A Hands-on Project to Improve Student Learning Experience in Electronics: Building Ship Storage Room Security System

Project Based Learning (PBL) approach is known to motivate students to investigate and integrate knowledge of several domains to solve real-life problems. It drives students’ intrinsic curiosity to connect isolated concepts to optimize their learning outcomes. Taking the advantages of PBL, a ship storage room security system project was designed and implemented in a junior-level Electronics Lab course at our university. The purpose of the project was to help students to improve their understanding of electronic element characteristics and their abilities to interpret electronic diagrams, conFigure and operate of electronic equipment. During the project, students needed to (1) design an electronic diagram that is able to detect ship storage room door open/closed status, trigger an alarm system, and reset the alarm system, and then (2) build an integrated circuit on a breadboard by using various electronic elements following the electronic diagram. Students had to dig into different course contents instructed in class and at the same time learn other new knowledge from external resources, such as internet, industrial documents, etc, to combine them effectively to produce a practical solution. It has been observed that the project has successfully led the students to explore the underlying connections of a variety of electronic concepts from class and new knowledge from external resources reaching their increased understanding of electronics and overall course satisfaction. The student survey results indicate the project has demonstrated strong positive impacts on the improvement of their knowledge and skills in electronic elements, diagrams and equipment.