Joining together theory and practice in the classroom for electrical engineering undergraduates: The large-scale portable laboratory

Abstract

[EN] Teaching electrical engineering requires a combination of theoretical and practical lessons to acquire knowledge and develop skills. However, in general, laboratory sessions are conducted separately from theoretical lessons for practical reasons. We shall describe a proposal to bridge the gap between theoretical explanation or exercises and practical application in a laboratory: the large-scale portable laboratory. This temporary laboratory can be set up and then collected again in a conventional classroom in just a few minutes. By using safe voltages and currents it allows us to illustrate and mmediately apply theoretical concepts or to discover some phenomena, which can then be explained theoretically. It is a tool to connect experimental observations and theoretical explanations during student learning. This laboratory has some physical limitations and does not replace practical sessions in an electrical engineering laboratory. A full session with this laboratory will be described and the results obtained will subsequently be presented. As a result, student involvement dramatically increases. It provided good results in learning and helped the electric laboratory sessions. Some difficulties such as preparation time and time spent during the session are also discussed.