Incorporating Inquiry-Based Projects into the Early Lab Experience

In using the traditional approach for teaching laboratory, the instructor provides detailed instructions for completing the lab and, after performing the lab, students report results in either a written or oral report.This approach effectively introduces the techniques and technical writing skills required of all engineers, but the process also has a tendency to become a bit redundant for both the instructor and the students.Chemical Engineering instructors at the University of Arkansas have addressed this problem by introducing an inquiry-based learning approach in the introductory laboratory during the Fall and Spring semesters of the 2011-2012 school year.The inquiry-based laboratory still introduces the students to technical writing and simple measurements, but also creates interest in chemical engineering by allowing students to design experiments on their own.As expected, student feedback revealed some frustration with the vague nature of the inquiry-based learning approach but, overall, the students appreciated the challenge and acknowledged that the problems were interesting and useful.