Electronics Technology At-Home Kits

Like other colleges, St. Louis Community College needed to deliver the same quality of hands-on learning in a remote setting when the pandemic hit. Using CARES act money and parts on hand, the team figured out a way to replicate our hands-on experiments at home for each student. Students learn about design, assembly, and testing of circuits more effectively when they can actually do these activities. To combat issues around social distancing, lack of transportation, and inability to meet as a group, a loan out electronics lab kit, with a cost of about $1,500 per student, was put together with everything a student would need at home. We used the Every Circuit app and the lab kits to continue the electronics technology class much as it would have been in person. These kits preserved the quality of the electronics program education. They are easily modifiable to many other courses: Digital Logic, Intro to Micro Controllers, and Electronic Devices, even Engineering Science Circuits courses. The kits are portable labs. The kits provide access to classes which would not have been available due to transportation issues.

Innovators

• Steven Ehlen, Supervisor, Technology Learning Center
• Bill Hoffmann, Engineering Technician II, Electrical/Electronic Engineering
• David Kobe, Assistant Professor, Electrical/Electronic Engineering
• Stacey Lampman, Library Services Specialist
• Thomas McGovern, Professor, Mechanical Engineering