One of the classes I teach is the AerE 361 course at Iowa State University. One area of research I study is teaching students through hands-on learning and using the Project-Based Learning (PBL) framework to reinforce the material taught in AerE 361. For this course, I incorporate project- and argumentative-based learning to keep students engaged. The AerE 361 course is a programming course for aerospace engineering students. Students often consider the course “something they need to pass to take senior design.” For that reason, the course has struggled with students staying engaged in the past, even though programming skills are vital for any engineering discipline.

I have introduced a final project element for the last few semesters that I have taught the course. This is a group project in which students are given a Circuit Playground Express made by Adafruit. In addition to the CPX board, they are given some additional hardware options like a neopixel strip, various switches, and buttons. Other items can be requested but can’t always be provided. The key to this aspect is that students are given the freedom to be creative. This freedom allows students to take ownership of what they are doing and explore something that interests them.

The final project helps to introduce and reinforce several learning objectives. These include

• Teamwork

• Written and Oral communication through reports and presentation

• Group programming

• Embedded Systems

Argumentative-based learning is accomplished through online discussions. Each week, a discussion is posted with a combination of videos and reading materials that covers a topic related to the topic taught in the lectures. Students are then asked questions and need to post their opinions and thoughts on the topic.