This week I asked the students a few questions. I had a few objectives:
- Evaluate lab instructors (based on student’s comfort level coming into the Lab Final)
- Evaluate students comfort level coming into the Lab Final
- Evaluate the the perceived value of individual lab exercises based on student feedback.
- What lab section are you in?
- If the Lab Final was right now, are you ready?
- Which lab exercise was the biggest waste of time?
- Which lab exercise was the most valuable?
If the Lab Final was right now, are you ready?
| Section | Ready | Not Ready | % Ready |
| ? | 1 | 1 | 50% |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | 63% |
| 2 | 7 | 4 | 64% |
| 3 | 6 | 2 | 75% |
| 4 | 9 | 3 | 75% |
| Total | 28 | 13 | 68% |
What have I learned?
- Sections 2 and 4 have the most lecture attendees.
- Sections 3 and 4 are the most confidant.
- 68% over all confidence level is disappointing.
Which Exercise was the |
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biggest waste of time? |
most valuable? |
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| Exercise | # Votes | Exercise | # Votes | |
| Measurement | 9 | Base | 19 | |
| Base | 4 | Cylinder | 3 | |
| Engraving | 3 | Engraving | 2 | |
| Deflection | 3 | Choke | 2 | |
| Turning Experiment | 2 | Part Probing | 2 | |
| Choke | 1 | Deflection | 1 | |
| Part Probing | 1 | Tool Probing | 1 | |
| Loading NC Code | 1 | Lathe Exercises | 1 | |
What have I learned?
I suppose I’m not really surprised by the results. We’ve known that we need to do something about the measurement lab, and we hadn’t started to talk about measurement in class when this question was asked so there was really no tie in to the lectures and I think it takes too long. I think we can teach some important concepts in this exercise but we aren’t really doing a good job of it yet.
On the value added side I was really fishing. I didn’t really have a candidate in mind. Based on the specific comments written on the cards it makes sense that the base was the big winner. I’m assuming that it was the combination of cam and machining that went together and the fact that the students had to apply the things they’ve already learned that made it popular.