Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education Modified Studio Lab-Classroom Used to Teach Electrical and Computer Engineering to Non-Engineers

This paper addresses a solution to the challenge of teaching Electrical and Computer Engineering to non-engineering majors. All non-engineering students at the Naval Academy are enrolled in a two course Electrical Engineering sequence as a core requirement. There are many challenges in teaching this type of course. For example, the students have various mathematical abilities, most being humanities majors while others may major in Math or Physics. There is a diversity of learning styles in this mixed student population and, as a result, we have chosen to implement an interactive learning environment which we have found to be very suitable. The approach is a hands-on, learn by doing, integrated laboratory/classroom approach. To accomplish this, we constructed several studio classrooms, modified versions of those in use at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). One major difference is the number of students per section; ours are much smaller than RPI. Another difference is the need to teach a variety of subjects in the same classroom/lab. The two-course sequence covers everything from basic circuits and motors/generators to digital communications and networks. Our class sizes are small and there is a great deal of interaction between the students, working in teams and individually. In this pape