Improving the Transparency and Effectiveness of Instructional Laboratory Equipment: A Case Study in Modifying a Commercial Centrifugal Pump Apparatus

摘要

Equipment for the instructional laboratory has a special and characteristic design criterion that is not shared by production equipment or consumer goods. Its basic role is different. An instructional apparatus cannot be merely safe and functional. In addition, it must be educationally effective. In contrast, a successful household appliance or an industrial system must primarily be functional because the consumer or producer is overwhelmingly interested in performance not understanding. To be worthwhile, an apparatus for the undergraduate laboratory must above all promote understanding. The key to promoting understanding is technological transparency. The system should welcome scrutiny and inspection, and its functions and integration should be readily comprehensible. Such openness will allow students to actually understand the process or property being studied and appreciate and analyze the instrumentation being used. Unfortunately, some commercial laboratory equipment is so excessively packaged that the essentials of the system to be studied and the instrumentation are obscured. In extreme cases the packaging seems to become camouflage. Consequently, the educational impact is compromised. This paper describes the modification of a commercial apparatus to correct this situation. The guiding principles of the modification were transparency, redundancy, and accessibility. These principles led to a modified system that has proved itself to be more effective for instruction, easier to use, and easier to maintain.