Musical analogies as a teaching tool for engineering concepts

This project investigated the inclusion of a music laboratory experience within the existing core Mechanical Engineering curriculum at Lafayette College. Music is a natural addition to engineering curricula as it can easily be used to illustrate many different engineering concepts. This allows students to think about their engineering topics from a different perspective, which helps to improve their understanding of these concepts. Additionally, by using music as a teaching tool, students are also exposed to topics from the art of music. Students completed a survey both before and after the experience in order to reflect on their learning. On average, the students reported a 30.5% and 39.9% increase in their understanding of engineering and musical concepts, respectively.