Procedia

Social and
Behavioral
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000 Sciences
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Kongres Pengajaran & Pembelajaran UKM 2011

Measurement of Students Creativity Using “Black Box”

Experiment.
Hilmi Sanusi
Jabatan Kejuruteraan Elektrik, Elektronik dan Sistem, FKAB, UKM, Malaysia

Abstract

Engineer needs a creative mind to solve problem in a specific time in order to be an effective engineer. One of the training given
to the student during their study years at the Department Of Electrical, Electronics and System Engineering is through design
problem during laboratory session. However, the design problem during laboratory session is seen to be ineffective due to several
reasons such as students are copying the result and discussions from peers in the previous session or previous years. With the
purpose of measuring the student’s creativity to solve problem, each student is supplied with a “black box” during the lab final
exam. The black box contains a complete circuit and student is asked to design an experiment to guest and estimate (or
guestimate) the circuit inside the black box. The experiment is seen to be an effective way as each student has to solve the given
problem in a limited time without any information given to them about the black box. The effectiveness of such experiment is
also proven through comment given by the external assessor and the same experiment has been adapted by the Nanyang
Technical University, Singapore.

© 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: lab experiment; design; black box

 Hilmi Sanusi/ Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000
1. Introduction

Spirit of innovation is highly valued to be more competitive. Innovation requires creative mind. Hard to teach
skills of creativity has been the backbone of cultural change and engine of economic development [1]. Future
engineer needs to be more creative and innovative to face different problem as the world progress. Sometimes
engineer needs to make a critical decision with little or no knowledge in a limited time period. Creative mind
enables engineer to analyze, synthesize and provide a sound solution to the problem. Institutions that train future
engineer are responsible to produce engineer with more creative mind. Several tertiary education institutions
exposed engineering student to arts to erases boundaries between art and science. In general, most of the universities
take the route of Problem Based Learning (PBL), Capstone project or others to enhance creativity. Laboratory
sessions are also used to increase the creativity through design experiments. Initially, laboratory experiments at the
Department of Electrical, Electronics and System Engineering, have been used for the student to strengthen
understanding, increase in knowledge and expose to the current technique or available technology. The curriculum
for the laboratory also progresses to cater the current needs and trends. Apart from PBL and various other methods
used to produce multitalented graduate, laboratory experiment is also transformed to be part and parcel of this new
approach. Previously, the lab instructions in the department are mainly to observe, measure and draw some
conclusions. The laboratory is conducted in team of two or more and each student is required to hand in lab report.
However, lab report alone is unable to measure a true individual achievement which reflects by their grade. Some
students do not participate during the lab session because they might have previous day or year results and report.
Most of the experiments are tailored to satisfy the lecturers’ needs instead of the students themselves. Schamel and
Ayres discussed problems faced by traditional lab sessions where student can easily detach from the experiment,
unprepared and gain little practice in critical thinking (Schamel 1992).
The new laboratory experiments not only teach specific knowledge and skills but also should be able to excite
and motivate students through experiments and project. An individual engagement during the lab session will be
taken into account for the overall marks. The individual involvement and participation is measured by the
introduction of written mid semester exam and experimental final exam, as suggested by external assessor. The
author was approached by Prof. Dr. Marzuki Mustaffa who tabled an idea of making a student’s own designed
experiment for the final exam. The student must be able to design his or her own experiment to measure or to find
out function of an unknown thing, such as measuring of an internal resistance of a battery.
Some universities introduce new laboratory curriculum by providing their student with different level of
experiments depending on the students’ ability, interest and knowledge, in a way to increase interest and creativity of
their students (Carlson et. al. 1997). Still, the laboratory experiments also must satisfy several other requirements,
set by the department, faculty and regulatory bodies. Consequently, the syllabus of the laboratory mainly unchanged
but the laboratory activity must have different approach to take care of the current needs. Colburn lists out ways to
modify laboratory activities to be more open ended oriented and it should be student oriented. By having student’s
own laboratory investigation, student should know which data to observe and to use. The idea of black box
experiment came across that tackle most of the necessities. In this experiment, student is asked to design an
experiment that will lead to the information about the function or characteristic of the given materials. This
laboratory activity leads to solving an open ended problem using their methods with little or unknown condition.
The student also must indicate their level of maturity in the designing the experiment. Introduction of the black box
experiment enable to indicate the level of creativity in finding the answer, indirect indicator of effectiveness of the
laboratory experiments and evaluate individual performance. The motive of such experiment is due to the fact that
student was found to be lacking in creativity in problem solving.

2. Laboratory Experiment

In the experiment, student is given a material in a form of black box, bottle of water or others and asks to list
down all steps taken in order to obtain information about the functionality, characteristic or application of the given
materials. Student also must explain on why such steps are taken and the purpose of such steps. In some cases,
limitations of the material must also be provided by student. Figure 1 below shows samples of materials given to the
student during the final examination.
 Author/ Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000

(a) (b)
Figure 1. Exam materials.

In Figure 1 (a), the bottle is actually wrapped with black paper and filled with water and told that the copper
plate reach the bottom of the bottle. Student is asked to come out with an experiment to measure the volume of the
water. Apart from that, student is also required to suggest the calibration process and limitation of the method that is
suggested. Student should be able to indicate the capacitance of parallel conductor plate in the bottle and come out
with an experiment to measure capacitance. At least, student should be able to apply AC Whetstone Bridge to
measure capacitance from the parallel plate as they have done such experiment previously. Then, student should be
able to relate the capacitance and volume such that a calibration process and limitation of the method can be
established.
In Figure 1(b), the box might contain a passive circuit, an active circuit, a symmetry circuit, a non-symmetry
circuit, linear or non linear device, or transformer or combination of them as shown in Figure 2 below;

(a) (

b)
Figure 2. A circuit network in a black box

The circuits for the black box is prepared by the lab technician and placed in a black box. Then the black box is
mixed around in a container. Student randomly picks any of the boxes and carries out their experiment. In this
experiment, student is expected to be able to perform DC analysis and AC analysis. In DC analysis, resistance from
any combination of wire will indicate whether the network is symmetry, active, passive or linear. AC analysis
required student to perform transient and frequency analysis. This will indicate the functionality of the circuit so that
student can approximate the circuit inside the black box.
Student is given 2 hours and 30 minutes to do their experiment whereby the first 15 minutes is for the instruction
and the last 15 minutes for the conclusion of the result. Student is allowed to use most of the measurement
equipments. The marks are given based on the steps taken and the explanation of why such steps are taken for what
purpose. Basically, student should be creative to use available information to lay out experimental procedure.
Correct approximation of the circuit or functionality is awarded as bonus mark, as student achievement is beyond
the expected performance.

3. Result
 Hilmi Sanusi/ Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000
The experiment has been experienced by more than two hundred student in a span of three years. For each year, the
network in the black box evolves as student from previous year might inform and pass down information. The
laboratory examination answer sheets are examined and divided into three bands depending on their findings. The
exceptional students are not included in the band as their achievement is beyond expectation. Student in Band 1 is
able to provide correct steps but fail to integrate their analysis in order to come out with the functionality of the
black box. Band 2 consist of students who know what they should do but fail to analyze their measurement or
finding but fail to put the steps in sequence in order to produce correct result. Student in Band 3 have no idea on
what to do and how to start the experiment.
The difference between the Bands can be explained through the schematic diagram in Figure 3. The circuit is
placed in a black box, and there are two leads with different colors from the box. It can be seen that the student in
Band 1 will take two set of measurement, whereas, student in Band 2 will only take one measurement. If it happens
that during the measurement the polarity will turn the diode to be shorted, the measurement shows very low
capacitance and they reckoned that there is a small capacitor inside the box. However, student in Band 1 will take a
second measurement which change the polarity and turn off the diode and able to identify there is a large capacitor
in the network. However, student in Band 1 is unable to measure the value of the resistor and the capacitor. The
exceptional student however is able to approximate the value of the resistor and capacitor. Student in Band 3 will
still perform a DC test but have no idea what it is used for and what to do next.

Figure 3.

For the past three years only two students (< 1%) are able to provide correct approximation of the network.
Basically, for each intake session, about 15% - 20% of each intake session is in Band 1, about 50% - 60% is in Band
2 and the other 20%-30% is in Band 3. Even though the percentage of student in Band 1 does not match exact to the
percentage of student received an A for the course but the distribution is almost the same.

Table 1. Percentage of student’s achievement

Intake session Exceptional Band 1 Band 2 Band 3

2008 1% 16% 59% 24%
2009 1% 20% 62% 17%
2010 0 18% 52% 28%
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4. Conclusions

Experiments in the laboratory should not only test student on their knowledge, but their creativity as well. Black
Box experiment requires student to lay out plan in order to conduct the task. The student must be able to set priority
on what to be observed and to be measured. The experiment requires lots of creativity in finding key component and
to judge the uncertainty. The black box experiment also achieves just that by allowing student to apply their
knowledge, and to be creative in devising the appropriate method in conducting tests and measurements that are not
of the norm in the laboratory. Such approach allows better observation towards student’s ability in performing
hands-on work, without the assist of peers or technical support. The success story of the implementation has
attracted external assessor from NTU to adapt the same idea of testing student creativity using black box
experiment.

5. Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank Pn. Seri Mastura and Muhd Fauzi Aminuddin Shazi for their effort during the first
implementation period. Special thanks to Fauzi for proofreading the paper.

REFERENCES

Carlson, B., Schoch, P., Kalsher, M. And Racicot, B., 1997. A Motivational First-year Electronics Lab Course,
Journal of Engineering Education, pp357-362
Colburn, A., 1997. How to Make Lab Activities More Open Ended, CSTA Journal, pp. 4-6.
Edwards, D., 2006. The Lab: Creativity and Culture, Harvard University Press
Schamel, D. and Ayres, M.P., 1992. The Minds-On Approach: Students Creativity and Personal Involvement in the
Undergraduate Science Laboratory, Journal of College Science Teaching, pp 226 - 229