INDUCTION DIAMOND LABS - GIVING EVERYONE AN EQUAL STARTING POINT

Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) is a specialist department at the University of Sheffield, dedicated to the practical teaching of all the University's engineering students. To provide students a hands-on experience, MEE has a unique building (the Diamond) which includes 15 laboratories offering a spectrum of lab activities to approximately 6000 students. Students arrive at the University from a variety of different backgrounds. To ensure they start their experimental activities with an equal understanding, we provide different "Diamond Induction Labs”. During the first two weeks of the first semester, the students learn how to use hand tools, how to solder, understanding how to interpret data and manage uncertainty and how to do it safely. Three key aspects of this delivery method are considered. Firstly, the principles of laboratory practices are transferable to any engineering disciple. This leads to the second, which is that this delivery is done at scale - with minimal resources over 1000 students, perform the activities each year in a short window of time. Thirdly, it allows for teaching the subjects previously done though lectures using instead practical learning. In the "Danger-lab” we ask students to assess measuring the toughness of chocolate using a mini-Charpy impact tester. The danger is increased by asking the students to also dip the chocolate into liquid nitrogen. During the Measurements lab the students determine the variation in measured flow rates between different forms of instrumentation. While the students gain experience in reading instrumentation and recording data, they also develop an understanding of errors and uncertainty and how they propagate across calculations. We have found that students not only have more confidence in approaching learning in different labs, but they have an increased awareness of hazards in a laboratory, and a better understanding as to how to evaluate the uncertainty within practical work.