtamm received the B.A. degree in mathematics from York University, Toronto, ON, Canada in 1973, and the M.A. and Ed.D. degrees in mathematics education from the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, in 1993 and 1999, respectively. She is currently an Associate Professor of mathematics education at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada, and is Director of the Pi Lab, a laboratory for research in mathematics teaching and learning, funded by the Canada Foundation of Innovation, that is located at the university. Her research interests include mathematics teaching and learning, with a particular focus on the role of the teacher in facilitating mathematical inquiry, and classroom assessment. Dr. Suurtamm is active in the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG) and serves as the Canadian Representative on the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), where she is on the Executive Committee.
