A Product and Process Engineering Laboratory for Freshmen

A bstract In a new Product and Process Engineering Laboratory, teams of two or three freshman engineering students explore six engineered products or processes by playing the successive roles of user, assembler, and engineering analyst. This format provides a hands‐on, collaborative learning environment to improve students' manipulative, problem‐solving, and creative thinking skills. The lab also endows freshmen with a desired, early identity as engineers. Student responses to the first two offerings of the laboratory have been positive.