Enhancing the Learning Capabilities in Electromagnetic Field Theory Through Model Building

Abstract

In the Electromagnetic Field Theory course, many concepts are difficult to visualize and, hence, to grasp. It might be difficult to understand the rectangular, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems and their transformations. To help students overcome the difficulty in grasping these concepts and their applications, different ways are being used by teachers and domain experts. This article delves into the efficacy of employing the ’learning by doing’ pedagogical approach to address these challenges. It was observed that the technique helped to improve students’ active participation in the activity beyond class hours. Impressively, around 30% of students took the initiative to construct three-dimensional models on selected topics. This approach has proven instrumental in fostering a deeper understanding of the orthogonal planes intrinsic to the three aforementioned coordinate systems. It also helped a few students to score in the evaluation because of their creativity. The ’learning by doing’ approach and evaluation based on the activity was found to be a powerful tool for making students overcome the barriers to mastering intricate concepts in Electromagnetic Field Theory.