75 UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OBTAIN MOTIVATING EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION BY PARTICIPATING IN A HUMAN CLINICAL TRIAL WHILE PERFORMING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH

摘要

Experiential education has been demonstrated to be effective in medical and nursing schools. In biomedical engineering, research and clinical care are inextricably linked. Nonetheless, opportunities for undergraduate biomedical engineering students to participate in clinical research are limited, and in most cases, offer only individual training. This experience is particularly challenging to offer in engineering schools that do not have medical school affiliations. It was hypothesized that a motivating experiential education research project, in the context of a human clinical trial, could be conducted at an engineering school. The focus of the investigation involves the prevention of obesity, clearly an educational challenge. Students participating in an experiential educational research program regarding obesity prevention could effectively learn about clinical research while enhancing their personal fitness habits.