Experiential Learning for First Year Engineering through Outreach with a Local Community Hospital

The lecture is the staple of university learning. It can be effective in the teaching of fundamental engineering subjects such as calculus and physics. However, it offers little in bringing students to understand the role of the engineering profession and its practice. With limited budgets, time and resources, and large first year classes, creating a poignant learning experience for our students is immensely challenging. Yet the university classroom offers an unparalleled opportunity given its diverse pool of talent, skill, and ambition. With guidance our students have the ability to not only meet our high academic expectations but also make a real difference for people in their local communities. At McMaster University, our entire first year engineering cohort is contributing to their local community through interactions with medical professionals and their clients. With an increased emphasis on design, experiential learning, and community outreach we at McMaster University have developed a unique first year course that involves the design of rehabilitation devices in collaboration with occupational therapists, researchers, industry professionals, and local volunteers. The project provides students with a rich and real-world practice experience as well as benefiting those clients with unique problems. This paper describes the successful collaboration between the Hand Therapy Clinic at Hamilton General Hospital and the Engineering 1 programme at McMaster University. The occupational therapists at the clinic presented 800+ first year engineering students with a challenge: design a dynamic elbow orthosis for the unique problems faced by two of their clients. Volunteers from the local community of occupational therapists, industry professionals, and biomedical researchers worked with the students to help them design, build, and test their designs. The paper highlights the challenges of teaching the large class using experiential learning and outlines the approaches for challenging students with unique problems that demand creativity.