Lana
Krolikowski
Lana
Krolikowski
Hope College
Research Professor - Dr. John Krupczak
Supported by the NSF-REU
This summer I was an engineering researcher for John Krupczak, working on editing and designing projects for his class, Science and Technology for Everyday life. This class is geared towards non-SME&T (science, math, engineering and technology) majors who need to take classes in science and math.
My summer research was split into 2 parts. The first was spent working on improving parts of the engine lab, which is the first lab that the students do for the class. The latter part of my summer was spent developing a lab for the students that had to do with understanding the properties of fiber optics.
For the revision of the engine lab, I did two things. The first thing I did was to clean and prepare a new engine for the lab. In the lab the students take apart and put back together a 4-stroke engine. Previously the lab had 3 engine setup, so up to 18 students could get done per session. With the addition of my engine, 6 more students should be able to get done per session, which reduced the lab from being a 2 week long lab to only 1 week. I designed a procedure for my engine, which is slightly different from the other 3 because of the type of engine I prepared. I also wrote a paper describing what steps I had to go through to totally prepare this engine, from getting it on the stand to writing this procedure.
The second part of the engine revision I decided to create a photo guide for the 4 engines. The lab previously was very TA intensive, with the students asking many questions that were mostly identification questions. The purpose of the guide will be to give students something to help them identify parts of the engine in advance and during the lab so the TA and instructor will be able to answer more in depth questions.
These are some pictures that show what I did for the photo guide. I took various pictures, like the one on the left and then labeled them like the one on the right. For most of the engines I took pictures of each part individually but for engine # 5, my engine, I did more pictures like the one here. It will have to be seen which the students prefer and which will be used in the final copy of the photo guide.
For the second part of my summer research, I designed a two-part fiber optic lab. The first part concentrated on getting the students to understand the basic properties of fiber optics and how they are used today. The second part was to design a project for the students to do that they would be able to take home and keep.
For the first part of the project I made the investigative part very hands on. This makes sure that the students are interested in the project and that they come to more conclusions on their own than just being told information. They make various observations during the lab and comment on them for their lab report.
For the second part of the lab, I have the students put together a fiber optic light wand. This lab helps them understand not only the properties of fiber optics, but also lets them reinforce ideas learned in other labs. The students in this lab make a circuit consisting of 2 AA batteries, a switch and a socket with light bulb. This gets placed in a tube of electrical conduit tubing with end caps, one that has the switch screwed on and the other with the fiber optic strands. In completing this lab, the students also get to reintroduce the idea of electrical circuitry that they learned in a previous lab. Finally the students find the idea a novelty since it is only something you see at circuses and carnivals.
I also wrote a paper for the fiber optic part of my summer research to explain all that I had gone through to research and construct this lab. I did this so that future students who are designing labs for this class can have a general idea of what they will be doing to get a lab completed.
Click to see a slide show of Lana Krolikowski's work.