Engineering Education for All University First Year Students Using Playing in the Sand and Blowing Soap Bubbles

Abstract

Hokkaido University holds first year student seminars for promoting student ability in communication, presentation, design, and creativity. The authors have held this seminar to students of all faculties, where the research topics were determined by the students themselves from the phenomena or questions relating to children′s games such as playing in the sand and blowing soap bubbles. Then, they planned experimental procedures, discussed, summarized, and presented the results with minimal advice from teachers. After the student presentations the teachers introduced the techniques and equipments related to the topics, which are used in industrial plants. The final questionnaire showed that this type of lecture is very effective to promote student motivation and ability.