Connecting Design and Engineering Physics with Reverse Engineering

This paper discusses the ongoing effort by the researchers of this work to incorporate design thinking in the university engineering physics classrooms through reverse engineering activities. The main aim of the effort is to create an enabler for engineering students to approach their design problems through the lens of first-principle physics. The observable outcomes of the pilot run of dissection activity of aluminum electrolytic capacitor, using an observation tool developed that tracks the component-function-principle (C-F-P) connections during the dissection activity is reported. We also assess the students’ level of learning against the SOLO taxonomy which we developed which we structured using rubrics to match elements in the online surveys.