Students today seem less skilled and have less interest in interacting with the physical world than those of earlier generations. It is the thesis of the author that this is not due to the cultural and societal factors, (e.g. too much T.V.) but rather due to the advanced state of integration and complexity in advanced technological products, both in the everyday world as well as in laboratories. This discourages tinkering and experimentation which are crucial in attracting young people to engineering. It is proposed to address this issue by modifying a digital circuit laboratory in electrical engineering so that students can look inside of and tinker with integrated circuits. Conventionally, students make digital logic gates in lab by wiring up invisible transistors which are inside black-box I.C.'s. In the proposed labs, the students will have access to the inside of a real I.C. through the use of needle probes to physically contact and connect to individual transistors and circuits on a specially designed I.C. They will be able to directly relate transistor and circuit performance to the physical parameters of the transistors and circuits, which they can see by visual inspection and change by physically contacting different circuits. This is analogous to examining auto engines by attacking them with wrenches and playing inside of them, rather than trying to learn about them with the hood of the car closed and the engine inaccessible.
