Development of the Mobile Fluid Laboratory for PBL Education

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01056
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Science education
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University (2019-2020); Nishinippon Institute of Technology (2017-2018)
• Principal Investigator: Takato Keiichiro 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 講師 (10461485)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 白山 晋 東京大学, 大学院工学系研究科(工学部), 准教授 (10322067)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 流体実験 / ポータブル実験装置 / PBL教育 / 可視化 / 視線計測 / ３Dプリンター / ３DCAD設計

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In engineering education, it has been shown that in order to improve the ability to think and make judgments necessary for solving various problems related to fluids, it is important to show fluid phenomena correctly and to make simple measurements, but these are difficult to achieve.
In order to show fluid phenomena correctly and measure them easily, we proposed and realized a "portable fluid laboratory" consisting of simple, inexpensive, and safe visualization and measurement methods and a group of experimental devices in this study. It was also shown that many of the components could be designed by 3D CAD and fabricated simply and inexpensively by using a 3D printer. Furthermore, it was suggested that the fabrication of the elements and the fluid experiments using a portable fluid laboratory can contribute to the improvement of basic skills in fluid mechanics by incorporating them into PBL education.

Free Research Field

工学教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

工学教育において，実際の物理現象に触れる機会は実験を通して提供され，モノづくりにおける思考力と判断力向上に資するとされる．しかし，流体現象に関しては，大がかりな設備が必要になり，座学による説明ですまされることが多く，教育効果が十分に得られないことが指摘されている．本研究の成果「ポータブル流体実験室」は，簡易的に，安価に，安全に，実際の流体現象に触れる機会を提供できる．これにより流体力学の基礎力向上につながるものと考えられる．また，3DCADによる要素の設計，3Dプリンターによる製作，製作物を用いた実験という一連のながれを取り入れた教育は，PBL教育の手本となるものであり，その点の意義も大きい．