Exploring the Role of Reverse Engineering Pedagogy to Integrate Design Thinking and Physics in Interdisciplinary Education

This paper explores the ongoing endeavors of the researchers to integrate design thinking into university engineering physics classrooms using reverse engineering activities as an effort to reconcile the tension of implementing disciplinary subjects such as physics within an interdisciplinary learning environment and curriculum. Through the utilization of reverse engineering activities, engineering students are provided with a tool to approach their design challenges by incorporating the fundamental principles of physics. This study focuses on a compulsory classical mechanics and thermodynamics course for first-year undergraduates at an engineering and architecture university. As part of a two-week take-home activity, students were tasked with dissecting and investigating the underlying working principles of a radio-controlled toy car. Preliminary findings from this pilot study suggest a potential transfer of physics concepts from the activity to the tackling of standard physics questions. The survey results suggest an agreement to the relevance of physics within the interdisciplinary learning environment as recognized by the students.