CREATING A ROMANTIC ATMOSPHERE: DESIGN GOAL TO LEARN AC-AC CONVERTERS BY MEANS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

This paper presents a learning strategy to ease students the learning of AC-AC converters. These converters transform the energy provided by an AC (Alternate Current) source into an AC voltage. In order to study the different strategies to perform this transformation, students are demanded to design an engineering project. The project consists of implementing a light dimmer which is able to reduce the brightness of a lamp, that is, to create a romantic atmosphere. In a similar way to a consultant enterprise, students are demanded to work in groups and to collaborate. In particular, groups of three are created randomly in order to promote the interaction among not well-known people. By means of guided tasks, every member of the group is expected (i) to learn the three AC-AC conversion techniques, (ii) to decide about the suitability of each technique for the current problem, (iii) to apply the technique in the case of study and (iv) to implement it. A dashboard is also employed so that the evolution of all the groups is reflected. In this way, a competition, which encourages student participation, is subtly introduced. This paper describes the phases of this cooperative learning and the results obtained in the classroom.