In the course of my summer at Hope College, I was an advisee of John Krupczak, Professor of Engineering. The focus of my research was to create a lab that John could use in his class "Science and Technology for Everyday Life," a science course specifically aimed at non-science majors. Because this target group of students cannot be assumed to have the intrinsic motivation toward the sciences present in most science majors, developing methods for inspiring interest becomes necessary.

Attracting and maintaining the interest of non-science students to technological and scientific ideas has been a concern of John’s since he first decided to teach this course. Through researching and his own experience, John has found that if a few basic guidelines are kept in mind while constructing labs, non-science courses can produce a high success rate among students. Some of these parameters include the following lab characteristics: relatively cheap so the student may take the finished product home, robust—works despite slight imperfections that may occur during construction, focus on a device that is easily identifiable—similar to commercial product, scientific principles involved are not too complex, require only basic technical skills, and above all, the student must feel that the time and effort expended on the project was rewarded.