A CREATIVE AND LOW-COST METHOD OF TEACHING HANDS ON ENGINEERING EXPERIMENTATION USING VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

Virtual instrumentation is now used in the college level to teach mech anical engineering experimentation to undergraduates at Tufts Universi ty. By combining LabVIEW(R) with LEGO(R) Dacta blocks, students learn to write virtual instrumentation programs to interact with external se nsors and actuators in an innovative hands-on approach to engineering experiments. The LEGO Data Acquisition and Prototyping System (LDAPS) is a collection of versatile LEGO sensors, motors, building blocks, an d a computer I/O interface as well as LabVIEW Student Edition. it prov ides a highly capable, infinitely versatile, and expandable system for data acquisition and experimentation. The system is inexpensive (unde r $500 for a complete workstation without the computer), and because o f the nature of LEGO blocks, it is fun, easy to use, and inspires crea tivity in students. By combining the LDAPS tools with the LabVIEW grap hical programming language, students can create their own virtual inst ruments to acquire and analyze data with LEGO sensors, pet-form advanc ed signal-processing techniques, or program LEGO vehicles for interact ive control. This article presents the method by which students are ta ught engineering experimentation and virtual instrumentation as well a s describes the college-level course where it is used and a brief outl ine of how the same concepts are taught to students in other classes a nd in grades K-12. (C) 1998 National Instruments. Published by John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.