Eberly Center

Motivating students through the real-worldlike assessment strategy

Nelson, D., Lai, A., & Soohoo, E.

Biomedical Engineering Applications was a new project-based class designed by me and two co-instructors for the Summer Academy for Math and Science. This intensive, six-week summer course for high school seniors met 3 days/week for 2.5 hours/day to develop medical device prototypes. We structured the project tasks to mimic the ideation of a medical device from its concept to production and incorporated real-world examples with each task. For example, we introduced the importance and complexity of creating well-articulated need statements through examples of obesity, arthroscopy, and vascular stents. Incorporating relevant examples into a lesson or lecture helps students see how the material relates to the real world. In this way, concrete examples can motivate students to learn the material—not only because it is interesting, but also because it will be useful. This strategy especially benefits mini and higher-level courses where topics are either covered quickly or are more abstract.

Diane Nelson, Chemical Engineering CIT

Angela Lai, Biomedical Engineering CIT

Elaine Soohoo, Biomedical Engineering CIT