The steam generator project

The steam generator project – The development of key

competencies in first year engineering physics students in
Guangxi, China

James Mackay

Wellington Institute of Technology, New Zealand

Abstract
Project based learning is common in engineering education and is often used to develop core
competencies of content knowledge, design and process skills necessary to be engineers. In this paper,
I describe the implementation of a project based physics foundation module in Guangxi, China. Central
to the design of the module was the construction of a simple steam generator that combined core content
with an introduction to experimental physics as well as mechanical design. In the project, students, who
were all second language speakers of English, were expected to construct and test a steam generator.
This process required them to use conceptual knowledge as well as design and process skills. The main
purpose of the project, however, was to address the development of English language, something that
was necessary for the students to later study engineering in New Zealand. Initially, this was done through
a vocabulary acquisition system that was used to build the vocabulary needed for the reports the students
needed to write for the project later on. Key conceptual knowledge was addressed as the project unfolded,
as were the necessary skills needed to make the generator. To investigate the effectiveness of the process,
a case study approach was used to evaluate the performance of the students. Findings indicate that the
project was successful in developing a strong community of practice and in particular that it had a positive
effect on the students’ acquisition of engineering English.
Keywords: Curriculum development; Engineering; Project Based Learning; Community of practice,
Content based language learning

Corresponding author e-mail address: [email protected]

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 The steam generator project

Introduction importantly for a novice engineer, learning in an

authentic context provides the student with the
The micro-steam engine has been used as a
opportunity to “try out” the identity of being an
design project for students starting their studies in
engineer and for the class as a whole to develop an
engineering in South Africa for more than two decades
engineering community of practice.
since the early 1990s and according to Bindon (1997),
Using projects as the focus for learning also
the project was “found by accident, rather than intent
allows students to conduct investigations into a
to involve all aspects of the profession”. By this, he
range of topics in basic physics that are related to a
meant that the project taught both design as well as
particular context. This contextualisation of learning
substantial theoretical aspects necessary for
has been shown by some researchers to help
conceptualizing as well as carrying out a real
students’ better deal with conceptual development
mechanical engineering project to completion. The
rather than traditional non-contextualised
project itself is novel in that at the time of conception,
approaches do (Linder, 1993). Through the
little had been done in terms of providing students with
construction of a meaningful artefact, learners are
opportunities to do some “real” (and messy)
able to develop their content knowledge to deeper
engineering with cheap, recyclable materials that are
levels than they normally do (Harris & Katz, 2001)
pretty much available to anybody. In this project, the
and in addition they are able to develop a number of
final artifact is designed to be built under rural
important process skills as well as key literacies such
conditions with no access to electricity and so its very
as engineering report writing and the reading of
conception as a project has from this point of view an
engineering and scientific texts.
emancipatory aspect to it.
This paper outlines the use of the project in The Steam generator project
developing key competencies in physics of students The Steam Generator project has been used many
studying engineering at a polytechnic in Guangxi, times by the author as a way to induct students into
China. These students had completed a year of study engineering physics and on these occasions, where
in construction engineering in China and were the students are predominantly English speaking, the
preparing to complete their diplomas at a similar main purpose was to develop key academic
polytechnic in New Zealand. Being able to competencies specifically in foundational physics
communicate in English is critical for these students and mathematics, as well as to induct the students
and so while the project is traditionally used to induct into an engineering community of practice.
students into the design process in engineering, as well Central to the development of conceptual
as develop much needed process skills and teach key knowledge, is an enquiry based approach where
physics concepts, its main use in this context was to students are helped to find things out for themselves,
introduce students to the language of engineering design and conduct experiments and analyse,
physics in English. As an induction into the profession, interpret and represent data in an effective manner.
the project can also play a pivotal role in helping Relevant mathematics and physics content
students who are uncertain of their abilities in physics knowledge is integrated into the programme, while
and engineering to see that they can actually “be an at the same time requiring the students to design,
engineer” and help them to decide whether or not make and test a steam engine and convert it into a
engineering is for them. In describing the many generator. In the learning design, diagnostic tests
different roles this particular project can play in the (The Force Concept Inventory and Mechanics
engineering curriculum, I will draw on previous Baseline Test (Hestenes, D., Wells, M. &
studies carried out by myself and others as well as Swackhamer, G., 1992; Hestenes, D. & Wells, M.,
current literature on teaching and learning engineering 1992)) were used to identify conceptual difficulties
physics. and these were ameliorated using a combination of
practical and theoretical interventions, as well as
computer simulations in a semi blended learning
Project based learning environment. The Diagnostic tests were used as both
Project based learning has long been a pre and posttests.
characteristic of engineering education. In this
project, students are introduced to many aspects of Curriculum Design
engineering through the building of a micro-steam Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the
generator. In order to achieve the final outcome of different components of the course, which includes
the project (which is a steam turbine generator that the development of understanding of core physics
actually lights up an LED), students need to pick up conceptual knowledge, process skills in both Physics
a number of engineering focused practical skills, as an experimental discipline and Engineering, the
such as soldering, methodical work habits and literacy practices associated with Engineering and
meticulously attention to detail, while working with some core mathematical knowledge. All this
others in teams. They must also learn to knowledge is taught through construction and
communicate using engineering English and improvement of a steam generator that is made from
understand the conceptual nuances of the design of recycled tin cans and bits of metal, an example of
the generator from a conceptual point of view. More which is shown in figure 2. While key academic

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 The steam generator project
competencies as mentioned above were addressed,
in applying this project to the cohort of students from
Guangxi, language acquisition and development in
the context of engineering was considered to be of
higher importance than the development of
cxonceptual knowledge and the acquisition of
process skills. In that sense, the project has been
repurposed for use with the Guangxi students.

Figure 2: Steam Car

All content, skills and language development was

planned around the project with short diversions into
formal teaching of key concepts taking place only
when they were seen to be necessary for the project
to progress properly. Similarly, language work was
integrated into the project work so that the students
were constantly developing their language skills
Figure 1: Curriculum elements of the course plan through reading, discussing, presenting and writing.
Many of the students lacked particular process skills
which were then taught as and when they were
required ion an individual basis. The duration of the
course was 8 x 6 hour days. In Guangxi 16 students
participated in the project, none of whom were
initially proficient in English to the extent that they
were able to study engineering in English. The
sequence of tasks in the project is outlined in table 1
below:
Table 1: Sequence of tasks
TASK (s) Skills developed / knowledge gained. Schedule
Build the car from Engineering process skills (Cutting, shaping,
Days 1 & 2: Students work on
kit form measuring etc.) individual projects, but as a group.
Develop ability to read engineering language
Pictorial PowerPoint of instructions
at a basic level and instructions given in English
Theory in Physics Learn about basic thermal interaction & Days 1 & 2: series of short lectures
mechanics (motion) given on the physics principles that
underpin the steam engine.
Testing & Physics laboratory skills, measurement, Day 3: Get the car to work and test its
measurement of collection and interpretation of data efficiency
efficiency of a
component of the
car
Design & make a Engineering process skills Days 4 & 5: Design and make a
modification to modification to improve efficiency
improve the
efficiency
Re-test the Physics laboratory skills, measurement, Days 4 & 5: Retest the efficiency of
efficiency to see if collection and interpretation of data the car
there had been an
improvement
Convert the steam Design & make skills Days 5 & 6: design and make a steam
car to a steam generator
generator
Theory in Physics Learn about Electricity and Magnetism Day 5: short lecture on electricity
generation
Day 6: Short lecture on connecting
generators in series

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 The steam generator project
Write a report in Development of basic writing in science and Day 7: help given in report writing
English engineering and the preparation of the
PowerPoint presentations
PowerPoint Develops speaking skills in English Day 8: Presentations given and
Presentation in both assessed by students as well as a
Chinese and panel of staff members
English

Constructing Science Knowledge inventory (FCI) tests that give an indication of

Underpinning the learning of science content conceptual understanding of the physics subject
knowledge in this programme, is the theory of matter that was taught (The MBT was not used as a
constructivism and a conceptual change approach to comparison tool due to gaps in the data record of the
learning science (Novak, 2002), which has been used administration of that test. In that study, the first
to inform the design of the learning activities. There comparison of the means shows that there was no
has been some debate around factors that affect difference statistically between the two groups on
success in tertiary study, with some research the pre-test [t (50) = 0.72, p < 0.05]; however, it
indicating that for science disciplines at any rate, appears that those students who had gone through the
conceptual development prior to university entrance project course responded better to instruction than
is the most important factor (Everitt & Robins, 1991; did those who had not, as there was a significant
Evans, M., 1999) , however, more recent studies difference between the two groups on the post-test,
(Engler, 2010), suggest that success in engineering with the project students outperforming the
is not associated with particular subjects taken at mainstream students [t (50) = 2.41, p < 0.05]. Given
school but rather more with other factors such as that the project students were initially selected from
being part of a community. This is supported by a pool of students who did not qualify for automatic
Madjar, McKinley, Deynzer, & Van Der Merwe entry into the diploma, this was seen to be a good
(2010) who have suggested that affective more than result.
cognitive factors play a greater role in student With the Guangxi students, content in the project
success in degree study. While the conceptual was developed in such a way that thermal physics
development of key ideas in the core content areas is naturally led onto basic mechanics which then led
important, this curriculum has a greater focus on the onto electricity and magnetism. This mirrored the
development of process skills, key literacies and a progression of the project from building the boiler
sense of being an engineer. Project based work is and turbine (thermal physics) to testing the
ideal for this situation in that it creates a flexible efficiency (using mechanics) to designing the
learning context through which an engineering generator (electricity and magnetism). This close
community of practice as well as different scientific alignment between the natural progression of the
concepts can be developed (Harris, J. H.& Katz, L.G. topics and the stages in the building of the generators
2001). In this course, the construction, modification was mentioned by students as being helpful in
and testing of a steam car was the project through understanding the concepts.
which the physics concepts of energy, thermal
interactions, motion and electricity and magnetism Developing Content based literacy
were learned. Historically, teaching reading and writing to
The results of a previous study (Mackay, develop academic literacy has evolved from study
Pitawala, Carnegie & Watterson 2011), on the skills based courses that focus on decontextualized
effectiveness of using the steam generator project to technical aspects of reading and writing, not related
induct first year students into engineering show to any particular discipline, to courses where the
success in preparing students for the academic rigour reading and writing is situated within particular
of the courses that followed, as well as in preparing disciplines. The academic skills approach is perhaps
them for being part of the engineering community. easier to implement however it fails to address the
In the study, diagnostic tests such as the Force fundamental issue of socialising the student into
Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Mechanics academic life. By writing and reading for a broader
Baseline Test (MBT) (Hestenes, D., Wells, M. & academic purpose, students can become acculturated
Swackhamer, G., 1992; Hestenes, D. & Wells, M., into a generic academic life, but as Street (2004)
1992) were used as both pre and post tests to measure point out, this approach fails to recognise that
conceptual development. knowledge is constructed in different ways by
Comparison of the project group with those different disciplines.
students in mechanical engineering who did not go The development of writing and reading skills
through the steam generator project course was done within the context of a particular discipline is
by comparing the mean scores between the two important for developing the technical aspects of
groups using a t-test for significance at the 95% level writing that are peculiar to a discipline. It also has
of confidence for groups <30. The project students the advantage of inducting students into a discourse
(n=16) were compared with the mainstream students community based on that discipline. This genre
(n= 36). This was for the pre and post force concept based approach to teaching academic literacy is best

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 The steam generator project
done by using facilitators who are “insiders” in the of community and identity in their chosen field,
discourse communities (Gee 2001, in Jacobs, 2005). engineering.
Using this academic literacies approach looks at Different communities of practice draw on
language as not only being part of the discipline, but different learning domains to a greater or lesser
part of a wider community of practice. extent and also in different ways. For example it
In this curriculum, two literacy events were could be that those students who are going into
planned. The first was the writing of a short report in engineering would draw more on the psychomotor
English on the testing and development of the domain that say those going into pure science. This
modification they made as part of the project and the would be particularly true of students at a
second was a bilingual (Chinese and English) polytechnic as compared with those enrolled in
presentation about the success of their project at the university degrees. In addition, many engineering
end of the course. projects require skills used that are slightly different
In order to facilitate vocabulary acquisition to those needed in the study of science. Using
throughout the course, a patented method of Blooms Taxonomy as a guide to designing activities
vocabulary acquisition through the use of flash cards highlights the differences in the nature of the process
and concept maps that has been developed by a skills learned by different communities of practice.
company in the United States (Concept Construxions In this project students are required to grapple
http://educhange.com/ ) was used. Language work with real engineering problems in making their
was continuously being built on and the cards were machine efficient enough to generate enough
relied on throughout the board discussions of the electricity to light up an LED. In fact this is quite a
content in the project. This was particularly helpful difficult task in that the machine at optimum efficient
for 16 second language speakers of English in with the DC motors that have been provided, will
Guangxi, who indicated in formal feedback that the only generate 0.6 volts, not nearly sufficient to light
development of language in this way, by linking up a single LED. This means that they need to find a
vocabulary to concepts was particularly helpful to way to develop more power, a solution they have to
them. This was further supported by post project come up with.
interviews with the students after six months of study Student feedback has suggested that this project
in New Zealand, where has for some students played a pivotal role in the way
12 of the 16 managed to improve their English they have started to see themselves. Student
sufficiently to be allowed to study engineering in responses to the project were gauged in two ways,
English. For all, their initial introduction to the first was through a post course questionnaire
engineering English was through the steam generator probing student attitudes and the second was by
project. The vocabulary acquisition flash card interviewing six selected students after the project
system developed for the project by Concept had been completed. Interviews revealed that the
Construxions is shown in Figure 3. students from the Guangxi group rated the course
highly (4.5 / 5.0, 5 being very happy with the project
course and 1 being the least happy). Specific
comments were made regarding the usefulness of the
concept map flash card system in helping them
develop basic vocabulary to do the project.

Developing a sense of being an

engineer Conclusion
Developing communities of practice is linked In conclusion, we see the course as being
closely with the development of discourses that are successful, not only in preparing students for their
appropriate for the different disciplines and first year of the diploma programme, but also in
professions. Much modern research suggests that inducting students into the engineering community
affective factors, more than cognitive factors play a through the use of content based literacy activities
greater role in student success in degree study but also through realistic engineering project work.
(Madjar, McKinley, Deynzer, & Van Der Merwe, Finally, the steam car project showed us that project
2010). To this end, the model design has shifted based learning can help to develop a deeper
focus to include a greater emphasis on affective understanding of physics concepts required for
factors that will include and develop student’s sense engineering and in addition, it also plays a major role
in developing the literacy practices needed to operate

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successfully in the engineering community. Since Hestenes, D., Wells, M. & Swackhamer, G., (1992).
the implementation of this project at WelTec, there ‘Force Concept Inventory’, The Physics Teacher, 30,
have been a number of other project based courses pp.141-158.
implemented in engineering. This course also played
a role in the decisions made by those students who Hestenes, D. & Wells, M., (1992). ‘A Mechanics
decided not to pursue engineering. Baseline Test’, The Physics Teacher, 30, pp. 159-
In addition to the core content that was learned, 166.
several key competencies were acquired by the
students, including an ability to communicate and Jacobs C (2005) On being an insider on the
learn the literacy practices of the engineering outside:new spaces for integrating academic
community, important science and engineering literacies. Teaching in Higher Education Vol. 10,
process skills as well as a sense of using their own No. 4, October 2005, pp. 475_/487
initiative to solve problems. Evidence collected
revealed that the steam generator project played an Linder, C.J. (1993). A Challenge to Conceptual
important role in helping those students who went on Change. Science Education . 77(3): 293-300.
to study engineering to identify themselves as
engineers and feel part of the scientific and Mackay, J., Lock, M., Pitawala, S., Carnegie, D.&
engineering community. Watterson, C. (2011). Inducting Students into the
Engineering Community: A case study of the
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