A student-centered laboratory approach for teaching tissue mechanics
Kristen Billiar (Worcester Polytechnic Institut)
Mechanics Education
Mon 9:00 - 10:30
RI Hall 108
Student-centered instruction offers one of the most effective means of facilitating learning by compelling students to solve problems through a self-discovery process. In particular, the biomechanics laboratory provides an authentic context for students to attack clinical problems and an opportunity to observe how the physical world compares to the theoretical descriptions taught in the classroom. In this presentation, a series of biomechanics laboratory courses at WPI will be discussed. The objective of these courses is to aid students in making progress in problem identification, designing and executing experiments including statistical analysis of data, communicating their findings, and working in teams. In each course, an orthopedic surgeon poses a challenge for the students. To solve the challenge, the students work in teams to research the problem and develop a hypothesis or model system. They then design and complete experiments to test their hypotheses and/or validate their designs outside of class time. The courses are writing intensive due to their challenge-based. As the students had very limited experience writing in the profession, a large amount of class time is used for providing models and formative feedback on various draft stages. Not surprisingly, many students are not comfortable with the ambiguity associated with complex problems at first, yet they become more confident in attacking the open-ended challenges, developing their own experimental designs, and communicating their ideas as the term progresses. As the role of the instructor is that of a facilitator rather than lecturer, the breadth of subject matter that can be covered is much less than in a standard didactic course, and students requested more lectures. Overall, through these courses the students learn how to approach an authentic problem and progress substantially in their ability to communicate their proposed work and findings.