Applying PBL methodology and flipped learning to laboratory course for Mechanical Engineers

Elasticity and Strength of Materials is an elementary discipline across many engineering degrees. Students perceive it as very difficult and abstract and students' active participation in the learning process is needed, due to its complexity and importance during the whole degree years. Hence, the main difficulty in teaching them is maintaining students' motivation and keeping their participation in the learning process. This is the reason to use new tools, such as problem-based learning (PBL) and flipped classroom, to help students understand and study the subject. In this work, we present the application of a problem-based learning to the lab in the Mechanical engineering degree, in of one the most time-consuming and difficult subjects of its program. Moreover, to enhance students' enthusiasm and motivation, these sessions included an innovative manufacturing technology, 3D printing, and digital image correlation (DIC). Before each practical session, the students are encouraged to watch an online video with the fundamental aspects. In order to assess the success of this laboratory course, after finishing the lab sessions, the students answered a non-formal quantitative survey. The results showed that the proposed project-based learning had the ability to help integrating the knowledge and improve the skills included in the main competences. Although these results are encouraging, there are still parts of the lab activity that should be improve in order to make the activity less time consuming and the most difficult part being easier for the students.