VECTOR: A Hands-On Approach That Makes Electromagnetics Relevant to Students

A two-course sequence in electromagnetics (EM) was developed in order to address a perceived lack of student learning and engagement observed in a traditional, lecture-based EM course. The two-course sequence is named VECTOR: Vitalizing Electromagnetic Concepts To Obtain Relevance. This paper reports on the first course of the sequence. VECTOR incorporates active learning methods with three projects to address three interrelated objectives: 1) to make the required EM course more relevant to students by demonstrating the impact of EM on emerging technologies; 2) to teach students how to utilize modern EM simulation and characterization tools; and 3) to improve student attitudes towards the introductory EM course in order to help pipeline students into the electromagnetics-photonics specialization in the undergraduate program. To assess the effectiveness of VECTOR the course was taught in a lecture format for one semester, then taught for three semesters in the project-based format. The assessment indicated that VECTOR caused significant changes to how and what students learned. VECTOR was effective in meeting the first objective, and achieved mixed success on the others.