A modern approach to teaching basic experimental electricity and electronics

This paper describes how basic electricity and electronic undergraduate laboratories for the electrical engineering course at Escola Politecnica, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, have been revitalized with the introduction of modern automation procedures in the experiments. The approach has eased many experimental setups, eliminating some manual tedious data collection routines and allowing more time for efficient analysis of results, proposing new models for the assimilation of fundamental concepts, and offering modern resources for the elaboration of reports. The professional instruments and computational tools used in the labs have increased students' interest in the disciplines. Team work and creative learning are also objectives of the new methodology. Some examples on how the traditional experiments have been updated are described in this work. Implementation of this modern approach was accomplished involving the collaboration and suggestions of other professors, and specially, the work of several of our undergraduate students, who developed the automation and calculation routines.