Experimentation in a Research Workshop: A Peer-learning Approach as a First Step to Scientific Competence

Abstract

Engineers are supposed to be clever innovators and creative problem solvers. First-year engineering students usually do not learn to solve technical problems creatively. They usually do not learn how to innovate. In this paper we describe FLExperiments as a new learning format in a research-based learning environment named FLEx-Forschungswerkstatt (research workshop). FLEx provides student-focused, competence-oriented and research-based learning. Conducting FLExperiments means that students solve small technical problems by experimentation and subsequently document their findings in a scientific report. In this learning process they are assisted by their peers, who act as tutors. FLExperimentation includes the iterative process of experiential learning synchronized with a research process. To demonstrate the idea of FLExperimentation we are giving the example of an experiment from the field of kinetics: the Loop.