Work in progress — Rules of engagement: Student interest and learning in hands-on laboratory experiences

In order to evaluate the impact of hands-on experiences on student learning, the authors developed and delivered five one-hour supplemental learning sessions to a group of approximately 25 students over two consecutive years. During the sessions, student groups participated in a total of 16 hands-on activities, ranging in length from 5 to 20 minutes each. The primary objective of the activities was to emphasize concepts that students were learning about in a transport phenomena course. Pre- and post-testing indicated that during both years, the sessions helped students learn. In the second year, students were surveyed to attempt to elucidate causes for their engagement levels with the various activities. Student ratings of their interest in an activity and their perception of the learning value of an activity were usually positively correlated. Both student interest and student perception of learning values were positively correlated to improved scores from pre- to post-testing for activities.