Previous curricula have provided undergraduate students very little laboratory experience in the thermal sciences. To many students, thermal sciences is an abstraction with many equations and block diagrams. Societal attitudes impede underrepresented groups from entering engineering programs. Through this project, an integrated thermal science laboratory is set up for undergraduate and precollege students, where basic principles and component and system operations are illustrated through several systems employing commercially available hardware (system denotes a collection of components to achieve a desired output). Additionally, air compressors, small engines, small turbines, diesel fuel injection pumps, and so on are available to the students to disassemble and assemble the equipment. The objectives of the laboratory are (1) to demonstrate the basic principles in the context of systems and to demonstrate component and system operation, (2) to expose the students to current technology in instrumentation, data acquisition, and processing, and yet retain some of the simpler methods of measurement, (3) to involve precollege students in the study of engineering systems, and (4) to encourage the students to disassemble and assemble hardware to make the study of engineering exciting. The laboratory is introduced as an elective course to departmental students and opened to precollege students who participate in the many summer programs at the university (with emphasis on underrepresented groups). The effectiveness of the laboratory can be evaluated through questionnaires at the beginning and end of the laboratory course and by tracking the precollege students to determine if participation in the laboratory has an effect on their interest in studying engineering. The results of the study can be presented before an ASEE session and by making the laboratory manual available to other institutions. *
