Exploring the Basic Principles of Electric Motors and Generators With a Low-Cost Sophomore-Level Experiment

In order to meet changing curricular needs, an electric motor and generator laboratory experience was designed, implemented, and assessed. The experiment is unusual in its early placement in the curriculum and in that it focuses on modeling electric motors, predicting their performance, and measuring efficiency of energy conversion. While subfractional-horsepower electric motors and a primitive, but unique, small-scale dynamometer were used, experimental results proved to be reliable, accurate, and repeatable. The change in student knowledge and confidence in the application of that knowledge was assessed and shown to have increased significantly in both cases.