WIP: Effects of Arduino Microcontroller on First-Year Engineering Students

In this Work in Progress paper we present the result of a meta-analytic study on the effects of Arduino-enabled design activities on first-year engineering students. Students' experiences during their first-year engineering courses have lasting impacts on their subject matter retention and success in latter coursework. Traditional methods of teaching and learning engineering concepts through lectures, scripted interactions and rote memorization are quickly giving way to hands on learning experiences. Engineering design-based hands on learning activities have shown great promise in increasing students' retention of subject matter knowledge and improving their understanding of engineering concepts. However, engineering design-based activities require students to have access to electrical, electronic and mechanical components. Due to the high cost of laboratory equipment and other components students often feel financially restrained and creatively constrained when developing their design project ideas. Open source Arduino microcontroller has shown to provide a low-cost solution to the problem of component availability through rapid prototyping of design projects. Arduino integration allows students and instructors to prototype solution such as automatic control systems, mechatronic sensing devices, robotics, and other lab equipment easily and at a substantially lower cost than acquiring proprietary equipment. Low-cost open source Arduino-enabled engineering design-based learning activities provide first year engineering students with limitless opportunities to engage in hands on exploration of engineering concepts. In this report on the work in progress meta-analysis of the effects of Arduino-enable design activities on first-year engineering students we present the synthesis of first 5 quantitative studies that we deemed acceptable for inclusion in a meta-analysis. These 5 studies provided 18 data sets. The overall effect of Arduino enabled design activities on first year engineering students was d = 0.35 (CI = [0.02, 0.68]). We rejected the hypothesis of homogeneity based on the statistically significant Q value of 163.69 (df = 15, p < .001). The preliminary results from this work in progress meta-analysis indicate that Arduino-enabled engineering design activities have a positive effect on students' academics and understanding of engineering concepts.