I had the pleasure to work with Rollin Hotchkiss, a gifted scholar and teacher of Civil Engineering at Brigham Young University. We did a qualitative research study on the value of project-based learning in engineering education to increase student interest, understanding, and their sense of relevance of the material. We published with the American Society of Engineering Educators “A Case Study of How Project-Based Learning Helps Increase Interest, Understanding, and Relevance in Engineering for Learners.”
Major take-aways: “Based on the collected data, students felt that the competitive project-based approach to learning was helpful to them. They were required to think in new and innovative ways and learn to enhance their communication and teamwork skills, though they thought the timing and the sequence of some aspects of the project-based portion of the course could be revised to better fit the course flow and structure. Students explained that when they were asked to find creative ways to teach the engineering principles to others they found greater relevance in the course material to their own lives and greater engagement to master the material.”
