Senior-level undergraduate student team teaching of an entire engineering elective course

A case study has been conducted at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR), in collaboration with the Stanford Learning Laboratory, to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of student peer teaching of an entire course. This effort has included two senior-level Mechanical Engineering elective courses at the University of Nevada Reno. The first course was Thermodynamics II (Spring 2000) and the second was Manufacturing Processes (Fall 2000). The objective of this study was to explore the hypothesis that senior mechanical engineering students can effectively teach an elective class to each other with only the coaching of an instructor. Effectiveness was measured with student surveys, tests and observation. A comparison of the first and second course taught with this method, the lessons learned, faculty and student reactions, and recommendations for future courses are presented.